US1364697A - Folding car-step - Google Patents

Description

T. BRANCH.

FOLDING CAR STEP. mwucmou FILED Aue.22,1919.

Patented Jan. 4, 1921.

UNITED STATES TURNER BRANCH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

FOLDING CAR-STEP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an.4, 1921.

Application filed August 22, 1919. Serial No. 319,195.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TURNER BRANCH, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Folding Car-Steps, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the invention is to provide a simple and efficient folding or extension car step designed to be supported by the or dinary stationary steps of a railroad or other car under such conditions as to be held in an inconspicuous and unobstructed relation with the stationary steps when the latter are not in use and to be extended and projected when required to facilitate the boarding and alighting of passengers to take the place of the independent landing boxes or steps now in common use and to this end the invention consists in a construction and combination of parts of which a preferred embodiment is shown in the accompanying drawing, it being understood that changes in form and proportion may be resorted to within the scope of the claims without departing from the principles involved.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side view of the apparatus showing in full lines the step in its extended or operative position and in dotted lines the same in its folded or inoperative position.

Fig. 2 is a front view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a detail view of the operating arm connected with the extension step.

Fig. 4 is a similar view of the crank shaft.

Fig. 5 is a similar view of the bracket upon which the rocking lever is mounted.

The device embodying the invention is designed for use in connection with the ordinary car steps indicated at 10 and consists of an auxiliary or folding step 11 supported for example at its extremities by riser links 12 pivoted to bracket arms 13 secured to the side boards of the stationary or permanent steps, it being understood that the interval between the riser links may be made solid or fitted with a riser 14 to prevent the foot placed on the step 11 from being projected too far inwardly.

Attached to the auxiliary step by means of a fastening plate 15 is an operating arm 16 which in turn is pivotally connected as at 17 to a rocking lever 18 mounted upon a bracket 19 also secured to and carried by the framework of the stationary or permanent steps of the car.

Mounted in suitable hearings in a hanger 2O suspended from the framework of the car is a rock shaft 21. To the terminal arms 22 and 23 thereof are connected respectively the hand lever 24 and a link 25 extending to the upper end of the rocking lever 18. As shown a link 26 may serve as themeans of connecting the lower arm of the hand lever with said rock shaft.

In operation the movement of the hand lever in one direction will serve through the rock shaft and rocking lever to swing the auxiliary or movable step 11 from the extended or full line position indicated in Fig. 1 to the folded or dotted line position, so that said auxiliary step is disposed beneath and close to the plane of the lowermost stationary step to avoid contact thereof with any obstructions along the line of the railway, whereas a movement of the hand lever in the opposite direction will extend the auxiliary step to the position indicated in full lines in Fig. 1 so as to form an extension of the stationary steps to facilitate the movements of passengers in entering or leaving the car.

The use of the attachment will dispense with the employment of the separate auxiliary stepping box or stool now in common use by railroads and which is open to many objections of which perhaps the most important is that the box affords a very insecure footing and is apt to tilt and cause the passenger to fall whereas the extension step herein provided is spaced at an interval from the lowermost stationary step corresponding with the intervals between the permanent steps and is not subjected to accidental displacement by the weight of the passenger.

I claim:

A device for the purpose indicated comprising in combination with the permanent or stationary steps of a car, a folding step, brackets mounted on the side boards of said stationary steps, riser links pivotally connected both to the brackets and to the folding step, a rock shaft, hangers attached to the car and supporting the rock shaft, the latter being formed with terminal crank arms, a hand lever pivotally mounted on the car, a link connecting the lever with one of and an operating arm pivotally connected the arms of the rock shaft, a bracket mountto the remaining end of the rocking lever ed on the stationary steps a rocking lever and having a terminal plate secured to the 10 carried by said bracket to which it is pivunder face of the folding step in the manoted at an intermediate point a link conner and for the purpose specified.

neeting one terminal of the rocking lever In testimony whereof I aflix my si nature. with the remaining arm of said rock shaft, TURNER BRAKCH.

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