US945247A - Car adapted for subway use. - Google Patents

Description

A. B. DU PONT. CAR DAPTED FOR SUBWAY USE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 7, 1909.

Patented M114, 1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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Wm/5555i uNTOINE B. DU PONT, 0E CLEVELAND, OHIO.

`CAR' ADAPTED ER SUBWAY USE.

Specification o1 Letters Patent.

application med April 7, 1909. serial Ng, 488,437.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANTOINE B. DU PONT, a citizen of the United States, residlng at Cleveland, in the county of n State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful improvement in Cars Adapted for Subway Use, of which lthe following is a full, clear, and exact description.

r)The present invention relates to cars especially adapted for subway purposes,-tliat 1s 'to say, which derive their main value from those characteristic features of constructionlwhich are of marked utility in connection with subways, although the same cars are quite capable of operating elsewhere.

lThe object pf the invention has been to provide a cary capable of being constructed so as to carry as great a number of passen gers as the ordinary subway car but having characteristics making it unnecessary for a subway in which it is used to have those large dimensions which have hitherto been considered unavoidable, thus making it possible to install subway service in localities and communitiesotherwise unable to afford it.

With the construction` of car described below it will be seen that a subway for its use could be placed with its floor about eight or eight-and one-half feet below the surface of the ground, and the total interior height of the tunnel, away from the stations, need be only about six feet'. The importance ot' this fact will be apparent at once in considering thevmere savin in excavation even assuming the width o the tunnel to b e` the same as is now customary and the excavationto be made in the usual manner; but, the construction of car which I describe below is one which can, without diminishing the carrying capacity for vseated passengers, be made of a width substantially no greater than the width of the standard gage track employed and thus permit a corresponding reduction in the actual width and cost of excavation of the tunnel. Furthermore, such a tunnel, the bottom of vwhich is no farther below the street level than stated, need not be made as tunnels are usually made, but may be dug as an ordinary ditch, the ditch being afterward covered over with I-beams or rein4 forced concrete construction for receiving paving or the surface roadbed. ln addition to this last named advantage, and also as a consequence of the floor level lbeing so near the surface, the lateral pressure at the bottoni of the side walls and the upward pres- Cuyahoga and sure from the floor due to the mass of earth about such a subway will obviously be much less than would be the case in the ordinary subway where the tioor lies fa'rbeneath the surface of the ground, and consequently the great cost of thickwall and floor construction for resistin lateral and upward pressure is decrease In other words, the car which I have invented is of great importance considering the ossibilities which it brings to subway instal ation in permitting the engineer to work within limits of space and cost hitherto considered absolutely impossible and permitting cities to have rapid transit where it might otherwise be forever unattainable.

A detail description of the structure is had in the following specification with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of a car construc'ted in accordance with the general principlev of my invention. Fig. isan end view of twocars in the subway` the tracks being in each case shown as shifted to one side as might be advantageous in turning curves. Fig. lis a'detail top plan of a`car end partly broken away to show the arrangement of :eats within the car. Fig. el. is an enlarged :ectional elevation showing one of the'supiorting plate grders, the seats beingomitted. Fig. 5 isan enlarged vertical cross section .llrough the .car at the point where the doors are located. Y i

y The cal' as an entirety it will comprises a passenger carrying having an interior height of no greater than normal amounh'and two trucks B B, one at each end, between which trucks the entire passenger carrying body is hung.' The supporting connections between the trucks and the body are projecting .brackets of either truss type C or equivalent plate girder construction C having the compression section attached tothe car body near the upper end be vseen thereof, the advantage of this constructionv Patented Jan. 4i., i910. y

to the trackway D,

the passenger seats A2 being at the normal Y height above the A3 bein@ lowered as much as the floor, thus saving fionl the total heightof the car substantially the entire height of the trucks.

The Species of my invention which l have floor and the ceiling or roof tween each pair.

here shown embodies an arrangement in which the seats extend transversely from side to side, arranged in pairs facing each other with sliding doors in the side of the car be- VVith this arrangement no aisle space whatever need be provided and the ingress and egress of the number of passengers occupying each pair of seats may be rapidly eftectedthrough the entrance provided. By adopting this feature the car body may be made of a width not substanof prior construction.

tial greater than that of the standard gage track and accommodate ple upon each seat, this being the number carried in two transverse seats extending from the sides to the aisle in an ordinary car VvVith this narrow passengers may find their way to the exterior end of each compartwidth the and from ment quickly and without difficulty even' 4 shouldV those seats in the compartment near the open door to b e occupied. To bring the trucks within the ldesired limits their journals Bf are placed inside the wheels and the axles terminate substantially flush with the exterior face of the wheels. -The body can thus be made of a width substantially the .distance between the outside faces of oppo- 4feature referred to is one in which the supporting members of the cars are of plate girder or truss construction with a large number of transverse passageways distrib uted along the length between the main tension member A4 and the main compression member A5 of the support. The truss or plate girder either terminates in or is securely connected to the above described bracket projections C or C which extend beyond the car body and rest on the truck. This combination of structural features cnables me to make a car of great length without danger and entirely practical in operation, the car being filled and emptied, as a matter of fact, far more quickly than would -be the case'with a much shorter car having the doors at the ends over the trucks.

