US2273621A - Train coupling device - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 17, 194;.

, E; H. PIRON 2,273,621

TRAIN COUPLING DEVICE Filed March 15, 1939 INVENTOR. 2717/7 P/rarz ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 17, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE mum r 1 TBA COUPLING DEVICE of New York Application March 15, ms, Serial No. 202,054 40mm. ((1213-75) This invention relates to train coupling means and has for its object to provide for stabilization of the cars against rolling motions by the action of one car on another, to provide for the balancing of centrifugal force with respect to the action of gravity both with respect to the cars and passengers within the cars when passing around a curve, and to increase the collision resistance of the cars. I i

The normal standing position of a passenger in a train passing around a curve is a position at an angle to the horizontal such that the action of gravity balances the centrifugal force. In conventional railway practice this condition is recognized and in view thereof the outer rail is elevated at curves, and the amount of elevation is calculated according to the radius of the curve and the speed at which trains are intended to travel around the curve. If these two factors are known, and constant. the outer rail elevation centrifugal force, inasmuch as the amount which gravity must be unbalanced to compensate therefor may be accurately determined. However, the

outer rail elevation must be such that trains may This" invention has for an object to prevent outward tilting of the car bodies in the presence of a centrifugal force, and to cause inward tilting I thereof in the event such tilting is desirable or necessary to balance centrifugal force with the action of gravity. To this end, the cars of the train are coupled together by similar yielding a may be calculated to exactly compensate for couplers,being normally shorter, keep the platform couplers in compression and the platform couplers beingnormally longer, keep the roof couplers in tension. when the cars are at an angle to each other. as whenthey are passing over a curved track, the tension forces which normally are in line are moved out of line and set up a force component which is directed toward the center of the curve, and which tends to move the roof portions inwardly toward the center of the curv By varying the pre-compression and pre-iension conditions of the platform and roof couplers the component force may be varied to suit different requirements. The component force may be such as to exactly counteract centrifugal force and to thereby prevent tilting outwardly orit may be such as to cause tilting of the car bodies inwardly toward the center of the the train. With resilientlyyieldable couplers so arranged at the roof and at the platform that the roof couplers are under tension and the platform couplers under compression where there are no other longitudinal forcesacting on the train, the roof coupler springs can be so pro- T portioned to the platform springs that the tencouplers located at the roof level and at the platform, with the roof couplerabeing shorter in length than the platform couplers. when the cars are coupled together, by pushing one against another in the usual manner, all couplers are collapsed, with the platform couplers being collapsed to a greater extent than the roof couplers because they are longer. Once the coupling is completed, and the car brakes are released the yielding couplers tend to return to their normal position, but being prevented from doing so because the cars are coupled togethen'they move to an intermediate position or to a position of equilibrium between the free position of the roof coupler and the platform coupler. The roof sion which is normally present in the roof couplers is replaced by a compression as soon as the coupling system collapses under the action of longitudinal forces caused by end collisions and that the-compression thus developed in both roof and platform couplers is then proportional or about proportional to the collision or bull. resistance of the respective roof and platform structures.

Another object of the invention is to provide coupling means which makes possible a material weight reduction, thus making stabilization of the car bodies against rolling motion and the reduction in the amplitude of the leaning over under the action of centrifugal forces on curves more easily attainable, as well as the numerous other advantages resulting from the elimination of unnecessary weight. In this respect, attention is directed to the factors which ordinarily preclude further weight reductions of any great importance with the present day design of light,

streamlinedtrains. V The design of the conventional streamlined nates the drag links slidable rail car is such that vertical and lateral loads are resisted by thebody and the center sill, while the longitudinal forces are practically entirely resisted by the center sill. The latter condition results from the fact that the coupler draw bars are in line with the sill and remote from the neutral axis of the car body which as far as resistance is concerned functions mostly in the nature of a stiffener for opposing buckling of the center sill. Although the longitudinal forces in service are relatively small, they may reach, ace cidentally, very great values, especially in the case of collisions, and in the safeguarding of passengers thecenter sill must be designed to withstand the higher forces. The center sill must, therefore, be comparatively heavy.

It is evident that if the center sill were located in the neutral axis of the body, the whole body could be designed to function in resisting longitudinal forces, with the result that a. material weight reduction could be obtained. This is not possible, because the space around the neutral axis is required for passenger service, and this invention has as a further object to teach another manner of obtaining Just as satisfactory a. solution.

The usual roof construction, because of its curved section, is an inherently strong longitudinal member, and no difllculty is encountered in constructing the roof to incorporate nearly half the bufilng strength of the car without adding materially to the weight of the roof. Then, by providing couplers both at the roof and the center sill. nearly one half of the longitudinal forces may be transmitted through the roof-construction, with the result that the center sill need only be little more than half as strong and half as heavy as ordinarily is the case.

