US433975A - Half to frederick ernst august stauff - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

O. W. BRENIZER. I

RAILWAY SWITCH.

(No Model.) 3Sheets-Sh eet 2.

- O. W. BRENIZER.

RAILWAY SWITGH. No. 483,975. Patented Aug. 12, 1890.

QRTMMZ gmuewtoz (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

0. W. BRENIZER.

RAILWAY SWITCH.

' N 433.975- Patented Aug. 12, 1890.

Ililii ill-Jill -WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIflemu I IIIIIH i v UNITED STATES PATENT I Orricn.

-ORSON WVILLBERT BRENIZER, OF DULU'III,==MINNESO'IA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO FREDERICK ERNST AUGUST STAUFF, ZERAH D. GOODELL, AND THOMAS H. PRESSNELL, ALL OF SAME PLACE.

SWITCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 433,975, dated August 12, 1890.

Application filed August 31, I889.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ORSON WILLBERT BREN- IZER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Duluth, in the county of St. Louis and State ofMinnesota, have invented new and useful Improvements in Railway-Switches, of which the following is a specification;

I haveimproved the railway-switch in which provision is made for operating the switch automatically by the passing train so as to prevent the latter from running oil": the track from a misplaced switch and in rendering the train safe in passing the switch from diiferent directions and from diiferent tracks.

. The accompanying drawings illustrate my improvements in connection with a single side track, as I will now describe, and at the conclusion of such description I will specifically point out the features claimed as my improvement.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 represents a top view of so much of a railway bed and track as illustrates my improved switch operating and lockin g connections, the switch being shown as closed with the main track. Fig. .2 is a similar view showing the switch as being closedwith the side track. Fig. 3 is a side view of one of the lever devices shown depressed and a piece of the rail to which it is attached, and by which device the switch is changed by the action of the wheels of the locomotive of the passing train; and Fig. 4 is a similar view, the lever device being shown raised. Fig. 5 is a transverse section showing the slides arranged between the ends of the fixed rails at the switch-points for crossing such points and locking the switch when set for either the main or side track. Fig. 6 is a top view of the-switch-locking slides and their operating-plate. Fig. 7 is a detail of the hand-lever switch-operating device.

A A are portions of the rails of the main track. 13 B are portions of the rails of the side track. 0 G are the switch-rails, and D is the bar which connects their free ends and by which the switch is shifted.

To the inner side of one of the rails of the main track and one of the rails of the side track and in opposite relation to each other Serial No. 322,534. (No model.)

are pivoted a pair of levers E and E, prefer- 5o ably of bell-crank form, and to the upper ends of the short arms 2 of each set on each railwhich stand toward the switch is pivoted a bar F and F, so that its rising and falling movements will be parallel to the surface of the said rail. The long arms 6 of each pair of these bell-crank levers stand downward, and are connected at their lower ends to a rod G, which extends forward by the side of each rail to the cross-tie H at the junction of the railwith the switch. Upon this junction cross-tie are firmly secured two bell-crank levers I I, one end of each being connected to the switch-shifting bar D, and the other end of each bell-crank lever being connected to the rods G and G of the said rail-levers, so

that when the switch is shifted one of the said rods will be moved backward from the switch-junction and depress its lever-connected bar F flush with the rail of the side track by a pushing action upon the rail-levers. The bar F, by this action, is simultaneously raised above the surface of the rail of the main track by the pulling action of the connecting-rod G upon the rail-lever of said bar. The end of the rail-bar which stands away from the switch-junction is beveled, so as to receive the action of the wheels of the locomotive, and thereby depress it and instantly shift the switch to the proper track. It will be noticed that the ends of the rods G G which connect with the switchconnecting bell-crank levers I I are form ed with cranked ends g g, the purpose of which I will now state.

As a means for locking the switch-bars and holding them securely in their position during the passing of the train, I provide lockingsliders L L, placed between the ends of the rails of the main and side tracks at their junction with the sWith-rails, so as to be confined and permitted to slide freely between the said main and side rails and to be projected out across the joint of the switch-rails with the main and side rails and to be retracted free of said joint by means which I' will now describe. By the side of the j unction cross-tie a plate J is centrally pivoted and extends at each end under the ends of the main and side rails, and has a pivotal connection with the said locking-slides by pins J, which extend through cross-slots s s in the said locking-slides. At the angles of the cranks of the said rods G G there is a connection 1' with the said pivoted plate, so that the movement of the rods must vibrate the plate upon its central pivot and move the locking-slides in position across the switchjoint at one side and retract the other slide from said joint at the other side of the track, according to the position of the switch, and thus form a bar to the movement of the switch during the passing of the train. It will be seen that the plate has a slot at at its pivotal connection and slots 1) b at its connection 7" with the rods G G, and that the locking-slides are also formed with slots 8 s, and this is to give perfect freedom from binding in the movements of any of the connected parts. The relation of the several parts, their arrangement, and connections are such that one of these locking-slides will be projected across the joint of the rails at one side of the track in whatever position the switch may be shifted, and that upon the movement of the switch the said locking-slide will be instantly retracted from its position across the joint back between the rails which confine it and which form the ways upon which it is free to slide. The switch is provided with stops t u at the junction cross-tie whereby to limit its movement. The switch may be operated by the usual hand-lever under the control of the switch-tender. I

It is obvious that the switch and the locking-slides are eifective in their operation by operating the switch by hand, and the rods and their connected rail-lever bars may be dispensed with when the automatic connections are not desired; but I prefer to use the switch operating and locking devices together, as shown, because their connection is such as to render them simultaneously operative, and in which the movement of one is controlled by the movement of the other.

In Fig. 1 the slide L is shown in position to lock the switch with the main track, and the slide L is shown out of locking position, while in Fig. 2 this position of the 1ocking-slide is reversed, and the switch is shown in locked position with the side rails.

I claim as my improvement 1. In a self-acting railway-switch, the combination of the rail-levers E E, their connected bars F F, the rods G G, the cross-tie bell-crank levers I I, the pivot-ed plate J, the locking-slides L L, and the switch, substantially as described.

2. In arailway-switch,the combination,with the switch and means for operating it, of the pivoted plate J, locking-slides connected to the ends thereof, the bell-crank levers I I, and the crank-arms g 9, connecting the said bell-crank levers and the said pivoted plate, substantially as described.

3. 'A railway-switch-locking device consisting of the pivoted plate J, the locking-slides L L, pivotally connected to each end of the latter, the crank-arms g g, connected to said plate, and the bell-crank levers connecting the latter with the switch-shifting bar, the said plate J having the slots at b b, and the said locking-slides having the cross-slots s s, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ORSON WVILLBERT BRENIZER.

Images