US538098A - Switch-tongue for railroad-switches and mates - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

D. P. CARVER. 'SWITGH TONGUE FOR RAILROAD SWITCHES AND MATES.

Patented Apr. 28, 1895..

A TTORNE Y S.

WITNESSES;

DAVID FREDERICK CARVER, OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JOHN CROSBIE BRAOKENRIDGE, OF RICHMOND HILL, NEW YORK.

' SWITCH-TONGUE FOR RAILROAD-SWITCHES AND MATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 538,098, dated April 23, 1895.

Application filed February 19, 1895. Serial No. 53 8 ,931. (N0 model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, DAVID FREDERICK OAR- VER, of Brooklyn,in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Switch-Tongue for Railroad- Switches and Mates, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The invention has for its object to provide a switch tongue so broadened at its base as to possess increased strength and stability and enable the curved lead switches, the tongues and the transition curves, to be constructed of much greater radii than is practicable with tongues of ordinary form, and a further object is to construct the tongues so as to resist and as far as may be overcome certain destructive strains incident to the operation of switches as ordinarily constructed.

The invention consists in the novel features hereinafter particularlydescribed and defined in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a broken plan view of a switch embodying my invention. Figs. 2 to 7 are cross sections respectively on lines 2-2, 3-3,'

44, 5-5, 66, and 7-7 in Fig. 1; and Figs. 8 and 9 are respectively cross sections taken through myimproved tongue at about the center and through the ordinary tongue at a corresponding point, the views being given to show the comparative resistance to the lateral strain due to the centrifugal force exerted by the wheel flanges.

The improved tongue Ais formed with lateral substantially rectangular flanges b c at the base, one on each side of the tongue, and these flanges extend any required distance along the tongue from the pin 01, and the side edges of the flanges may converge to the lines of lead, as shown, or be parallel thereto, and may be of the depth required by different traffic conditions. In the drawings, Fig. 1, one side edge a'is curved and converges to the'adjacent curved lead a of the tongue, and the opposite side edge a is straight and converges to the adjacent straight lead a of. the tongue. Preferably the flanges are given such a length and breadth as give the tonguea contact along its whole length with either the guard rail a or the running rail 0. of switch a, according to which side of the switch the tongue is thrown. The inner surfaces of the rails 0. er and the opposed side surfaces of the tongue flanges are vertical.

In practice it is intended that the distance between the top of the flanges b c and the tread of the tongue will correspond as near as may be with the depth of the flange e of the wheel E. In this way the flanges serve the purpose of partly receiving the weight as will appear from Fig. 5, and thus relieving the tread of the tongue atthe points where, due to length of radii, the tread of the tongue is less than the tread of the imposed wheel E, as for instance in position shown in Fig. 5. A further result of the presence of the flanges b a will appear from Fig. 7 where the square represented by the dotted lines f indicates the cross section of the ordinary tongue at the pin d, which form gives a minimum of material at this point, necessitating the use of a small pin; also, with this old cross section the greatest wear will occur near the corner h. With my improved base the pin may be larger and the center line of downward force will be nearer the transverse center of the tongue owing to the addition of the material represented in this instance by the right hand flange c, which gives a more even distribution of the weight, thus diminishing the weight and reducing the bending action brought to bear on the pin d. Further, with a tongue having the ordinary cross section, the middle portion of the tongue, say at a point represented by line 44 or 55 in Fig. 1, the tongue, when none of the weight of a car is imposed thereon, is required to withstand a resultant destructive force around a point, as i, see Figs. 8 and 9, as a center, and in a direction represented by the curved arrow in Fig. 9, and is as a beam braced against lateral strain at its ends only, so that it must yield to a lateral bending strain in addition to the rocking or torsional one. With my improved tongue, under like conditions, as indicated in Fig. 8, the tendency to radial motion and lateral bending is counteracted by the flange b pressing against the flange e of the Wheel E, and the centrifugal force exerted by the passing car is directly horizontal and ICC is evenly distributed against the abutting rail at the opposite side of the tongue along the surface ac-cc in Fig. 8. Thus the tongue possesses complete lateral stability from end to end and is consequently held rigidly in any given position.

By the use of this improved tongue, its increased strength makes it possible to construct curved lead switches and mates of much larger radii than at present, and to employ tongues of greater length than at present. Therefore the improved tongue makes possible the use of transition curves of larger radii at any switch, and it effects not onlya saving in wear upon the tongues of switches and mates,but reduces toa mimirnum the damaging side strains on the running gear and rolling stock caused by running around the curved lead of switches of small radii.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination in a switch, of side rails and a-tongue, pivoted between said rails, and having flanges at the base extending from the pivot end toward the point, and tapering toward the point, substantially as described.

2. The combinationin a switch of side rails, having their inner sides vertical, and a tongue pivoted between said rails and having flanges at the base, said flanges having vertical side walls adapted to contact with the vertical walls of the side rails, substantially as described.

3. A tongue for switches and mates, the same having side flanges for only a portion of its length, substantially as described.

4. A switch tongue having a flange along its curved lead, said flange extending from the pivoted end of the tongue and terminating short of the point, substantially as described.

5. A switch tongue having a rectangular flange at its base, the horizontal upper surface of the flange being adapted to receive a wheel flange, substantially as described.

6. A switch tongue having a rectangular flange at its base, adapted to receive a wheel flange, said rectangular flange extending from the pivot end of the tongue toward the point, and tapering toward said point, substantially as described.

DAVID FREDERICK CARVER.

Witnesses:

C. SEDGWICK, J. L. MCAULIFFE.

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