US2756880A - Counterbalanced coupler operating mechanism - Google Patents

Description

July 31, 1956 E. R. HAUER ETAL COUNTERBALANCED COUPLER OPERATING MECHANISM Filed March 5, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Center a Gray July 31, 1956 R. HAU ER EI'AL 2,756,880

COUNTERBALANCED COUPLER OPERATING MECHANISM Filed March 5, 1953 2 Sheets-She 2 mmvrozaa [ow/9W0 #0055, 5% 5mm I #587619. 2y fiMw-x/ irrv COUNTERBALAN CED COUPLER OPERATING MECHANISM Edward R. Hauer and Frederick J. Herter, Richmond, Va. Application March 5, 1953, Serial No. 340,608 8 Claims. (Cl. 213-166) This invention relates to coupler operating mechanism for the couplers of railway cars, and more particularly to a means to improve the functioning of such mechanism, so that the operating mechanism will at least tend to prevent cars from becoming uncoupled in trains due, to high acceleration o-r deceleration resulting from runin or run-out of slack such as occurs when brakes are applied or released, or when the forces of gravity operate on grades to cause cars to become suddenly bunched or stretched.

The most commonly used coupler operating devices in use today are so formed as to provide an overbalancing Weight on one side of the axis of rotation of the rod to bias the rod in a direction of rotation opposite to that required to operate the coupler, the theory being that this overbalancing weight will prevent the rod from rotating, due to service movements of the car, suificiently to accidentally operate the coupler. But when a car equipped with such an overbalanced coupler operating device is subjected to sudden changes in velocity the inertia of the overbalanced parts of the device, augments the inertia of the handle parts of the device and, therefore, increases the moment to produce uncoupling, and if this moment is sufiicient it actually will uncouple the coupler. Consequently it is the principal object of our invention to provide a coupler operating device comprising a rod so formed as to provide a mass above the horizontal axis of rotation of the rod which exerts a counter moment operating in one direction of rotation to as nearly as possible balance the mass below the horizontal axis of rotation exerting a moment operating in the opposite direction of rotation. Therefore, if our device is applied to cars in a train and is subjected to sudden forces in either direction horizontally, there should be no rotating of the rod by such forces, because the rod is counterbalanced about its axis of rotation.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention, having reference to the accompanying drawing wherein like reference characters indicate like parts.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a coupler operating rod having the counterbalance feature applied thereto and showing the attachment of said rod to a car coupler.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 33, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an end elevation of the rod shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of a coupler operating rod integrally formed so as to include the counterbalance feature.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is an end elevation of Fig. 6.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 4 of the drawings the car end sill is provided with a car coupler 10 which is of the usual bottom operated rotary type, having a pair of spaced lugs 11-41 projecting from a bottom surface nited States Patent 0 2,756,886 Patented July 31, 1956 thereof and adapted to pivotally support therebetween one end of the lock lifter 12. The lock lifter 12 is provided at its other end with a pivotal connection 13 for supporting the lever end 14 of a link, which is attached at its upper end to the coupler lock, not shown, within the coupler head. The lock lifter 12 is provided with a vertical eye therethrough intermediate of its ends, into which eye extends the hooked end 15 of the coupler operating rod. Adjacent the hooked end 15 the rod extends substantially horizontally a short distance, as at 16,

' and then inclines upwardly and'inwardly toward the car,

as at 17. A bracket 18 is attached in any desired manner to the car end adjacent an outer corner thereof and this bracket is provided with an opening through which the outer end of portion 17 of the rod extends, forming the outer bearing for the rod. The rod slides longitudinally in this bearing as the coupler moves from side to side. At the outer end of portion 17 the rod is turned downwardly and formed into the handle portion 19, which extends outwardly away from the car end. The weight of this handle portion is to one side of the axis of rotation of the rod, as is clearly seen in Fig. 4, and thus tends to bias any accidental rotation of the rod in a clockwise direction, which is opposite to the direction of rotation of the rod to operate the coupler.

At the inner end of the rod, there is welded thereto an upstanding lug 20, the upper end of which is designed to abut a small projection 21, welded to the side of the coupler in the path of any upward movement of the lug 20 without rotation of the rod. This is for the purpose of preventing any bouncing of the inner end of the rod and associated parts sufiicient to unlock the coupler. Of course, when the rod is manually rotated in an anticlockwise direction to unlock the coupler, the lug 20 would also be rotated from under the projection 21 and thus not interfere with the normal operation of the device.

The body portion 17 of such coupler operating rods must be formed so as to extend outwardly and downwardly away from the car end sufficiently to clear train lines and other equipment installed in that area of the car. The more such rods are bent outwardly, as for example as shown in the Kinne Patents No. 1,923,674 and No. 1,923,675 of August 22, 1933, the more overbalancing weight the rod will have. It will be noted that most of this overbalancing weight occurs below the axis of rotation of the rod. If, therefore, such rods are on the front end of cars moving at considerable speed and the velocity is suddenly changed, the inertia of the handle and overbalancing parts of the rod will produce a mo- 3 ment to at least tend to uncouple the coupler.

