US369820A - Fbank heney teeacy - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) I

P. H. TREAOY.

SWITCH MECHANISM. No. 369,820. Patented Sept. 13, 188?.

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UNITED STATES PATENT tries.

FRANK HENRY TREACY, OF POUGHKEEPSIE, A SSIGNOR TO JAMES H.

SWIFT, OF AMEN IA, NEW YORK. A

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 369,820, dated September 13, 1887.

Application filed July 29, 1886. Serial No. 209,456. (No model.)

To aZZ whom itmay concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK HENRY TREACY, of Poughkeepsie, in the county of Dutchess and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Switch Mechanisms; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form part of this specification.

My invention relates to railway-switches, and is designed as an improvement upon an application, Serial No.20i,849, filed byHarry Rorer, June 11, 1886.

It consists in the same opening, closing, locking, unlocking, and signaling devices described and claimed in the above-named application, with the exception of certain novel arrangements and construction of parts for more rapidly operating the switch, and at the sametimesimplifying the same and embracing all the points of safety in switches now in use. These certain arrangements and combinations of parts I shall now proceed to fully describe, and the particular points of novelty in which will be specifically designated in the claims hereto appended.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the complete mechanism. Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view,taken on line x m, Fig. 1, of the improved cam and cam-lever. Fig. 3 is a detail elevation of the signaling-post and signal mechanism connected therewith, and Fig. 4 is a detail View in elevation of the operating-lever shaft and its support.

Like letters of reference mark the same parts in all the figures of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings by letter, A A are the two main-line rails, suitably laid and secured upon cross ties, the rail A being continuous and the rail A curving out at the point a, and forming one rail of the siding or switch-track.

B B are the switch-tongues. The tongue B is pivoted at the point 1) near the rail A, and in order to set the switch to the siding it is pushed against said rail, causing the train to pass from the main to the siding, one rail of said siding being a continuation of the tongue B. The tongue B, when the switch is set to the main, forms a continuation of the main-line rail A, and when set for the siding lies a short distance from said rail, to permit the switching off of a train, as described. These two tongues are connected near the points 0 c by a rigid bar, G, which holds said tongues in a parallel position and causes them to move in unison. One end of this bar 0 extends under the rail A and has one end of a link, (Z, pivoted thereto, the other end of said link being pivoted to the adjacent arm 0 of my improved cam e, which consists of a large rear central bearing portion, f, pivoted to a lug on plate E on the cross-ties, and the two diverging curved arms 6 c, and the curved point of junctionf, the object of which construction and operation will be hereinafter explained.

F is the operating or cam lever for said cam, pivoted at its rear end, free to be moved back and forth, and having its front end provided with a downwardly-extending projection, f, which engages with the outer edge of the arms of the cam 0, thereby imparting motion to it, which will continue until one of the said arms is within the same radius as that of the cam-lever F. This projection may extend down and under the camarms, as shown in section in Fig.3, to prevent the lever end from lifting up. It will be obvious that the said cam-lever will be free to move farther on without imparting additional motion to the cam. The link at is pivoted to the under side of the cam-arm e at such a distance from the working-face of the cam, and with the body of the link a sufficient distance below the an der side of the said cam-arm, to allow the pro j ection f 2 on the lever F to pass it freely.

To the center of lever F is pivoted a link; rod, at right angles thereto, and has its other end connected to another link-rod, g, which in turn is pivotally connected near the connection to rod 9 to the arm 73 of the elbow lever G, mounted upon a perpendicular pivot, h, on a plate, 70, upon the cross-ties, and its other far end to a horizontal crank-arm, H, 00

projecting from an upright shaft, it, having a suitable operating-handle, C, and mounted in suitable bearings, t z, secured to the cross-ties.

The before-described mechanism constitutes the switch-operatin g devices, and to effect this purpose solely it will be obvious that the links 9 and 9 might have been rigidly connected or might have been madein one continuous rod. The object sought by making them separate will be hereinafter explained.

The crank-arm or elbow-lever G has one end of the link t" pivoted to the arm t' thereof, said link passing under the rail A, and at its other end is pivotally connected to a link-rod, j, which runs under the rail A and has its outer end pivoted to an arm, j, of an elbowlever, J, pivoted to one of the cross-ties, or to a plate, J, secured thereon. The other arm, of this lever is pivoted to the arm or rod j, which is secured at its forward curved end, It, to the detector-bar K, set parallel to rail A and pivotally connected thereto by short clips or links k k k. This system of devices from the lever G completes the automatic switchactuating mechanism, and for this purpose solely the link rodsj 2" might have been made rigid, as the rods 9 g.

A double-elbow or T leverhaving arms Z Z Z, and pivoted to a plate, L, upon the cross-ties between the rails A A, has the outer end of arm I pivotally connected to link-rod a" at or near the pivot which connects the said rod with link-rodj, and the ends of arms Z l are in turn pivoted to pitmen L L, which are pivoted to the locking-bolts m m, guided in barrels or tubes M M, fastened in perforated lugs m m", secured in plates N N. upon the cross-tics. Upon these same plates, opposite to and at a short distance from the lugs m m, are secured similarlyperforated lugs a n, whose perforations are in line with those of mm. Between the two sets of lugs is asp'ace in which slides the transverse bar 0, which, by means of the arm 0, is rigidly connected to the bar 0, which, as before stated, connects the switch-tongues B B, so that when the said bar is moved in setting the switch for main or siding the bar 0 will move therewith, and it being provided with four perforations, two of which are coincident and in line with the perforations in the lugs when the switch is open and the other two when closed, there will be no impediment to the entrance of the lockingbolts when theyare alternately actuated. This train of devices from the T-lever completes the alternate locking and unlocking mechamsm.

