US1896370A

US1896370A - Railway signaling apparatus

Info

Publication number: US1896370A
Application number: US569458A
Authority: US
Inventors: Peter Leslie Hurst
Original assignee: Union Switch and Signal Inc
Current assignee: Hitachi Rail STS USA Inc
Priority date: 1930-10-29
Filing date: 1931-10-17
Publication date: 1933-02-07
Anticipated expiration: 1950-02-07

Description

Feb. 7, 1933. g H PETER 1,896,370

RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 17, 1931 Patented Feb. 7, 1933 UNITED STATES" PATENT" OFFICE LESLIE HURST PETER, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO

THE UNION SWITCH & SIGNAL COMPANY, OF

PORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA i RAILWAY SIGNALING, APPARATUS Application filed October 17, 1931, Serial No. 569,458, and in Great BritainOctober 29, 1930. Y

My invention relates to railway signaling apparatus of the kind in which the signal comprises a movable semaphore arm or spectacle or both, and a continuously illuminated signal lamp adapted to be supplied withoperating current from an alternating current supply circuit, which are arranged to cooperate to give the necessary signal indications.

The invention has for its object to provide improved arrangements for electrically indlcating at the point of control the position of the signal arm or spectacle and whether-or not the lamp is properly operative.

According to the principal feature of the invention the indicating device at the .point ofcontrol which device is of thedirect current polarized type is arranged tobe supplied with unidirectional operating currentthrough indication conductors leading'tothe signal fromthe point of control, this current being derived from the signal lam circuit by means of fullor half-wave recti ers.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in theaccompanying drawing of which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a signal comprising a semaphore arm or spectacle and provided with a system of indications embodying one form of the invention. Figures 2, 3 and 1 illustrate modified forms of the electrical arrangements of the system of Fig ure 1, and Figure illustrates the invention as applied to a signal provided with an aux iliary signal lamp. I i

" Referring now first to the apparatus illustrated in Figure 1 it will be seen that the signal comprises a semaphore arm 1 and a spectacle arm 2 combined with a continuously illuminated signal lamp 3 supplied with current from the secondary winding 4 of a transformer 5, the primary winding 6 of which is connected to an alternating current supply circuit. v

A suitable series resistance is included'in the circuit of the lamp 3, the terminals or suitable points .in the'r'esistance 7 beingo'onnected by conductors 8, 9 to the in-put terminals of a full-wave rectifier 10 comprising four rectifying units or sets of units arranged in the well-known bridge connection.

The out-put terminals of the rectifier 10 are connected by means of

conductors

13, 14

to a pair of

indication conductors

11, 12, eX-

tending to the signal from the point of control through a circuit breaker device 15 operated by the signal arm l. The circuit breaka

erdevice comprisescontact arms

17, 18 so are ranged that when, the signal arm 1 and the spectacle 2 move from the normal or stop position shown, tothe reverse or proceed device 15connect the conductors 13, 14: to the

indication conductors

11, 12 respectively so SWISSVALE, PENNSYLVANIALA conthat current of positive polarity is supplied to these conductors whereas when the signal 7 moves to its reverse or proceed position the

contact arms

17, 18 connect the conductors 1 1, 13 to the indication conductors, 11, 12, respectively so that current 01": negative polarity is supplied to

theconductors

11, 12.

Atthe point of control an indicating device 19 is provided and adapted to occupy one or other of three different positions according to whether the

indication conductors

11, 12 are deenergized or are supplied with current of positive or negative polarity. Under normal conditions, that is to say, when the signal arm 1 is in its stop position, the current of positive polarity supplied to the

indication conductors

11, 12 will cause the indicating device 19. to give the indication signal on while when thesignal arm 1 is moved to its reverse position, indicating proceed, the indicating device'19 at the point of control will correspondingly indicate signal off.

In the event of the signal arm 1' or the spectacle 2 occupying any other position vthe connection of the rectifier 10 to the

indication conductors

11, 12 will evidently be interrupted at the contact arms 17 18 of the circuit breaker device 15, with the result that the

tion conductors

11, 12 will also be evidently deenergized in the event of failure of the circuit of the lamp 3 since under these conditions Referring now to the indication system shown in Figure 2 separate indication devices 19, for the signal arm 1 or spectacle 2 and for the lamp 3 are provided. The indicating device 20 for the lamp 3 is similar to that above described, a series'resistance 7 being connected in the lamp circuit, the terminals or intermediate points in this resistance being connected by conductors 21, 22 to the in-put terminals of a full-wave rectifier 23; The out-put terminals of the rectifier 23 are di rectly connected to a pair of

indication conductors

24, 25 leading to the point of control and the lamp indicating device 20 is connected to these conductors and is adapted to give one or other of two indications according to whether the device 20 is energized or not. So long as the circuit of the lamp 3 is intact and current for illuminating the lamp is being properly supplied thereto, the rectified current supplied to the

indication conductors

24,25 will cause the lamp indicating device 20 to be enerigized and to give an indication lamp in, whereas any failure in, the lamp circuit or in the source of supply thereto will cause the

indication conductors

24, 25 to be deenergized so that the indicating device 20 will give the indication lamp out. The other device 19 for indicating the position of i v the signal arm 1 or spectacle 2 is similar to 40 that described with reference to Figure 1 and is connected to the signal by the

indication conductors

11, 12 which are connected to the signal through the circuit breaker device 15 operated by the signal arm 1 and the fullwave rectifier 10 which is supplied with current from a second secondary winding 26 on the transformer 5 through which the signal lamp S is supplied with current. The indicating device 19will accordingly give an indication signal arm on oi signal arm off, according to whether the circuit breaker device 15 connects the

rectifier conductors

13,14 to the

indication conductors

11, 12 in the normal or reverse direction, while in the event of the signal arm 1 or the spectacle 2 occupying any other position the indicating device 19 will be deenergized and willindicate signal wrong.

