Untitled record

Application filed August 20,1886. Serial No. 211,384. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, George W. French, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State 5 of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pilots and Guards for Railway-Cars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to provide a tc guard at theends and sides of cars, so as to keep the wheels and running-gear clear of obstructions; and myinvention is specially designed for street-railway ears.

The invention consists in V-shaped pilots 15 so hinged at the ends of the car as to permit freedom of motion vertically, so as to conform to grades and to meet obstructions, combined with sideguardsloosely jointed to the pilots, so as to permit perfect freedom of motion of all the 20 parts of the guard, substantially as and for the purposes hereinafter particularly set forth and claimed. - .

In the accompanying drawings, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly 25 designated, Figure 1 is a side elevation of my invention applied to a car-truck, the bed-timbers of the car only being shown. Fig. 2 is a top view of one of the pilots and parts of the side guards. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of 30 part of the pilot, side guards, and connectingbolts in detail; and Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the guide-shoe for the point of the pilot.

The letter a, designates the bed-timbers of 35 the car, of ordinary construction, and b b the wheels, my invention not relating to these. At the ends of the car the pilots c are arranged, and connected to these pilots, longitudinally of the car, are the side guards, d. The 40 pilots c may be made of timber or metal, and in outline of V shape, with their active faces curved or concaved, if desired. They are suspended at their rear ends from the bed-timbers of the car by means of hinges e, whereby 45 the said pilots are permitted to rise and fall at their leading ends, and the said pilots are supported from the bed-timbers at their leading ends by means of chains or other flexible connections, f. The points of the pilots are 50 shod with spring-shoes g. (Shown in detail in Fig. 4.) This shoe is preferably made of steel, about three-eighths of an inch thick and three I inches wide,and bolted firmly to the pilot,and its lower end turned under the shoe, so as to give a sliding motion as the pilot passes up an 55 incline; and in cable railways this shoe will move upon the “slot rail” when ascending a grade, but will not touch the rail when moving on a level.

The side guards are composed, preferably, 60 of metal bars or plates, the ends of which,are connected to the wings of the pilot by bolts working in slots in such pilots, so that there may be entire freedom of motion of all the parts of the guard. 65

Now, -with a construction such as described, in accordance with my invention, a car may be supplied w^rith a self-adjusting guard extending entirely and continuously around the car in a very economical and endurable form. 70