Untitled record

Application filed April 16,1895, Serial Ko, 545,948, (Ko model.) Patented in Belgium October 22,1894, Ko. 112,388. .

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Georges Coulon, a citizen of the Republic of France, residing at Paris, France, have invented a certain new 5 and useful System of Securing Vignoles Rails to Transverse or Longitudinal Sleepers, (for which I have obtained Letters Patent in Belgium, No. 112,388, dated October 22, 1894,) of which the following is a specification.

io Two kinds of appliances are used to secure Vignoles or flat-bottomed rails to transverse or longitudinal sleepers—first, a spike; second, a headed wood-screw provided with a cotter. The latter has to a great extent su15 perseded the former, being, in fact, in all respects its superior. It is a good attachment, but is not devoid of faults. The conditions required to make it really adequate are that when once screwed in it should never have to 20 be displaced, that the form should afford a surface closely adhering to the foot of the rail. If it be possible to realize these two conditions, the practical result would manifest the following important advantages, 25 namely: facility and economy in maintenance of permanent way, preservation of crosssleepers and of the foot of the rails, solidity of the Vignoles tracks.

On an examination, in fact, of the functions 30 of the rail-screw it appears at the very outset that as often as it becomes a question of renewing the rail or one of lifting it simply to interpose a sole between the rail and the sleeper, or to renew a chair, it is absolutely 35 necessary to unscrew the rail-screw and disturb its bed. Though it may be restored in exactly the same place and condition it has no longer the same hold, and generally the third time it ceases to bite, necessitating bor40 ing a new hole in the sleeper close to the old one, which is filled up with a wooden pin, and so on; but the maintenance of the. track so frequently renders such operations necessary that the sleepers very soon suffer, and their 45 preservation in good condition for as long a period as possible has to be considered in relation to their cost. Such is the first and very serious defect of the rail-screw, regarded from the point of view of the direct and movable 50 attachment of the Vignoles rail to the transverse or longitudinal sleeper. The second is perhaps more important, arising, as it does, from the really inefficient contact of the screwhead with the rail-foot. This contact only takes place on a point, almost on a mere edge, 55 so that it may and not infrequently does happen that the rail-foot slips from its fastening ..... under the pressure of the wheels of the train, especially on curves. Furthermore, this limited point of contact causes it, after some 60 time, to cut into the rail-foot, and consequently to bring about its deterioration.

To obtain a desirable improvement in the means for securing the Vignoles rail, the following conditions must be observed: on the 65 one hand, to preserve the wooden rail-screw by not disturbing it during the raising, ar- . ranging, or relaying of the rails; on the other hand, to supplement the limited size and insecurity of the fixed head by the introduction 70 of a part which, although firm and solid in operation, can instantaneously and most eas- .. ily be dismounted or disconnected, while it broadly and exactly fits the foot of the rail and will secure it to the sleeper with the firm- 75 ness and solidity of a vise. The arrangements hereinafter described in relation to the accompanying drawings, and which represent the subject of this invention, solve this problem in the simplest possible manner. 80

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a representation of a wooden rail-screw for Vignoles rails, whereof the shank or stem is provided with a collar A at the base of the head. Fig. 2 represents a cleat or clamp arranged to be 85 applied in combination with the rail-screw, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan of the cleat or clamp, Fig. 2, showing the orifice E to receive the screw-shank formed in the said cleat or clamp and enabling the latter to be fixed by tight- 90 ening and set free by unscrewing the railscrew. Fig. 4 is a cross-section showing a Vignoles rail fixed to its transverse sleeper by means of the combination of the two parts shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. Fig. 5 is a rep- 95 reservation of a slightly-different construction of screw. Fig. 6 shows a slightly-different construction of cleat or clamp, and Fig. 7 a plan view of Fig. 6.

The cleat or clamp, Figs. 2 and 3, rests upon 100 the foot of the Vignoles rail and has one of its sides, C, formed to fit accurately thereto, while the other side, D, rests flat upon the shoulder of the sleeper. The rail-screw pass561,968 ing through the aperture E in the cleat, which aperture is larger than the lower extremity of the screw-shank, but entirely covered by the collar A, is screwed down and home into 5 the sleeper. This completes the original laying, as the cleat or clamp is thus rendered immovable by the collar A of the screw, while its point C holds the rail firmly down to the sleeper, as shown at 1,-Fig. 4.

io For the purpose of removing the rail it is only necessary to turn the screw about a hitch and a quarter, which raises the collar, releases the cleat at E and C, and then to withdraw the cleat toward the rail, for which the 15 slot or mortise F, communicating with the hole E, is provided, as shown at 2, Fig. 4. Thereafter the rail is free to be raised, removed, and replaced by another without the rail-screws being removed or taken out of 20 their seats.

For relaying the reverse operation is carried out, the cleat being reinserted by means of the mortise F, which passes on both sides of the screw-shank, and the screw is screwed 25 down, which brings it home again and secures the whole.

As amodification of the arrangements above described I will explain that represented in Figs. 5, 6, and 7, wherein the screw-collar A 30 and the shaped or formed screw-hole E in the cleat are omitted. With this arrangement, also, the Vignoles rail can be released without the complete withdrawal of the railscrews, and in this case the mortise F of the 35 cleat is prolonged of the same width and terminates in the semicircle F' to receive the smooth face F of the screw-shank; but these simplified arrangements are far from giving the same security as those illustrated in Figs. 40 1, 2, 3, and 4. In fact, in the case of a possible natural unscrewing or loosening of the rail-screw—-such, for instance, from the set tling of the sole-plate on which the rail-foot is carried—it may happen that such unscrewing might suffice to allow the cleat or clamp 45 to disengage itself from the rail-screw and separate itself entirely from the rail-foot.

With the arrangement shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, on the contrary, by the combined action of the collar A of the rail-screw with 50 the correspondingly-formed orifice E in the cleat the complete separation of the said cleat from the rail could not come to pass before the unscrewing of the rail-screw had raised its collar A out of the formed upper 55 part of E in the cleat.