US1608877A - Railway-car door - Google Patents

Description

dJJJvd U m A W N 2 Sheets-Sheet 1' T. ELLIOTT RAILWAY CAR DOOR iled Oct. 27, 1924 Nov. 30, 1926.

ilinnlliizn 2 QWQQA ATTORNEY:

Nov. 30 I926.

. T. ELLIOTT RAILWAY CAR noon iled Oct. 27, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 6 mvpuroa ATTORNEYfi Patented Nov. 32, 1926.

Uh'lTED STATES Mtge PATENT OFFIQE.

THOMAS ELLIOTT, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE CINCINNATI CAR COTE- PANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

RAILWAY-CAR DOOR.

Application filed. October 27, 1924. Serial No. 746,032.

This invention relates to improvements in door-operating mechanism for railway car doors.

The object is to provide a hand ope able mechanism for opening and closing sliding doors quickly and with small manual effort and at the same time to prevent the doors from striking their jambs to their injury and to the annoyance of passengers.

This object is carriedinto practical eiiect by means, essentially, of a swinging lever combined with a sliding door and a clashpot adapted to travel with the door and having its piston connected with such lever,

whereby when the lever is in one position the door will stand across the doorway, and when the lever is thrown from that position to one beyond its fulcrum or pivot, the door will recede into a pocket in the bot y of the car, the dash-pot functioning to check the momentum of the door as it approaches its jamb or final .position both in the closing and the opening movements of the door.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a sliding door combined with my said mechanism and of a portion of a railway car in which the door is mounted.

36 Figure 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view on the line 22 of Figure 1 looking in the direction of the arrows, the door being shown within the pocket through which the section is taken.

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail view of the dash-pot.

My mechanism is designed to be mounted in a railway car, particularly of the city or interurban types, of such construction that the car will have a doorway or opening which leads to the steps, whereby the passengers may enter and leave the car; and which will also have a pocket or compartment built within the car walls and in line with the doorway, so that a sliding door may be mounted to travel from a position in the doorway, when the door may be said to be closed, to a position within the pocket or compartment, when it may be said to be open. So much of such a car as is necessary for present purposes'is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Referring specifically to the illustrations, the numeral 1 designates the floor of a part at of the car body, a vamped floor; the numeral 2, the platform floor; the numeral 3, a door way, and the numeral at a pocket or compartment. A track 5 is mounted across the upper part of the doorway and within the up per portion of the pocket.

It will be seen, more particularly from Figure 2, that between the outer wall or side plate 7 and the outer sashes 7 and 7 of the car body, and the inner wall or lining 7 and inner sashes 7 and 7*, a pocket 4 is formed.

The track 5 is preferably secured to the channel beam 8 which forms plate in the car structure. The track is composed specifically of a wood beam 9 secured in a certain channel and a track proper indicated at 10, being a metal strip with its lower edge upturned to receive the grooves of the door rollers 11.

To these rollers is hung the door 12 by means of journal bolts 13. The door is preferably made in sections 13 13 and 13 and in cases where the door is to travel in a curved path these sections are hinged together as indicated at 1 the more readily to conform to such a path. But that feature forms no part of the present invention.

Secured to what may be called the inner edge of the door is a bracket 15 held to the door by bolts 16. The upper end of a guide rod 17 extends into this bracket and is held by a nut 18. This guide rod extends thence downward centrally through the cylinder 19 of the dash pot where it is securet, as seen in Figure 3, by a nut 20 which clamps the rod and cylinder together against a shoulder 21 on the rod. The cylinder has a flange 22 which is also secured to the edge of the door by means of a bolt 23.

The cylinder'l9 is provided with a boss 24 having an air inlet passage 25 controlled by a ball check valve 26 adapted to play between a stop 27 in the inlet and a cap 28 which retains the ball. On the up stroke of the piston to be presently referred to, air is drawn into the cylinder through this inlet port 25, the ball valve permitting the entrance of the air by settling back against the stop pin 27. The boss is further provided with an air'exhaust port 29 controlled by a screw 30 so as to adjust the escape of the air according as the screw is positioned more or less across the exhaust port.