In the first part of the specification reference was nitide to the fact that the projecting `brackets formed a particularly advantageous combination with the rest of the construction of the car. From the above description it is thought that this advantage has been made plain, since by the use as many as four peo' possible; but I would have it sheared off from its supports, notwithstand# ing the fact that it is hung entirely between I the trucks. A further'advantage of these projections beyond the car body lies in the fact thatby such construction the trucks and the motors thereon are exposed and easily accessible for such attention as they may need. j

It will thus be seen that I have attained the object of invention sought and .have produceda car capableof receiving and carrying the ordinary load of passengers in a practical manner on an ordinary standard gage track, in a subway which can obviously be installed within limits of costwhich have heretofore been considered imclearly under-A stood that the roof' of my car is dropped as much asithe floor, so that the entire body is at most of no greater interior height than the ordinary car and hangs entirely between the trucks from which it is supported by' projections from each end. It is only by this means that the full object ofm'y invenn tion can be attained and my inventive idea.

can become of value, this that the tunnel far beyond any known,

I do not pretend to be the inventor or originator of all of the elements of consince it is by reason of maybe made shallow constructions hitherto them having been previously used elsewhere but in different arrangements and combinations. I have endeavored to point out that struction which I have here shown, some of in the cases where these old elements enter v into my claims it is the novel combination alone that I consider my own,

Having thus described my invention, I claim: f

l. A railway passenger car comprising two trucks and a passenger carrying body having an interior height no greater than thel normal amount and seats therein at a nor mal distance above its Hoor, the entire length of the said body being hung between the trucks by projecting brackets pivotally mounted on the trucks, said brackets projecting forward from the roof and also attached to the body below the roof, the Hoor lowered to be in close proximity to the track and the roof lowered as much as the floor.

2. A railway passenger car comprising end thereof.'

two trucks and a passenger carrying body having an interior height no greater than the normal amount and seats therein at a normal distance. above its floor, the entire length of the said body being hung between the trucks by projecting brackets pivotally v mounted on the trucks, said brackets projecting forward from to the body below prising a girder construction in which the main compression member 'extends along the roof of the body, a projecting bracket of the plate girder or truss type extending beyond the body at each end andv resting upon a truck, one section of the bracket being attached to the body of the car near the upper 4. A railway passenger car comprising a passen er carrying body, the entire `length of which body hangs between two trucks with the floor in close proximity to the track, a supporting frame for the said body com- -prising a girder construction in which the main compression member extends along the roof of the body and in which there are several 'transverse passageways distributed along the length of the support between the main compression and tension members, a projecting bracket extending .beyond the body at each endand resting upon a truck, one section of the bracket being attached to -the body. of. the. car near the upper end thereof.

, 5. A railway passenger car comprising a passenger carrying body having an interiorheight rio-greater than the normal amount,

. roof,

the entire length of which body is hung be tween two trucks and supported therefrom by projecting brackets extending om the body and pivotally mounted on the'trucks, said brackets projecting forward from the i roof and also attached to the body below the the body floor lowered to be in close proximity to the track and the roof lowered as much as' the door, seats in the car extending transversely the entire width thereof and Va plurality of entrances through the side of the body distributed along the length thereof between the transverse seats.

t3. A railway passenger car comprising two trucks and a passenger carrying body hung entirely between the trucks `with the floor in close proximity to the track, having an interior height of no greater than normal amount and of substantially the same width as the distance between the outside faces of the wheels, the seats therein extendin@ across the entire width of the body and a plurality of entrances through the side of the body between tlie seats.

7. A railway passenger car comprising two trucks and a passenger carrying body of an interior heightno greater than thenorinal an'iou'nt hung entirely between the trucks and of substantially the vsaine width as the distance-between the outside faces of the wheels, seats therein extending across Ithe entire width of the body, a plurality of entrances through th side of the body betweenl the floor of the bodyv being lowered the seats, to close proximity to the track and the-roof lowered'as much as the Hoor, the body being supported from the trucks by brackets extending beyond the body at each end thereof.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto atix my lsignature in the presence ofvtwo witnesses.

ANTOINE i3. DU Pour.

Witnesses: J. M. WooDwARD H., R.SULL1VAN.

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