US3564766A - Model railroad coupler and related mechanism - Google Patents

Model railroad coupler and related mechanism Download PDF

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Publication number
US3564766A
US3564766A US806840A US3564766DA US3564766A US 3564766 A US3564766 A US 3564766A US 806840 A US806840 A US 806840A US 3564766D A US3564766D A US 3564766DA US 3564766 A US3564766 A US 3564766A
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United States
Prior art keywords
coupler
uncoupling
knuckle
couplers
lip
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Expired - Lifetime
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US806840A
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English (en)
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Clarence K Edwards
Lawrence D Edwards
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    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A63—SPORTS; GAMES; AMUSEMENTS
    • A63H—TOYS, e.g. TOPS, DOLLS, HOOPS OR BUILDING BLOCKS
    • A63H19/00—Model railways
    • A63H19/16—Parts for model railway vehicles
    • A63H19/18—Car coupling or uncoupling mechanisms

Definitions

  • a novel model railroad coupler is provided, adapted to be made for equipment of any selected scale, including particularly the currently popular very small scale of known as N-gauge.
  • the coupler includes the features of automatic coupling, magnetic uncoupling, and delayed uncoupling.
  • Conventional couplers lacking the capabilities andadvantages referred to, can be converted into our improved coupler with little effort, and through the utilization of only a few, simple and inexpensive sub stitute parts.
  • This invention relates to model railroad couplers, and particularly to couplers adapted for automatic coupling, magnetic uncoupling, and delayed uncoupling, and practically available for any scale of model railroad equipment, including particularly the smallest scale, the current popular N-gauge.
  • the present coupler has been contrived both for use as orginal equipment, and to satisfy those who wish to make over unsatisfactory existing equipment. It is a feature of the invention, that the present coupler, besides having the capability of use as original equipment to realize all of the advantages referred to, is also capable of being produced through the utilization of a well known combined truck and draft gear housing, together with a few simple and inexpensive parts.
  • the draft gear housing applied directly to a car end, may be utilized in combination with the other parts referred to, to provide a coupler of the desired kind directly on the car itself.
  • FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the parts of a combined wheel-carrying truck and coupler
  • FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the assembled, combined truck and coupler
  • FIG. 3 is a fragmentary View in side elevation of two cars joined through couplers of the kind shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;
  • FIG. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of two cars about to be coupled through the thrusting of one of the couplers into engagement with the other;
  • FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4, showing the couplers interengaged in a somewhat slack condition
  • FIG. 6 is a view showing the cars arrested, in a slack condition, at a magnetic uncoupling station, with the knuckles of the slack couplers moved laterally clear of one another;
  • FIG. 7 shows the two couplers after the locomotive has pulled the front car forward from the condition of FIG. 6 to clear the couplers of one another, and then returned them into engagement at the uncoupling station, preparatory to pushing the uncoupled car or cars onto a siding or to some other desired parking location;
  • FIG. 8 is a fragmentary view of a modified form of coupler adapted for direct application to the end of a car.
  • FIG. 1 the several elements which make up the combined truck and draft gear are shown individually, these elements comprising a combined wheel-carrying truck and draft gear housing member 10, a headed mounting stud 12, a stabilizer or filler plate 13, a knuckle unit 14, a lip unit 16, a compression coil spring 18, a clip 22, and a magnetic coupling actuator 24.
  • the combined wheel-carrying truck and draft gear housing member 10 and the headed mounting stud 12 therefor are conventional elements, though not in the particular organization of the present invention.
  • the member 10 includes a body portion 26 which is formed with a cylindrical bore 28 for the reception of the cylindrical shank 30 of the headed mounting stud 12.
  • the shank 30 of the stud 12 is passed upward through the bore 28 and has its upper end fixed by friction, or in any other suitable manner in a bore (not shown) provided in the floor of the car.
  • the head 32 of the stud 12 supports the member 10 with freedom for pivotal movement about the cylindrical shank 30 of the stud.
  • the member 10 includes laterally extending arms 34 which carry at their free ends forwardly and rearwardly extending bearing arms 36 in which the wheel axles 38 and 40 are mounted for rotatively supporting the wheels 42.
