US769128A - Vestibule stock-car. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED AUG. 30, "1904.

W. A. BUGKNBR. VESTIBULE STOCK GAR.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.10, 1903.-

N0 MODEL.- I

' of fastening.

No.769,1.28. I UNITED STATES WILLIAM A. BUOKNER,

VESTIBU'LE STOCK-CAR.

Patented August 30, 1904.

PATENT OFFicE.

on CLEBURNE, TEXAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 769,128, da g s 30, 1904.

., Application filed December 10,1903. Serial'No.184,620. (N0 model.)

To all whom it mayconccrfip Be-it known that I, WILLIAM A. BUOKNER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oleburne, in the county of Johnson and State of Texas, have invented new and'u seful Improvements in vVestibule Stock-Cars, of which the following-isa Specification, 0

This invention relates to vestibule stockcars, and has for its object to provide a simple, inexpensive, and efiicient vestibule attachment forstock-cars whereby the operation of loading, unloading, and transferring the stock may be rapidly and conveniently accomplished without danger to the stock and without the necessity of employing a shifting or other engine for shifting the cars.

It also has for its object to utilize the doors of the cars for forming the sides of the vestibule and the floor or platform of the-vestibule for holding the doors closed.

It has for a further object to so arrange the two partsor sections of the vestibule that they will telescope one in the other to compensate for the approach and recession of the cars toward and from each other while the cars are in motion.

Finally, it has other objects in view, as will hereinafter appear from the following detail description. I

.To these ends my invention consists in the features and in the construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the. claims following the description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, wherein Figure l is a view in side elevation of a car and of a portion of another car coupled there-- to, the doors being opened and the platform lowered to form the vestibule. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the adjacent ends of two cars, showing the vestibule. Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal central section. Fig. 4 is an end view of the car, showing the doors closed and the platform elevated-to hold the doors in their closed position; and 5 is a detail perspective view illustrating ainodified form Referring to the drawings, the numeral lindicates a stock-car, which may be of the usual .way to the outside of the car.

and ordinaryor any preferredconstruction. Formed in each end of the car is a doorway 2, which is adapted to be closed by two hinged doors 3, saiddoors being hinged at their inner ends, at at 4, on opposite sides of the door- VVhen closed, the free edges of said doors will abut one another in the usual manner and will completely close the doorway.

In practice I provide fastenings for holding the doors when open at substantially right angles to the end of the car, and in the pres' ent instance I have shown said fastenings as constituting hooks 5, which are secured to the end of the car, and eyes 6, which are secured to the door, the arrangement being such that when the doors are opened or swung at right angles to the end ofthe car the hooks 5 are caused to engage the eyes 6 and hold the doors in their open position. While the hooks and eyes will operate to securely hold the doors in 7 their open position, there will be sufficient play between the hooks and eyes to permit of the doors having a slight oscillating movement about their hinges for the purpose hereinafter made apparent.

Hinged, as at 7 to the lower edge portion of each end of the car is a platform 8, and attached to the end of the car immediately below the hinges 7 is a transverse beam 9, which when the platform 8 is lowered serves to hold the platform in a substantially horizontal position. As usual, chafing-blocks 13 are secured to the transverse beams 9 and project outwardly therefrom on either side of the lonas, for example, during the operation of coupling or shifting the cars. These chafingblocks, together with the transverse beams'9,

. constitute a solid support, which practically extends entirely between the ends of the cars and V serves as a bed upon which the platforms rest when in their lowered positions. Formed in the opposite ends of each of the platforms 8 are slots 10, and attached to the end of the car are eyes 11, said eyes being so situated that when the platform is raised to a vertical position said eyes will project through the slots 10, and by passing pins 12 through said eyes the platform will be held in its vertical position.

When a train is made up, the platform 8 of one car will be lowered to its horizontal position and the platform 8 of an adjoining car will be lowered so as to lap over and rest on the first-named platform. The doors of the first-named car are then opened and fastened with the hooks and eyes, after which the doors of the last-named or adjoining car will be opened to lap and rest against the inner sides of the doors of the first-named car, the doors of one car thus telescoping between the doors of the adjacent ear, the slight play of the doorfastenings readily permitting of this arrangement. There will thus be formed a telescoping vestibule between the two cars having double sides and double bottomsthat is to say, the platform of one car will overlap and rest upon the platform of the next adjacent car and the open doors of one car will overlap or embrace the open doors of the other car. This arrangement not only affords great strength to the sides and bottom of the vestibule, but it performs'a much more important function.

It is a matter of common knowledge that during the travel of a train of cars owing to various reasons the cars are constantly approaching and receding from one another within such limits as are permitted by the couplings and draw-bars, and by telescoping the vestibule of one car into the vestibule of another car in the manner described such movements can take place without injury to the vestibule and without obstructing such movements in any manner whatsoever. When the movements above referred to take place, the platforms slide back and forth one upon the other and the doors telescope in and out of one another. Furthermore, owing to the play afforded by the door-fastenings said doors when in their open positions will have a slight oscillating movement about their hinges, whereby the flexibility of the train is not affected, and the cars may readily pass around curves without injury or affecting in any manner the doors forming the sides of the vestibule.