In this way a sufiicient volume of air is drawn into the cylinder on the up stroke of Bil the r sn 1 w l eeylieds i t a part belowthe piston, while on the down stroke the exit of this quantity of air is delayed orv retardedob y the smaller area of the exhaustthan of theinletiport, so that the air is compressedhnore or less and always suiiiciently to check the descent of the piston as it approaches the end of its down stroke. The air escapes fast enough tope'rmit the descent t the piston but yet slow enough to hold back a portion of the to form, when compressed, a cushion which checks the novement oi the piston before it canstrike any metallic parts at or near the bottom of the cylinder, and before the door can reach its janib, either when being swung across the doorway or back into the pocket. Then as the door and piston complete their movement slowly under the checlring influence ot' the compressed air, the air gradually escapes sufficiently to let the piston inake'its'full stroke and the door its full movement to softly come against its amb.

Referring now to the piston which forms a part of the dash-pot, the numeral 81 designates the rod and 32 the piston head having conventional packing rings 83. The head and rod are hollow so as to lit snugly over the guide rod 1'7 on which the piston travels as well as within the cylinder. The upper end of the piston rod is fashioned with a fiat face 3% having holes by which may be attached to the piston rod an arm 36 which becomes a rigid projection on the piston. Bolts 37 are, used to secure the arm to the piston rod.

A lever designated at 88 is connected as by bolt 39 to the arm 36 and at the other end is mounted on a fulcrum or pivot pin l0 carried by a stan'dardl on a base 42 sup,- p'orted conveniently within the pocket 4:.

A hand cord or cable this secured to the lever 38 at the point and passes thence over a guide pulley 4:5 mountedin the car structure at a point above the pocket or in the upper part thereof, as seen in Figure 2; This cable extends to any convenient point within the car for manipulation by theniotornian or CQnductor.

It will now be seen that a stit'tpull on the cable will raise the lever from tlieful-jl line position shown in Figure 1 to the dotted position indicated at that in this movementthe' lever carries with it'the arm and therefore the dash-pot with the guide rod 12 and the doorto which it and the cylinder are attached, As the lever swingsin the first'l V p the puller the cable and the door-and its connected parts follow it with considerable memento-1n. 7 the lever into the ht ot its n1ovement, i-t is under- -nectedwe s h t f t o eme t th abl is slaekened and the momentum of the parts carry them on. But in the meantime, due to the upward movement of the piston in the.

cylinder, a quantity of air has entered through the inlet port 25. reaches the end 01 the first half of its movement the piston reaches the limit or its up stroke. hen the lever starts into the second hall of its movement the piston begins to make its down stroke. In doing so it acts on the air and begins to compress so much of it does not escape through the outlet port 29. As the lever approaches the end or the second halt of its travel and the door approaches its janib, the air being now considerably compressed forms a cushion which checks the-down stroke of the piston and slows it down gradually until its complete stroke is made so that the ClOOT-"lll-IGWlSB slows down and softly comes in contact with its iainb, whetherwhile in the pocket or while crossing and closing the doorway.

A particular feature of my invention is that or" thus softening the contact otthe door with those objects which define the limit of its movement. Or on other words, this feature is that of checking the piston and door by the action of the air in resisting the piston to reduce the momentum of the parts a they approach the end of the opening nd closing movements oi the door.

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

l. The combination with a railway car having a doorway and doorpoclret and provided with a track extending across the doorway and into the pockenof a door adapted to travel on said track, a cylinder secured to the door, a guide rod extendingthrough the cylinder and secured thereto at one end and to'the-door at the other end, a piston titted,

exteriorly to the cylinder and havinga bore extending therethrough within which fits said rod, the cylinder having air inlet and outletopemngs, an arm secured to the piston,

As the lever a lever pivoted within'the pocket and'connected' atone end with saidarm, andhanddevices-to operate said levers.

2. In a d-eviceoii the character described,

the combination witha door, of aguiderod secured thereto, a cylindersurrounding' and secured tosa d rod and having air inlet and outletports ot ditl erent diameters. piston on said d, an

operable in'thecylinder-an lei-'e-r conarmsecured to the pist osaid' arm. In testimony whereof; 1' aiixni-y signature.

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