US614412A - Electric switch-operating mechanism for railways - Google Patents

Description

Patented Nov. l5, I898.

L. E.-WAL'K|N$. ELECTRIC SWITCH OPERATING MECHANISM FOR RAILWAYS.

(Application filed Sept. 7, 1898.)

2 Sheets-Sheet l.

No Model.)

m: N ws PETERS co. PNOTo-urnu. WASNINGT L. E. WALKI Patented Nov. I5, I898. NS.

ELECTRIC SWITCH OPERATING MECHANISM FOR RAILWAYS.

(Application filed Sept. 7, 1898.)

(No Model.)

2 Sheets-She'et 2.

iJNrrnn STATES PATENT Futon,

LOUIS E. :XVALKIN S, OE SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO GEORGE MI JEWVETT, OF GLENVILLE, MARYLAND.

ELECTRlC SWITCH-OPERATING MECHANISM FOR RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 614,412, dated November 15, 1898.

Application filed September 7, 1898. Serial No. 690,399. (No model.)

To (0% whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LOUIS E. WALKINS, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Springfield,in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Switch Operating Mechanism for Railways, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to electrically-operating mechanism for the switches of street and other railways, whereby the motorman on the car may utilize the motor-current for changing the switch or whereby, if desired, the switch may be shifted by the manipulation of the current-switch from a switching tower or station suitably near the railwayswitch.

The invention consists in the constructions and combinations of parts, all substantially as will hereinafter fully appear, and be set forth in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of a railway, including the branch or siding and the switch therefor, together with representation in diagram of the circuit-conductors. Fig. 2 is a side elevation showing a motor-car having an overhead trolley and provided with appliances which, in conjunction with the railway equipments, may be utilized for establishing a switch-operating circuit. Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional View and partial elevation, on a larger scale, showing the electro mechanical devices for operating the switchtongue. Fig. 4 is a plan view showing the relative arrangement of certain contact-making devices comprised in the switch-operating mechanism.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all of the Views. 7

In the drawings, A A represent the usual car-track rails of the railway, B B representing the branch track-rails, and O is the switchtongue.

Located adjacent the switch in a suitable box or casing a, between and below the level of the rails, is the switch-operating mechanism, which will now be described. 7 D represents an electric motor of ordinary construct-ion and having the capability, as usual in the most common form of electric motors, of being instantaneously started on the passage therethrough of an electric current and of being also quickly stopped on the cessation of the current therethrough. The motor has on its shaft 1) the gear-wheel d,with which meshes the rack-bar f, the same having the guides and supports g, whereby it may be moved endwise'in either direction, accordin g as the rotation of the motor is correspondingly forward or backward. This bar has the hooks or catch-abutments h at its ends, and it also has the upstanding lug or extension 1', which extends through a slot therefor in the top of the casing a, and with this memberz' the connecting-rodj is secured,the same being also secured to the switch-tongue. The rack-bar, furthermore, has the upstanding lug 46 while between the said lugs 2' and 2' is a depending fixed abutment 7c of the casingtop. Springs m m are interposed between the intermediate fixed abutments and the upstanding lugz' and t the same, as shown, being coiled around the rod m which is supported by said upstanding lugs and plays loosely through an opening therefor in the depending fixed intermediate 111 g. The tendency of these springs is to normally maintain the rack-bar in its intermediate position.

Adjacent each end of the rack-bar is an armature-lever E, pivotally mounted, as at 10, having the engagement hook or pawl 02 and the spring 12 for maintaining the armature-pawl in its position to engage in the shoulder h of the adjacent end of the rack-bar when sufficiently projected endwise therefor. Beneath each armature-pawl is an electromagnet G which when v'italized by the passage of a current therethrough will cause the downswinging thereagainst of the pawl end of the armature-lever, causing the release of the rack-bar.

