Rail-joint.

Application filed June 14, 1911. Serial No. 633,160.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Clarence M. Corlew, citizen of the United States, residing at Sioux Falls, in the county of Minnehaha and State of South Dakota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail-Joints, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention comprehends certain new and useful improvements in rail joints, and the object of the invention is to unite the meeting ends of companion rail sections in an improved manner so as to provide a joint which possesses to a marked degree the characteristics of simplicity, durability and strength, and which affords a continuous tread surface in order to eliminate the usual pounding of the wheels of the rolling stock as they pass over the joint.

Another object of the invention is to. provide rail sections formed at their meeting ends with overlapping tongues which have an interlocking engagement for the purpose of holding the meeting ends of the rail sections against both longitudinal separation and relative vertical displacement.

With these and other objects in view, as will more fully appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists of certain constructions, arrangements and combinations of the parts that I shall hereinafter fully describe and claim.

For a full understanding of the invention, reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional perspective view of my improved rail joint; Fig. 2 is a transverse section thereof; Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of the meeting end of one of the rail sections; and, Fig. 4 is a horizontal longitudinal section illustrating another embodiment of the invention.

Corresponding and like parts are-referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the drawing by the same reference characters.

My improved rail joint is shown and described in connection with a pair of companion rail sections 1, each of which comprises a head 2, web 3 and a base flange 4, and is of conventional form except at its meeting end where the web is thickened, as indicated at 5, so as to be flush with both sides of the head. The thickened ends of the rail sections are cut a way on opposite sides of the rail and throughout the full height thereof, in order to provide longitudinally projecting tongues 6 and longitudinally facing shouldders 7 against which 60 the ends of the tongues are adapted to abut. The tongues overlap each other with the end of each tongue arranged in abutting relation to the shoulder 7 at the inner end of the other tongue, thereby providing a 65 scarf joint.

The tongues are substantial duplicates and are designed to interlock to retain the rail sections in association. For this purpose each tongue is formed with two longi- 70 tudinally disposed lugs 8 and 9 projecting from its inner face. The lugs are approximately half as long as the tongue, and the lug 9 extends from the shoulder 7 approximately to the middle point of the tongue, 75 while the lug 8 extends from said middle point to the terminal of the tongue. The lug 8 has its upper edge flush with the tread surface of the rail and its lower edge spaced above the base of the rail to form a down- 80 wardly facing shoulder 10. The upper edge of the lug 9 lies in the same plane as the shoulder 10 and provides an upwardly facing shoulder 11, the lower edge of the lug 9 being flush with the plane of the base 85 of the rail. The lugs 8 and 9 are, therefore, located at diagonally opposite corners of the inner face of the tongue. Between these lugs there are provided, in effect, seating recesses 12 at the remaining corners of the 9° inner face of the tongue, for the reception of the lugs of the mating tongue. Bolts 13 are inserted through transversely registering openings 14 to retain the tongues in engagement with each other. 95

It will be noted that the lug 8 of each tongue fits over the lug 9 of the other tongue and is received in the seating recess 12 between the shoulder 7 and lug 8 of the said other tongue. The inner ends of the lugs ¹⁰⁰8 are thus arranged in abutting relation, whereby to prevent the rail sections from being separated longitudinally. Of course the lugs may be made slightly shorter than the seating recesses in order to have suffi- ¹⁰⁵cient play therein to compensate for expansion and contraction. Another important feature resides in the fact that each shoulder 10 rests upon the upwardly facing shoulder 11 of the opposite tongue, so that the ¹¹⁰

1,024,313 tongues mutually support each other to resist any relative vertical displacement. By this means the rail sections are securely connected together without the use of the cus5 tomary fish plates. Furthermore the joint is rendered quite solid by having the web portions of the meeting ends of the rail sections thickened flush with the sides of the heads.

In practice it sometimes becomes necessary to couple a rail section 1 having a terminal tongue 6 of the form above described, with a rail section 15 of the ordinary type. In order to enable this to be accomplished with¹⁵ out breaking the continuity of the tread surface, I provide a filler member 6^a which is separate from both rail sections and is similar to the tongue 6 and is adapted to interlock therewith. The filler member 6^a fills ²⁰ up the cutaway portion in the side of the rail section 1 so that the meeting end of this rail section is of substantially conventional form except that its web is thickened flush with the sides of its head. The joint ²⁵ between the rail sections may therefore be effected by employing fish plates 16 which lie against opposite sides of the webs of the rail sections and are secured thereto by bolts 17, the difference in thickness of the webs ³⁰ being compensated for by offsetting the fish plates at intermediate points, as indicated at 18. The bolts 17 passing through the rail section 1, serve to hold the separate filler member 6^a in association with the tongue 6 so that no additional fastening devices need 35 be employed for this purpose.