In orderto permit of the doors which are innermost when the vestibule is formed being held in their open positions, each of the doors is provided with a slot 14:, through which the eyes 6 of the innermost doors project when the vestibule is made up to enable the hooks 5 to engage said eyes. The said slots are made somewhat longer than the full width of the eyes to permit of the slight movement of the cars toward and from one another which occurs when the train is in motion.

By means of my improved vestibule cars For example, the doors of the forward endof the foremost car will be closed and fastened by raising up the platform and inserting the pins 12 in the eyes 11 and the train moved into position so that one of the side doorways of the car will be opposite the runway usually employed for leading stock into cars. All the other doors having been opened and the platforms lowered (excepting at the rear end of the rearmost car) to form vestibules, the cattle or other live stock are driven up the runway into the foremost car and may then be driven from car to car until each successive car is filled, after which the doorway in the side of the foremost car will of course be closed. This, as before described, is accomplished without moving any of the cars. When the train is in motion, any of the stock may be transferred from one car to another without liability of injury to the stock, the vestibule between the cars forming a perfect safeguard against the stock falling between the cars, and in like manner the vestihules form a perfectly safe passage-way for the attendants in passing from one car to another. In like manner the cars may be unloaded without the necessity of shifting them after one of the cars has been brought opposite the runway.

It will be obvious that instead of the cattle entering the foremost or rearmost car when they are being loaded onto the train the train may be so located relative to the chute or runway that the latter will be opposite the side doorway of a car intermediate the front and rear car-as, for example, the central car. This method of loading the cattle on the train can be adopted in case the train is a long one, and the stock may even be driven from the chute or runway into the central car and be driven in op osite directions to the several cars in front and rear of the central car.

The vestibule-cars above described are especially designed for conveying cattle and other stock; but it will be apparent that they are also well adapted for carrying lumber, rails, and the like, owing to the facility with which such materials may be loaded endwise into the cars.

I have shown as a simple means for holding the doors in their open positions hooks and eyes, and likewise I have shown eyes and, pins for holding the platforms in their elevated positions and for locking the doors when the latter are closed and the platforms are raised; but it will be understood that I do not confine myself to such fastenings, as I may employ any suitable fastenings that will operate to hold the doors in the same position and at the same time permit of a slight oscillating movement about their hinges when IIO the doors are opened, and other fastening devices than the pins and eyes for holding the platforms in their raised positions maybe employed, the essential features of the invention consisting in providing the doorways in the ends of the cars and hinging double doors on' the opposite sides of the doorway which when opened will telescope into a similar pair of doors on the adjacent car, and the hinged platforms whichwhen lowered will overlap one the other. It will also, of course, be understood that instead of. using the transverse beams 9 for supporting the platforms in their lowered positions other means may beemployed for this purpose.

In practice the width of each single door is made nearly equal to the entire distance between two coupled cars." When two cars are coupled together and the vestibule is made up, the sides of the vestibule will be doubled, and this arrangement, besides adding strength to the vestibule, also permits the door-openings to be made Very large, in fact as large or even larger than the door openings in the sides of the car, so that in loading cattle they will be enabled to go from car to car in as great numbers as they would in entering the cars from the side openings, and the cattle are thus prevented from jamming in the dooropenings, which would occur if said openings were smaller than the side openings.

As shown, the slots 1 1 extend entirely to the free ends or edges of the doors,.so that should two cars be accidentally'uncoupled or should such car he uncoupled while the vestibule is made up the cars can be separated without any liability of the doors being torn ofi or injured, as the eyes 6 are free to pass out of the slots 14:. In Fig. 5 of the drawings I have illustrated a modified form of fastening comprising a metallic bar or strip 15, rabbeted on its upper edge, as indicated at 16, there being one such bar or. strip provided for each door. Said strips are nailed, bolted, riveted, or otherwise suitably attached to the inner sideof each door, and, to the inner side of each door is pivoted a hook 17, the relative location of said hooks and rabbeted bars being suchthat when the doors are opened to make up the vestibule the hooks 17 on the innermost doors are caused to engage the rabbeted edge of the'bars 15. The doors are in this manner firmly fastened together, so as to resist any outward pressure; but at the, same time the hooks are free to slide back and forth in the space or groove between the rabbeted edge of the bars and the sides of the adjacent door, so as to permit of the approach and recession of the cars. The fastening constructed in the manner shown and described will also compensate for any vertical movement between cars.

In some stock-cars the ends are slatted in the same manner as the sides, and in such cars the eyes 6 will be so applied to the doors that when the vestibule is made up the eyes of the outermostdoors will project between two slats on the inner doors, so that said eyes may be of a door hinged on each side of each of said doorways, the doors of one car being arranged to overlap the doors of the other car, means for holding said doors in their open positions, and platforms hinged to the ends of said car beneath the doorways, one of said platforms being arranged to overlap the other, substantiallyas described.

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

WILLIAM A. BUCKNER.

Witnesses:

Q. B. Lovn, W. H. PURGELL

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