The rack-bar has at opposite sides of the motor the two depending posts 0, insulated from the rack-bar and provided at the lower end with the rollers 0 adjacent which and in a line endwise relative to the motion of the rack-bar are the contact plates or fingers p, on which the rollers of the posts may respectively impinge.

Adjacent the switch between the rails is a short third-rail section H, while beyond the switch between the track-rails of the branch is another similar short third-rail section H It is understood that above the railway there is the usual overhead-feed trolley-wire s, on which the trolley of the car runs and from which it takes the current, as common. The car has beneath it a depressible foot or trolley-shoe t, normally having its position above the level of the third-rail short section H, but adapted to be thrust down to have bearing thereon. Said shoe t has its body portion vertically guided on the guide-bar t and is supported by the toggle-levers i one of which is connected to the slide-bar i linked to the operating-lever 25 This shoe is insulated from the car, but takes the current by a suitable wire or conductor (indicated at 'r) from the overhead trolley-wire.

From one of the short third-rail sections adjacent the switch a wire passes to the one electromagnet G in the casing a, and another wire 16 connects said electromagnet with the one contact-post 0, while the adjacent contact-plate p is, by the wire 17, connected to the binding-post 18 of the motor D, 19 being a grounding-wire or return-Wire for the motor-circuit comprising said wires and the magnet G. From the other thirdrail section H farther along the track and beyond the position of the switch from the location of the section H, a current-conducting wire 20 passes to the other electromagnet G of the switch-operating mechanism, and from this magnet a wire 22 passes to connection with the contact-post 0, While from the adjacent plate 19' the wire 23 passes to an op posite binding-post 2a of the motor, the wire 25 being connected for the return-current to the adjacent binding-post 26.

The binding-posts and connections at opposite sides of the motor enable the field to be reversed, so that the motor will run in opposite direction, according as the current comes to the motor through the one or the other circuits.

Assuming that the motor-car is to travel in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 1, and the switch will be found open for causing the car to run along on the straight track, but it will be desired to cause the closing of the switchtongue to the position shown in Fig. 1,whereby the car will take the branch, the motorman on reaching the location of the short third-rail section H makes contact therewith by depressing the foot if, so that from the overhead trolley a feed current passes down through the shoe into the third-rail section H causing the circuit comprising the electromagnet G to be vitalized, the armaturelever E being drawn to the magnet, its pawl releasing the rack-bar f, which had been ongaged thereby, and the motor, by the current coming in thereto at 24, is run in the direction to close the switch, the positions of the mechanism inclosed in the box adjacent the switch assuming the positions seen in Fig. 3, the contacts 0 p, the one running off from the other, so that there Will not be an undue driving of the motor more than sufficient to place the right-hand hook h into engagement with the armature-lever pawl at the righthand end of the box as the parts are viewed in said Fig. 3.

In order to restore the switch to its open position, the motormau either having left the foot t depressed until it comes to the thirdrail section H or depressing it in time to contact thereon causes the establishment of a circuit primarily from the overhead trolley-wire through the wire 15, vitalizing the magnet G, releasing the rack-bar h, and at the same time by the current passing by way of wires 16, contacts 0 and p, and wire 17 into the motor in a manner to reverse the field the motor is caused to run in the opposite direction, opening the switch and reversing the positions of the electromechanical devices from that shown in Fig. 3that is,the left-hand rack-bar hook snaps into engagement with the armature-pawl E at the" left as these parts are viewed.

The circuits comprising the motor in common to both the electromagnets G G, the contact members 0 p and o 19, adapted to be joined and separated, and the wiring therefor may be rendered live at diiferent instants or periods, if desired, from a source of electrical energy other than the overhead-trolley feedwire 3, and in Fig. 1 I have shown a generator at J wired to the post 4:, adjacent but separated from which are the contacts and 32, from which wires 33 and 34 run, respectively, to connections with the electromagnets G and G, as shown, bybeing tapped into the magnet connecting wires 15 and 20 aforementioned. The switch member 10 may' throw either the wire 33' or the wire 3t into the circuit for energizing either of the magnets desired.