The platform or center sill couplers are not capable of preventing rolling of the car bodies because their location is near the center of rolling motion, whereas the roof couplers, being located where the amplitude of rolling motion is maximum, utilize the action of one car body on' the other to oppose rolling, because in general the main rolling motions of one car body are not in synchronism with those of the adjoining car bodies. By the provision of longitudinal elasticity such that it requires a great effort to lengthen the roof couplers, resistance to the rolling'or leaning of connected car bodies is created, and when the car bodies pass a curve at high speed the resistance creating means sets up a force tending to cause leaning inwardly of the curve. I

Other objects and advantages will become more fully apparent as reference is had to the accompanying drawings wherein my invention is illus-' trated,- and in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a train,

Fig. 2 is a plan of the train on a curve,

Fig. 3 is a diagram used for purposes of ex-. planation,

Fig. 4 is a plan plers, and

Fig. 5 is a plan of a set of platform couplers.

The cars I of the train illustrated are equipped of a set of separated roof couwith standard couplers 2 at the roof level and 3 at the platform level.

with similar couplers The construction of the couplersis diagrammatically illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 wherein 4 desigwith respect to supporting members 5 attached to the car bodies, and yieldingly held against movement in either direction by springs 6 and 1 which are compressed between the members 5 and fixed abutments I on the draft bars 4.

Although identical in construction, th platform couplers 3 arelonger than the roof couplers 2, as may be seen by comparison of Figs. 4 and 5 which show the relative uncoupled positions of the roof and platform couplers. It becomes apparent,-therefore, that when the several cars are coupled together, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, the roof couplers are placed in tension and the platform couplers are maintained in compression. It is obvious that a similar condition may be obtained by using properly selected spring characteristics that are different in the two systems of couplers.

In Fig. 3 the line A-B represents the horizontal plane of the floor of a car during normal or straight line movement. If the floor remains in this plane during movement through a curve, the normal standing position of a passenger changes from vertical to an angle with respect to the horizontal plane A-B, which angle is such that gravity balances the centrifugal force, for example, the angle indicated by the lines A-B-C. When the outer rail is elevated. as pointed out in the preamble, the floor of the car is tilted and takes an angular position such as indicated by the line D--B, and if the speed of the train is exactly correlated with elevation of the outer rail and the radius of the curve, the passenger position will be perpendicular to the floor, as indicated by the line E-B, which is perpendicular to the line D-B.

With the speed factor ordinarily less than that of the higher speed trains, in order to accommodate low speed trains, the condition as far as the standing position of a passenger is concerned is similar to that represented by the lines A--B and 3-0, for the reason that the angularity of the floor must increase proportionally with the centrifugal force, which increases with increasing speed- However, if the train speed exceeds the chosen speed at the curve, centrifugal force also acts to tilt the car bodies outwardly, with the dition indicated by lines A-B and BC. In

other words, although elevation of the outside rail improves conditions, it does not correct the conditions sought to be corrected in the case of a train exceeding the chosen speed because if the outer rail elevation is not suflicient the action is the same, only not so extreme, as if no outer rail elevation were present.

Correction of the undesirable conditions above referred to is obtained by provision of couplers at the roof and platform, with the roof couplers maintained in tension by the platform couplers. The result of such an arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 2, which shows the cars on a curved track and, therefore, angularly related. In such a case the tension forces O-E and O-F exerted between two cars at the roof level are not in .line and the two opposing forces have a. component O-G which is directed toward the center of the curve, and which causes inward tilting of the car bodies. By predetermining the tension in the roof couplers any predetermined centrifugal force may be balanced by gravity.

The provision of couplers at the roof and the platform increases collision resistance by utilization of the roof structure and the floor and underframe construction, instead of just the floor uted on the floor and underframe structure so that the roof resistance becomes augmentative, thus making material lightening of the underframe structure possible.

What is claimed is: 1. A rail car having a pair of couplers at opposite ends thereof, one coupler of each of said pairs being located adjacent the platform of the car and the other coupler of each pair being located adjacent the roof thereof, all of said couplers being resiliently mounted, the roof couplers projecting a shorter distance from the ends of cars than the platform couplers whereby the roof couplers are automatically placed in tension when two cars are coupled together.

2. A rail car having a pair of couplers at opposite ends thereof, one coupler of each of said pairs being located adjacent the platform and the other coupler of each of said pairs being locatedadjacent the roof thereof, all of said couplers being resiliently mounted, and the platform couplers projecting from the ends of the cars a distance greater than the roof couplers whereby the platform couplers are automatically placed in compression when two cars are coupled together. i

3. In combination, a plurality of rail cars, resiliently supported couplers located at both the platforms and the roofs of said cars, said resiliently supported couplers being so related with respect to each other and with respect to the cars that the coupling of two cars together automatically places the platform coupler in compression and the roof coupler in tension, said platform coupler being capable of compressing in the presence of extrinsic forces tending to move said cars together to an extent such that the roof coupler also acts in compression to resist said last named forces.

4. In combination, a plurality of rail cars, resiliently supported couplers located at both the platforms and the roofs of said cars, said resiliently supported couplers being so related with respect to each other and with respect to the cars that the coupling of two cars together automatically places the'roof coupler in tension and the platform coupler in compression, said roof coupler being capable of elongating in the presence of extrinsic forces'tending to separate the cars to an extent such that the platform coupler also acts in tension to resist such forces, and said platform coupler being capable of compression in the presence of extrinsic forces tending to movesaid cars together to an extent such that the roof coupler also acts in compression to resist such last named forces.

EMIL H. PIRON.

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