Referring now to the system shown in Figure 3. the circuit breaker device 15 is provided with only a single contact arm 16. The

' indication conductor 11 is directly connected to one terminal of the series resistance 7 in the circuit of the lamp 3 while the other indication conductor 12 is connected through the contact arm 16 of the circuit breaker device 15 to one or other of two oppositely arranged half-wave rectifiers 27, 28 which are connected to7the other terminal of the series resistance 1 I With this arrangement it will be evident that current is supplied from the series resistance 7 through the rectifier 27 or the rec-. tifier 23 to the

indication conductors

11, 12, according to whether the signal arm 1 occupies its stop or proceed position.

Referring now to the system shown in Figure 4 the series resistance utilized in the system of the preceding figures is replaced by a pair of

current transformers

29, 30, the primaries 31, 32 of which are connected in the circuit of the lamp 3 while their secondary windings 33, 34 are connected to the in-put terminals of two full-wave rectifiers 35, 36 respectively. I

The out-put terminal 37 of the rectifier 35 and the opposite out-put terminal 38 of the rectifier 36 are connected directly to the indication conductor 12 while the out-put ter: minal 39 of the rectifier 35 or the out-put terminal 40 of the rectifier 36 is arranged to be connected to the indication conductor 11 according to-whether the contact arm 16 of the circuit breaker device 15 is in the position shown correspondingto the stop position ofthe signal arm or'in its opposite or proceed position. a

In the former case current of positive polarity will evidently be supplied through the rectifier 35 to the

indication conductors

11, 12 whereas in the latter case these conductors will be supplied with current of negative polarity through the rectifier 36.

Referring now to the system shown in Figure 5 the signal is shown as provided with an auxiliary lamp 41 adapted to replace the lamp 3 in the event of the latter failing for any reason. The main lamp is arranged to be supplied with current from the secondary winding 4 of a transformer 5, the primary winding 6 of which is connected to

supply circuit conductors

42, 43, one 43 of which serves asa return conductor for the indication device 19. The circuit of the lamp 3' includes the'winding of a relay 44, across the terminals of which a rectifier 45 is connected and the contact arm 46 of the relay 44 is 'arranged to engage with a fixed contact 47 so long as the relay is-energizedwhereas when the relay is deenergized the contact arm 46 engages with a fixed contact 48.

In operation it will be understood that so long as the lamp 3 is intact and operative, the relay 44 is energized by unidirectional current owing to the provision of the rectifier 45. The indication circuit is thus completed through the contact arm 46 and contact 47 of the relay 44.- In the event, however of failure of the lamp 3the'relay 44-is deenergized and a circuit is completed from the transformer winding 4 to the auxiliary lamp 4C1 by way of contact arm 46 and contact 18 of the relay 14. The lamp 41 is thus supplied with operating current but the indication circuit being interrupted, the indication device 19 is deenergized so as to. indicate the failure of the main lamp 3.

The rectifiers employed as above described are preferably of the metal compound type described in the specification of British Patent No. 194,653.

It will be understood that any of the arrangements above described in which halfwave rectifiers are employed may, if desired, be modified so that each rectifier is arranged to by-pass alternate half-waves of the alternating current instead of transmitting these half-waves, the efiect in either case being to supply a unidirectional pulsating current to the indication conductors.

The invention is evidently not limited to the particular arrangements described and illustrated by way of example which may be modified inv various respects without exceeding the scope of the invention.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be per formed, declare that what I claim is:

1. Railway signaling apparatus compris-' ing a movable semaphore arm or spectacle and a continuously illuminated signal lamp adapted to be supplied with operating current from an alternating current supply circuit in which an electrical indicating device of the direct current polarized type is provided at the point of control and is arranged to be supplied with unidirectional operating current through indication conductors, this current being derived from the signal lamp circuit through one or more rectifiers, for the purpose specified.

2. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the rectifier or rectifiers is arranged to be connected to the indication conductors through a circuit breaker device operated in accordance with the position of the semaphore arm or spectacle, for the purpose specified.

3. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the current supplied to the indication conductors is arranged to be derived from a resistance connected in the signal lamp circuit, for the purpose specified.

4. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the current supplied to the indication conductors is arranged to be derived from the secondary winding or windings of a series transformer or transformers the primary winding or windings of which is connected in the signal lamp circuit, for the purpose specified.

5. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the rectifier orv rectifiers are arranged to be connected to the indication conductors through a circuit breaker device operated in accordance with the position of the semaphore arm or spectacle, and in which the indication conductors are arranged to be connected through the circuit breaker device to one or other of two oppositely connected full or half-wave rectifiers, for the and means operated by said semaphore for' causing said current to be of one polarity or the other according to the position of the semaphore.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

LESLIE HURST PETER.