On the arm Z of the T-lever is pivoted one end of a link-rod, 0, which extends backward .short arms of the signal-bars a a.

levers It, pivoted on opposite sides of a signal-post, R, planted at the side of the track. To the other arms, a", of these levers on the post are pivoted the lower ends of link-rods s, which at their upper ends are pivotally secured to the levers T and U, pivoted to the sides of the post and having weights T and U at their outer ends. Centrally on these weighted levers are pivotally connected the lower ends of another set of link-rods, tt, whose upper ends are pivotally secured to the These before-described devices constitutethe complete automatic switch-indicator and. signaling apparatus.

The operation of my invention may be described as follows: The parts being in the position shown in Fig. 1., with the switch-tongues B 13 set neither for the main nor siding, the cam e, having the projection f of lever F at the point f, the link-rod g at right angles to lever F, and the handle-lever O in line with the link-rods g 9, should the operator desire to set the switch for the main,he turns the handle 0 from the position shown to the right until the said handle is in line with the cross- -tie upon which the bearing-plates i tare secured, which action rotates the shaft h and its attached crank-arm I-I, thereby pulling the link-rods g g from lever F, causing said lever to turn upon its pivot. While the lever F is moving from center f on arm 0, the projection f follows the line of curvature of said arm, imparting motion thereto,which will continue until said projection reaches the greatest curvature of the arm 0. This movement will cause the link d to be forced inwardly toward the rail,whieh will cause the rigidly-connected switch-tongues B B to move in unison over toward rail A until tongue B impinges against said rail. The switch is now set for the main, and to set it for the siding the handle is brought around from its last-described position until it is in line with cross-tie on the other side. When such operating cam-movement is applied to a switch wherein locking-bolts, de-

teeter-bar, andsignaling apparatus are in use, as herewith illustrated and described, sufficient time is allowed while the cam-lever F is.

moving freely upon the arms of the cam to allow the auxiliary mechanism to remove the locking-bolts, raise the detector-bar, and set the signals by means of devices hereinbefore "described, and the operation of which will be shortly explained. The switch-rails being connected to cam c by link d, as shown and described, they are moved to place, and any fur ther movement of cam-lever projection f beyond the greatest curvature of arms 6 (or 6) does not affect cam e, the object of this lost motion being to allow the locking-bolt to be moved to place, the detector-bar lowered, and the danger-signals set clear for the proper track. It will be-obvious, also, that motion might be imparted to the cam e by lever F through the agency of any system of switch devices now in use, either for ground switches or those actuated from nections.

Should the operation above described be interrupted by accident before it is completed, the detector-bar K will be raised above the track A and the approaching train, if not properly warned by the signal or if unable to stop, will run on said bar as well as the rail, pressing it down. This action, through medium of links k k k, link-rod j, elbowlever J, with its armsj and j, and link-rodsj and 1', causes the link-rodsggto move, thereby actuating the switch-operating devices before described and setting the switch for the main. It will be remembered, however, that this automatic switch-operating mechanism will be always situated in front of the switch-tongues, and if asingle track is used fortrains running in both directions two of such mechanisms might be utilized, although, as shown, not absolutely necessary.

Should the switch-tongues B B, instead of being in the position shown, be set for the main or siding, the movement of the lever F from the extremity of one arm to extremity of other arm of cam e will allow sufficient lost motion to give opportunity for the withdrawal of one of the locking-bolts then in place,which withdrawal is effected by elbow-lever G, its arms ii, link-rod i, lever on plate L, its arms Z Z l, and the pitmen L L, connected to said locking-boltsm m, and for the insertion of the other.

The engineer of an approaching train is warned by the signal-bars, which are located one above the other upon oppositesides of the signal-post R and suitably marked to distinguish between them.

When the switch is set for the main or siding, the signal-bar ofthe other linewill be set for danger, and the first referred to will be at safety. WVhen switch is in a midway or half-thrown position, as shown in Fig. 1, both will be horizontally displayed.

When the T-lever Z Z Z is operated to unlock bar 0, its movement will cause the link 0 to be drawn to or forced from the switchtongues, thereby causing the T-lever P to turn, and by its arms 19 p to alternately pull and push the link-rod on one side of the signal-post, and at the same time push or pull the other link-rod on the opposite side of said post, and

towers by means of conunlocking and automaticallysettingand signaling the switch are described and claimed in another application now pending in the United States Patent Office. Therefore I claim only the novel devices herein shown for setting the switch for the main or siding, in combination with the other devices shown and described.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The combination, with the cam having diverging curved arms, and the cam-operating lever pivoted behind the cam and provided with a projection adapted to engagethe outer edge of the cam, of the auxiliary switch-setting mechanism, substantially as described, and the locking and unlocking mechanism, substantially as set forth.

2; In combination, the cam having diverging curved arms, the cam-operating lever pivoted behind the cam, the auxiliary opening and closing devices, the locking and unlocking mechanism, the automatic closing mechanism, and the system of signals and signaloperating mechanism, constructed and arranged substantially as set forth.

3. The combination of the cam, having concave and convex faces, with its operating-lever, said lever having a downwardly-projecting lip which projects beneath the cam,whereby the cam and lever are held in their relative positions laterally and vertically without danger of disconnecting, substantially as set forth.

4:. The combinationof the pivoted camhaving diverging curved arms and a curvature at theirjunction at the center of the cam, the link pivoted at one end to an armof said cam and at the other to the switch-bar, and the cam-lever pivoted behind said cam, provided with a downwardly-extending end projection which engages with and operates the said cam, in the manner herein set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRANK HENRY TEEAOY. \Vitnesses:

FRED ST. JOHN, THOMAS J. SWIFT.

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