  • Each axle has fast upon its ends, wheels '42 which run upon the track (not shown).
  • the combined truck and draft gear housing member 10 further includes a spring housing 43 in which a cutout portion or chamber 44 is formed.
  • the spring housing portion 43 has a solid inner wall 46 from which a spring centering projection 48 extends outward.
  • the outer wall 50 of the cutout is formed with a slot 51, the walls of which diverge outward.
  • the member 10, as noted, is of conventional construction, having been designed for use with a mechanically operated coupler of restricted capabilities.
  • That coupler is not shown herein, but briefly it consists of a knuckle element having upper and lower sloping outer end walls which jointly form a wedge-shaped end, the sloping walls meeting at their outer extremities to form a dihedral angle whose vertex extends along a substantially horizontal, transversely extending line.
  • two of these couplers are thrust together, one of them is expected to rise and the other to dip, but since they are made exactly alike the matter of which one rises and which one dips is left to chance. If the vertex lines cross one another at even a very slight angle, no coupling is possible.
  • a mechanical lifter is provided at an uncoupling station. No magnetic uncoupling is possible, and no delayed uncoupling is possible. No lateral movements of the parts are involved in coupling and uncoupling.
  • the combined truck and draft gear housing member 10* is, however, a very useful member, and it can be used with adavntage as part of the improved coupler of the present invention, whether provided initially as part of the 3 mechanical coupler outlined above or as a part of our improved coupler.
  • the knuckle unit is a single rigid member which comprises a knuckle 52, a carrying shank 54 therefor, and a straight crossbar 56 at the inner end of the shank.
  • the knuckle 52 terminates in an inturned retaining hook 57 for preventing accidental uncoupling on curves.
  • the lip unit 16 is a single rigid member which includes a lip 58, a carrying shank 60 therefore, and a crossbar 62-64 having angularly related arms 62' and 64 at the inner end of the shank.
  • Each crossbar has, in line with the shank body, a spring centering projection 66 which may take the form of a half cone, the two projections 66 being complementary to one another and meeting in a common plane.
  • the spring 18 which is desirably a helical compression coil spring, surrounds the projection 48 at its inner end and projections 66 at its outer end.
  • the tendency of the spring is to keep both arms of the crossbars 56 and the arm 62 of crossbar 62-64 pressed fiat against the outer or slotted wall of the cutout, and to keep the lip 58 in a fixed relation to the knuckle 52 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
  • the filler or stabilizing plate 13 is desirably provided, for coperating with the clip 22 in preventing such movement.
  • the plate 13 is made to extend for substantial distances fore and aft.
  • the clip 22 comprises a fiat, relatively broad body part 68, and upstanding arms which consist of lower relatively broad, shouldered portions 70, and upper, narrow, bendable finger portions 72 When assembling the draft gear parts, the car, with the combined truck and draft gear housing operatively attached to it by the headed stud 12, is placed upside down.
  • the filler plate 13 is then fitted into an outer portion of the cutout, which it is shaped to fit.
  • the inverted knuckle unit 14 and the inverted lip unit 16 are then put successively into place with the shanks of these units extending through the slotted wall 50, and the clip 22 is then inserted with the broad shouldered portions 70 of the clip bearing against the filler plate 13 and the finger portions 72 of the clip passed through notches 74 of the plate 13 and through slots 76 of the draft gear housing.
  • the fingers 72 are then upset or clinched by a suitable implement, such as a screwdriver.
  • the spring 18, suitably compressed, is then put into place, being retained in place by the member 48 at its inner end and by the half cones 66 of the crossbars at its outer end.
  • the uncoupling arm 24 of ferromagnetic material has its supporting end passed through the slot 78 and fixed in a non-circular bore 80 of the shank 54.
  • each knuckle 52 and lip 58 defining between them a mouth too narrow to receive the knuckle of the opposed coupler, but capable of being spread apart when the two couplers are thrust together, and then resuming their normal relationship as shown in FIG. 5, after the hook portions 57 have cleared one another.
  • the mouths of the couplers are of minimum width, the actuator 24 affixed to the knuckle unit of each coupler being in engagement with one end of the slot 78 of the coupler.
  • the train is either backed to locate the two engaged couplers into an uncoupling station at which a magnetic uncoupler 82 of Well known construction is located, or is stopped in a way to produce slack with the couplers at such station.
