US595083A - Device for operating - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

0. W. SQUIRES. DEVICE FOR OPERATING RAILWAY SWITCHES.

No. 595,083. Patented Dec. 7, 1897.

UNiTnn STATES PATENT @rricn.

CHARLES \VM. SQUIRES, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETS.

DEWCE FOR OPERATING RAILWAY-SWITCHES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 595,083, dated December '7, 1897.

Application filed November 5, 1896. Serial No. 611,115. (No model.)

To aZZ 21/77/0777, it 72mg concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES WM. SQUIRES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Operating Railroad-Switches, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact descrip tion.

My invention relates to improvements in devices for operating railroad switches in which certain mechanism lying adjacent to and beneath the plane of a road and attached to the switch-point is operated by some device or attachment on the car as the car passes over; and the objects of my improvement are to provide a novel, positive, and efficient means of throwing the switch-point, rendering the operation of said switch-moving device easier, and to more thoroughly provide a mechanism which will be most certain to operate and which shall be unaffected by the presence of snow, dirt, Sac.

I am aware that numerous switch devices have been invented many of which have been operated by some device on the car acting on one or more levers or pins having a point of contact slightly above the plane of the road, said levers or pins directly or indirectly moving the switch-point in the desired direction as the car passes over. Experience has shown such switch-moving devices operated by an attachment on the car to be more or less faulty from the fact that such appliances attached to and operated from the car are uncertain in their action. I therefore propose to move the switch-point by means of the car-wheel passing over the end ofa lever, thereby operating certain intermediate mechanism when said mechanism is in operative position, and use an appliance attached to and operated from the car in conjunction with certain devices having a point of contact slightly above the plane of the road for simply determining what shall be the action of said mechanism.

It is intended, of course, to have the switchoperating device properly protected by a cover with suitable apertures for the contact members to protrude; and myinvention consists in combinations or arrangements of parts all substantially as will hereinafter fully appear, and be set forth in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing the figure is a perspective view of the entire mechanism lying beneath the plane of a road-bed.

In the drawing, 1 represents a base structure or support comprising uprights or standards 2 2 and 4; and understood as located in a suitably-protected excavation therefor below the road'bed.

15 represents the track-rail at and adjacent one side of the switch, 11 being the pivoted switch-tongue, as usual.

5 represents a rock-shaft ranging longitudinally, mounted for its rocking action in the aforesaid standards 2 2 and having at its one end the crank-arm 9, to and between which and the switch-tongue is connected the c011- necting-rod 10, whereby when the rock-shaft is rockedin eitherdirection the switclrtongue will be correspondingly swung.

The rock-shaft 5 has at its end farthest from the crank -shaft 9 the oppositely-extended radial arm or crank-like members 0 6, each with the stud or extension 8 8.

12 represents alever hung between its ends, but nearer the one end than the other, by the pivot in the standard 4:. The long arm of this lever 12 is extended into proximity to the end of the aforesaid rock-shaft 5, 011 which shaft are provided the double crank members 6 6, having the said studs or catch members 8 8, while the other and short arm 16 of this lever has its position in proximity to the rail 15, so that the flange of the wheel of a passing car will swing the lever, thereby depressing the short arm and raising the long arm and with the latter also raising the depending tongue A, which is pivoted on the end of the said lever, and which depending pivoted part A has thereon the two oppositely-extending members 0 0, each with the stud B, which projects in a direction parallel with the length of the said rock-shaft 5. The said members 0 C, when the wheel-operated lever 2 is in its normal position, have their position below and between the aforesaid studs or members 8 8 at the adjacent end of the rock-shaft 5.

D represents a second rock -shaft also mounted for its rocking bearing in the aforementioned standards 2 2, having at its end adjacent the Wheel operated lever 12 the downturned crank-like arm E, which when swung as the shaft D is rocked will contact against the one or the other of the studs B and swing in the one direction or the other the aforesaid tongue A, whereby the one or the other of its members 0 G will be in position to engage the proper one, as desired, of the projections 8 8 on the arms 6 of the crankshaft 5. The said rock-shaft D has also thereon the double crank F, the arms of which are extended normally more or less nearly horizontally, and each of the crankarms comprised in the part F is provided with the upwardly-extending projection or stud 13 to be contacted against from the car, it being understood that the car may have provided thereon any of the numerous kinds of devices to be thrust downward by the driver or motorman as common in switchoperating mechanisms.

As a matter of fact, the rock-shaft D may be operated in any way desired, the means for operating it forming no part of the invention.

The rock-shaft D and its adjuncts are understood as constituting a device for setting the switch-operating mechanism, so as to be, as predetermined,operated to shift the switch point or tongue in the desired direction, and all according as the right-hand or the lefthandprojection 13 is contacted against and depressed.

In operation the rod D is rocked by the suitable means, its arm E swinging against one of the pins or studs B, according to the direction the shaft D is rocked, one of the hooks or catch members 0 being presented in engagement with one of the pins 8 on the rock-shaft 5, which is connected with the switch-tongue. The mechanism will now shift the switchtongue so soon as the car-wheel comes upon the short arm of the power-lever 12 to elevate the depending member A.

Of course if the switch is found as the car approaches it to be already properly set no action is required on the part of the driver or motorman to operate the setting devices of the switch-operating mechanism.

I claim- 1. The combination with the switch-tongue and the lever 12 adapted to be moved by the wheel of a passing car, a rock-shaft 5 having a crank-arm, and provided with the double crank 6, a connecting-rod between the first crank-arm and the switch-tongue, a part pivotally supported on the said wheel-operated lever and having two members which may engage either of the members of the said double crank, and a rocking rod or shaft D having an arm which engages said part whichis pivotally supported by the said wheel-operated lever and having the two members which are extended to different positions relative to said rod D, all arranged for operation substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination with the switch-tongue and the lever 12 adapted to be moved by the wheel of a passing car, of a rock-shaft- 5 having a crank-arm 9 and also provided with the double cranks, a connecting-rod between the first crank-arm and the switch-tongue, a part pivotally supported on the said Wheel-operated lever and adapted to engage either of the members of the said double crank and a device adapted to be impinged against from the car and serving to insure engagement between said pivotally-supported part and one or the other of said crank-arms as the lever is swung, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a device for operating railway-switches in combination, a switch-point, a horizontal lever operated by the wheel of a passing car, a member movably mounted on and adapted to be shifted relatively to said car-wheel-operated lever, a mechanism intermediate 'between the said lever and the switch-point having two parts of contact one or the other of which may be engaged by said lever-supported pivoted member, and means actuated from the car for shifting said lever-supported movable member whereby the latter will engage as the lever is swung, one or the other of the contact parts in the said intermediate mechanism, substantially as described.

CHARLES WVM. SQUIRES.

Witnesses:

F. E. CARPENTER, GEORGE A. DE LAMB.

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