This switch may be located at a station or in a switching-tower or at any suitable place along the railway, so that a switchman may operate the electric switch mechanism instead of the motorman on the car.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a switch-operating mechanism,in combination, a switch-tongue and the electrical contact-section adjacent the switch, an electric motor, a bar with which the motor has driving connection, a contact-piece adjacent the bar and a contact member carried by the bar, adapted to bear on, and to move out of contact from said contact-piece, an electromagnet and an armature-pawl coactin g therewith and adapted to engage said bar, currentconductors connecting said contact-section with said magnet, connecting said magnet with the contact-piece on the bar, connecting the adjacent contact-plate and the motor, and a return-conductor for the motor, and a connection between said bar and the switchtongue, substantially as described.

2. In a switch-operating mechanism, the combination with the switch-tongue and the comparatively short third-rail section, as H the bar f, with which the switch-tongue is connected, an electric motor having a driving connection with said bar, the contact as 0 carried by the bar and the adjacent plate 19, the electromagnet G, and the armaturepawl adapted to engage the said bar and to coact with said magnet, of the overhead trolley-wire, the car having a movable foot and connection with the trolley-wire and adapted to be placed in contact with said third-rail section, and current-conductors connecting said section with the magnet, connecting said magnet with the bar-supported contact, connecting said contact-plate with the motor, and a return-conductor for the motor, substantially as described.

3. In an electric switch-operating mechanism for railways, the combination with the switch-tongue, of an electric motor, a bar adapted to be moved by the motor and connected to the switch-tongue, a source of electrical energy and normally open circuit-conductors fed thereby, and adapted to cause when closed, the running of the motor, means for closing said circuit, a catch device for engaging the motor-shifted bar, and electrical devices for releasing said catch device, for the purposes set forth.

4:. In an electric switch-operating mechanism, the combination With a switch-tongue, and an electric motor, of a rack-bar having a gear-wheel connection with the motor, and provided with a catch or engagement member, and having a connection with the switchtongue, a normally open circuit connected into the motor, and a source of electrical supply therewith connected, and means for clos ing said circuit, an electromagnet having an armature provided with a pawl to engage said bar as brought to position therefor by the motor, and normally open circuit connections joined to said magnet and means for closing said circuit for releasing said armature-pawl for the purpose set forth.

5. In an electric switch-operating mechanism, in combination, the switch-tongue, the barf therewith connected, and the motor having driving connection with the bar, a feed conductor, and normally open circuit-conductors, comprising a third-rail contact-section, an electromagnet, a fixed contact-plate and a bar-supported contact member, and wiresconnecting said third-rail section and magnet, magnet and bar-supported member and plate and the motor, and another normally open set of circuit-conductors likewise comprising a third-rail section, an electromagnet, a fixed contact-plate and a bar-supported contact member, and wires connecting third-rail section and magnet, magnet and the said bar-supported contact member and contact-plate and motor, said devices being arranged oppositely relative to the motor, and armature-pawl for the electromagnets, adapted to have catch engagement with the opposite end portions of said bar, and means for connecting said third-rail section with the feed-conductor in succession, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

6. In an electric switch-operating mechanism, in combination, the switch-tongue, and a motor, a bar to be operated by the motor, and connected with the switch-tongue, two third-rail sections H H arranged to show circuit-constituting conductors between each of said third-rail sections and the motor, whereby, on the passage of the car over the railway, the trolley-current may be caused to pass to said circuit-conductor by way of said third-rail section, and an independent generator J, contacts 30 and 32, a switch for connecting either thereof with said generator and wires 33, 34 respectively connected into the aforesaid circuit-conductor, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

Signed by me, at Springfield, Massachusetts, this 15th day of July, 1898.

LOUIS E. WALKINS.

Witnesses:

WM. S. BELLows, M. A. CAMPBELL.

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