  • the uncoupler provides a north pole at one side of the track and a south pole at the opposite side of the track, either of which is capable of attracting a magnetic actuator 24- and swinging it, together with its knuckle unit, in a clockwise direction as the parts are viewed in FIGS. 2, and 4 to 8 inclusive. This swings the hooks laterally clear of one another, at the same time shifting each actuator from one end of the associated slot 78 to the opposite end of the slot.
  • each coupler will be in position to enter, and will enter, the mouth of the opposed coupler.
  • One or both tongues will serve as a pusher for pushing the disconnected car or cars onto a siding, or into any other desired parking location, and leaving them there. This is the operation known as delayed uncoupling.
  • the lips pull out of the coupler mouths, permitting the respective couplers to resume the normal positions of FIG. 4, providing the couplers are on normal track and not at an uncoupling station.
  • -It is a simple matter, therefore, to pick up the parked car or cars whenever desired.
  • FIG. 8 The modified embodiment of FIG. 8 is like the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 7, save that the draft gear housin member a is not a wheel-carrying truck, but is adapted to be secured, as by a screw 84, directly to the underside of the car body. Units of this kind can be secured to both ends of any car, including a locomotive. Corresponding parts have accordingly been designated by corresponding reference numerals, with the postscript a added in each instance, and no further detailed description will be given.
  • a coupler for model railroad cars adapted to be applied in a prescribed fashion at an end of a car so that when two cars so equipped are pushed together end to end, the opposed couplers Will respond by spreading laterally and then interlocking, and will normally remain interlocked, such coupler comprising, in combination.
  • a keeper lip unitary with the outer end of the second shank and disposed opposite the knuckle, and spaced from the knuckle by a predetermined amount in the normal relation of the shanks to provide a spreadable mouth for receiving and retaining in interlocking relation the knuckle of a cooperating coupler.
  • a coupler for model railroad cars as set forth in claim 1 in which the housing is composed of a partial housing member and a self-retaining closure member cooperative with the partial housing member for enclosing and confining the crossbars and a part, at least, of the spring means within the cutout.
  • the knuckle includes an outer finger portion which bounds and partially defines a recess having a side access opening for receiving the finger portion of a like opposing knuckle, the side recess opening having a breadth greater than the thickness of such finger portion, and in which the finger portion terminates in an inwardly directed, coupling maintaining hook portion, the recess and the side opening having sufficient depth for the hooks of engaged identical couplers to clear one another longitudinally when the locomotive is backed or is stopped in a manner to produce slack.
  • a coupler as set forth in claim 1 in which an uncoupling actuator is provided which forms a fixed, unitary part of the knuckle shank and extends downward therefrom, and the lip shank is formed with a slot of limited length through which the uncoupling actuator extends, so that after the knuckle, in moving toward uncoupling position, has widened the coupler mouth a predetermined amount, further widening of the mouth is positively prevented and the lip is compelled to move in unison with the knuckle during any further movement of the knuckle in the same direction.
  • a coupler pair of the kind set forth in claim 5 in which movements of the knuckles of two engaged couplers toward uncoupling positions at an uncoup ing station are limited in each instance by the engagement of a knuckle with the lip of the opposed coupler, after the available lost motion between a knuckle and lip has been exhausted, but in which there is much greater freedom of movement of a knuckle, in unison with its associated lip, in the uncoupling direction after the couplers have been separated, whereby the lips may be forced at an uncoupling station to move over into line with the opposed coupler mouths for use as pushers during delayed uncoupling.
  • a coupler as set forth in claim 8 in which the crossbar of the knuckle carrying shank has extensive coplanar arms of equal length, one serving as a fulcrum bearing arm and the other solely as a spring compressing arm, and the crossbar of the lip bearing shank having also an extensive spring compressing arm but a much shorter effective fulcrum bearing arm for reducing the resistance of the lip bearing shank to rocking movement in the uncoupling direction.
  • a coupler as set forth in claim 9 in which the end portion of the fulcrum bearing arm of the lip carrying shank which lies outward beyond the fulcrum is made to extend obliquely inward, whereby the spring, compressed and displaced laterally by the effect of the magnetic uncoupler, is caused to bear against the obliquely extending portion of said arm and to assist the lip carrying shank in following the rocking movement of the knuckle carrying shank.
  • a coupler as set forth in claim 1 which further includes means for attaching the partial housing member of the coupler in fixed relation to the end of the car.

