US942458A - Railway-switch. - Google Patents

Description

J. F. OBER.

RAILWAY SWITCH.

APPLICATION nun AUG. 2, 1909.

942,458. Patented Dec. 7, 1909.

Ir l

PATENT OFFTQE.

JOHN F. OBER, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

RAILWAY-SWITCH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 7, 190:9.

Application filed August 2, 1909. Serial No. 510,704.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN F. OBER, citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in Railway-Switches, of which the following is a specification.

My invention pertains to railway switch mechanism and more particularly to switch mechanism for use in street railways; and it has for its object to provide simple, durable and reliable means connected with and adapted to transmit motion to a movable switch rail and also adapted to beactuated or put in motion by a car device at a point considerably removed from the switch rail, and this while the car carrying the said device is in motion.

WVith the foregoing in view the invention will be fully understood from the following description and claim, when the same are read in connection with the drawings, accompanying and forming part of this specification, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view illustrating my improvements as properly arranged relative to a street railway and a movable switch rail comprised therein; some of the parts of my improvements being shown by dotted lines. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section taken through the casing of my improvements in a plane at one side of the horizontally swinging and coupled levers.

Fig. 3 is a plan view showing the casing and the working parts therein, as the same appear when the lid of the casing is removed. Fig. 4 is a vertical cross-section showing the casing and the lid properly arranged relative thereto.

Similar letters designate corresponding parts in all of the views of the drawings, referring to which:

A is a movable switch rail comprised in a street railway, and B is the casing for inclosing the major portion of the working parts comprised in my novel motion-transmitting means. The said casing B is preferably of the shape shown in Fig. 3 in outline, and of the shape shown in Fig. 4: in cross-section, and is arranged in the roadbed of the railway and between the rails thereof in such manner that its uppermost portion is flush with the roadbed. The casing is normally closed by a lid 0 arranged in and on the casing and flush with the uppermost portions thereof, and the said lid is provided j ata. with a vertically disposed slot which describes a part of a circle for a purpose hereinafter set forth.

Suitably fixed on the bottom of the casing, B and arranged at suitable distances apart are cross-bars D and E, and fulcrumed at intermediate points of their length on the cross-bars D are horizontally swinging levers F, the contiguous ends of which are suitably coupled together, as indicated by G, so that when one lever is moved in a horizontal plane the other lever will be synchronously moved in a horizontal plane. Connected to the rear end of the lever F remote from the switch rail A is the depending portion Z) of a shoe H, which depending portion is disposed and movable in the before-mentioned slot at of the lid G. The shoe H is pivoted at c on the lid G, and is adapted to be oscillated or moved in one direction or the other horizontally on the said lid by means hereinafter referred to. The lever F adjacent the switch rail A is connected at its forward end in a hinged manner to an endwise movable bar I which rests and is movable on the cross-bars E and extends through the wall of the casing to a point outside the same where it merges into an upwardly extending portion that is suitably connected to the rail A, as shown. Thus it will be manifest that when the levers F are moved horizontally by power applied to the rear end of the rear lever F, the switch rail A will also be moved, the direction of movement of the switch rail depending on the direction in which the rear end of the rear lever F is moved. The levers F may each be ten or more feet in length, and from this it follows that the shoe H through the medium of which motion is transmitted to the rear lever, may be located at a considerable distance from the switch rail A.

Any suitable car device may be employed for engaging and moving the shoe H incidental to the progress of the car carrying the said device toward the switch rail A. I prefer, however, to employ the car device constituting the subject matter of my Letters-Patent No. 536,229, of March 26, 1895, which car device is adapted to be positioned so as to engage either side of the shoe H according to the direction in which it is desired to move the switch rail A.

The advantage following the location of the shoe H at a considerable distance from the switch rail A will be appreciated when it is borne in mind that cars approaching the switch rail will be frequently moved at a high rate of speed, and the adjustment of the switch rail to the position desired must be assured before the forward wheels of the car reach the point of the said switch rail.

In order to prevent damage of the shoe H by vehicles passing over the cantrack, I arrange the said shoe in a countersink M in the casing lid C and flush with the upper side of said lid, Figs. 1, 2 and 4, and I also provide in the lid and in communication with said countersink parallel ways or grooves N, having beveled ends, as shown by dotted lines in 'Fig. 2, and designed to lead or guide a car device downwardly and then longitudinally to the countersink M and to a pointat one side or the other of the shoe H.

It will be gathered fromthe foregoing that in addition to the points of advantage herein ascribed to my novel motion-transmitting means, the same is advantageous because of the facility with which it may be installed in existing as well as new railways.

The construction herein illustrated and described constitutes the best practical embodiment of my invention that I have as yet devised, but it is obvious that in the future practice of the invention such changes or modifications may be made as do not involve departure from the scope of my invention as defined in my appended claim.

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

I11 means for the purpose described, the combination of a railway comprising a movable switch rail, a casing embedded in the roadbed of the railway and between the rails thereof and having raised bars on its bottom, separated by intervening spaces, a lid countersunk in the casing and having a countersink in its upper side and a curvilinear slot in the bottom wall of said countersink and alsohaving in its upper side longitudinal and parallel grooves that extend from the said countersink and are upwardly beveled at their outer ends, a horizontally-swinging shoe pivoted in the said countersink and having a depending pin movable in said slot, levers movable one by the other and fulcrumed on certain of the bars on the bottom of the casing and movable horizontally on other of said bars; one of said levers being connected with and movable by the said pin, and a connection intermediate the other lever and the said movable switch rail.

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

JNO. J. WVARD, ANDREW OVECON.

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