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US806840A 1969-03-13 1969-03-13 Model railroad coupler and related mechanism Expired - Lifetime US3564766A (en)

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US80684069A 1969-03-13 1969-03-13

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JP (1) JPS4923872B1 (de)
DE (1) DE1950336C3 (de)
GB (1) GB1236352A (de)

Cited By (17)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3831776A (en) * 1973-01-22 1974-08-27 Rossler H One-piece coupling unit for model railroads
US4335820A (en) * 1978-08-14 1982-06-22 Gramera Robert E Magnetically-automated uncoupling system for model railroads
US4512483A (en) * 1983-05-20 1985-04-23 Mantua Metal Products Co., Inc. Model train coupler
US4545304A (en) * 1982-08-20 1985-10-08 Brodeur Rene H Articulated railroad car
US4650081A (en) * 1984-12-20 1987-03-17 Gebr. Fleischmann Claw coupling for electric toy and model trains
US4765496A (en) * 1986-01-23 1988-08-23 Gebr. Fleischmann Claw coupling for toy and model trains
DE3821983A1 (de) * 1988-06-30 1990-01-04 Lehmann E P Patentwerk Klauenkupplung fuer elektrische spiel- und modellbahnen
US5509546A (en) * 1994-08-19 1996-04-23 Staat; Robert H. Magnetically-actuated coupler for model railroad cars
US5620106A (en) * 1996-01-16 1997-04-15 Accurail, Inc. Model railroad car coupler
US5775525A (en) * 1996-11-07 1998-07-07 Brill; Gilbert A. Magnetic coupling assembly for model railroad cars and coupling system therefor
US5785192A (en) * 1997-02-28 1998-07-28 Kadee Quality Products, Inc. Model railroad coupler
US5823371A (en) * 1997-10-01 1998-10-20 Bachmann Industries, Inc. Magnetically actuated coupler assembly
US6189713B1 (en) * 1998-07-29 2001-02-20 Taek Rim Oh Coupler for linking a coach with another coach in a minature train
US20050167386A1 (en) * 2004-01-08 2005-08-04 Barger J. P. Model railroad coupler
US20050199570A1 (en) * 2004-03-10 2005-09-15 Senften David A. Magnetic coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad rolling stock
US7810660B1 (en) 2009-06-29 2010-10-12 Kadee Quality Products Co. Model railroad coupler
US8464881B2 (en) * 2011-06-27 2013-06-18 Gerhard Rieskamp Coupling device for a cart, and rail-guided cart with a coupling device

Families Citing this family (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3942648A (en) * 1975-05-09 1976-03-09 Edwards Clarence K Model railway system providing uncoupling and delayed recoupling
JPS52153280A (en) * 1976-06-16 1977-12-20 Nippon Sueedo Raifu Kk Filter for washers
CN106595434B (zh) * 2016-12-20 2022-05-13 南京兴宇铁路工艺装备制造有限公司 一种车钩间隙测量仪

Cited By (23)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3831776A (en) * 1973-01-22 1974-08-27 Rossler H One-piece coupling unit for model railroads
US4335820A (en) * 1978-08-14 1982-06-22 Gramera Robert E Magnetically-automated uncoupling system for model railroads
US4545304A (en) * 1982-08-20 1985-10-08 Brodeur Rene H Articulated railroad car
US4512483A (en) * 1983-05-20 1985-04-23 Mantua Metal Products Co., Inc. Model train coupler
US4650081A (en) * 1984-12-20 1987-03-17 Gebr. Fleischmann Claw coupling for electric toy and model trains
US4765496A (en) * 1986-01-23 1988-08-23 Gebr. Fleischmann Claw coupling for toy and model trains
DE3821983A1 (de) * 1988-06-30 1990-01-04 Lehmann E P Patentwerk Klauenkupplung fuer elektrische spiel- und modellbahnen
US5509546A (en) * 1994-08-19 1996-04-23 Staat; Robert H. Magnetically-actuated coupler for model railroad cars
USRE38990E1 (en) * 1994-08-19 2006-02-28 Bachmann Industries, Inc. Magnetically-actuated coupler for model railroad cars
US5931322A (en) * 1996-01-16 1999-08-03 Accurail, Inc. Model railroad car coupler
US5620106A (en) * 1996-01-16 1997-04-15 Accurail, Inc. Model railroad car coupler
US5775525A (en) * 1996-11-07 1998-07-07 Brill; Gilbert A. Magnetic coupling assembly for model railroad cars and coupling system therefor
US5785192A (en) * 1997-02-28 1998-07-28 Kadee Quality Products, Inc. Model railroad coupler
US5823371A (en) * 1997-10-01 1998-10-20 Bachmann Industries, Inc. Magnetically actuated coupler assembly
US6189713B1 (en) * 1998-07-29 2001-02-20 Taek Rim Oh Coupler for linking a coach with another coach in a minature train
US20050167386A1 (en) * 2004-01-08 2005-08-04 Barger J. P. Model railroad coupler
US6994224B2 (en) 2004-01-08 2006-02-07 Barger J Perry Model railroad coupler
US20050199570A1 (en) * 2004-03-10 2005-09-15 Senften David A. Magnetic coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad rolling stock
US7080745B2 (en) 2004-03-10 2006-07-25 Senften David A Magnetic coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad rolling stock
US20060254999A1 (en) * 2004-03-10 2006-11-16 Senften David A Magnetic coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad rolling stock
US7293671B2 (en) 2004-03-10 2007-11-13 Senften David A Magnetic coupling and uncoupling system for model railroad rolling stock
US7810660B1 (en) 2009-06-29 2010-10-12 Kadee Quality Products Co. Model railroad coupler
US8464881B2 (en) * 2011-06-27 2013-06-18 Gerhard Rieskamp Coupling device for a cart, and rail-guided cart with a coupling device

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB1236352A (en) 1971-06-23
DE1950336C3 (de) 1979-06-28
JPS4923872B1 (de) 1974-06-19
DE1950336A1 (de) 1970-09-17
DE1950336B2 (de) 1978-11-02

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