Consequently to produce a weight above the axis of rotation of the rod sufficient to produce a counter moment to as nearly as possible balance the moment produced by the parts below the axis of rotation, we have shown a portion of rod 25 having ends 2626 turned at right angles thereto and welded to the body portion 17 of the operating rod so as to project therefrom at an angle substantially as shown in Fig. 4. The angle of projection from the vertical varies in accordance with the extent the rod 17 is bent outwardly from the axis of rotation of the rod to suit the particular car conditions. Referring now to Fig. 4 it will be seen that the moment FZC is constant and is produced by gravity. The moments Fa and Flb below and above the axis of rotation of the rod are of the same values, but the direction of the horizontal forces are opposite; that is, when moment Fa is clockwise, moment Flb is counterclockwise, and vice versa, depending on the direction of movement of the car. The constant moment FZC when added to moment Flb will be slightly greater than moment Fa, and thus the rod is provided with a horizontal component 3 to cause the rod handle to rest against the bracket 18 in the absence of a horizontal. force. against the rod.

In Figs. 5 and 6 is illustrated a coupler operating rod wherein the rod itself is bent outwardly and upwardly from the axis of rotation to provide the counterbalance toproduce the moments above and below the axis of rotation of the rod, and which is clearly evident when viewing Fig. 7 of the drawing. In these figures of the drawing, the same reference numerals are used to describe the parts which correspond to like parts in Figs. l-4, and since they are substantially identical it is not deemed necessary to repeat the description thereof.

We claim:

I. An operating mechanism for acarcouple-r, said mechanism comprising a rotatable rod' adapted to be connected at one end to a lock litter of a car coupler to operate said coupler upon rotation of said rod in one direction, a handle portion formed at the other end of said rod to rotate said rod on its axis of rotation said rod adapted to swing bodily about a single support adjacent said handle, said rod being formed to provide one mass above the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod and another mass below said longitudinal axis, said masses upon application of a horizontal force, to said rod will exert substantially counterbalancing moments operating in opposite directions of rotation.

2. An operating mechanism for car couplers as set forth in claim 1 wherein the moment exerted by the mass above the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod is not less than the moment exerted by the mass below the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod.

3. An operating mechanism for car couplers as set forth in claim 1 wherein the moment exerted by the mass above the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod is greater than the moment exerted by the mass below the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod so as tobias rotation of said rod in one direction of rotation in the absence of horizontal forces applied thereto.

4. An operating mechanism for a car coupler, said mechanism comprising a rotatable rod adapted to be connected at one end to a lock lifter of a car coupler to operate said coupler upon rotation of said rod in onedirection, a handle portion formed at the other end of said rod to rotate said rod on its axis of rotation and adapted to swing bodily about a single support at the corner of a car adjacent said handle, said rod being bent between its ends so as to provide a mass to one side of the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod to exert a moment operating in one direction of rotation of said rod, said handle portion formed so as to provide part of a mass to the other side of the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod to exert a moment operating in the other direction of rotation of said rod, said moments operating upon application of a horizontal force to said rod and substantially counterbalancing each other.

5. The combination with a car coupler having a movable lock and a rotary lock lifter for operating said lock upon rotation in one direction, of a rotary operating rod connected. at one end. to said lock lifter to operate said lock upon rotation of said rod and lifter in said one direction of rotation the other end of said rod adapted to be rotatably supported by a bracket attached to said car, a handle depending from said other end of said rod forming part of a mass below the axis of rotation of said rod to exert a moment operating in one direction of rotation of said rod; said rod being formed so as to provide a mass above the: axis of rotation of said rod to exert a moment operating in the other direction of rotation of saidrod, said moments, upon application of a horizontal force to said rod, operating to substantially counterbalance each other.

6. A rotary railway car coupler operating rod adapted to be connected at one end to a car coupler, and to be rotatably supported at the other end by a bracket attached to a railway car, said rod having one mass to one side of the longitudinal axis of rotation oi said rod and another mass to the opposite side of the longitudinal axis of rotation of saidrod, said masses being so proportioned and arranged about the longitudinal axis of rotation of said rod that upon application of a horizontal force to said rod said masses will exert substantially counterbalancing moments operating in opposite directions of rotation of said rod.

7'. A railway coupler operating rod comprising, an inner end on, the rod adapted to be connected to and supported by a lock operating mechanism of a railway coupler, an outer end portion on the rod adapted to be supported for rotation about an axis of said outer end portion on a railway vehicle, said rod being rotatable about a line which is an extension of the axis of the outer end and which intersects the inner end of the rod, a handle portion depending from the outer end of the rod and extending below said line in an inoperative position of the rod, an intermediate zone on the coupler operating rod disposed above and forwardly of said line in the inoperative position of the rod.

8. In a railway coupler operating rod connected at its inner end to a lock operating mechanism of a railway coupler and supported for rotation at its outer end by a bracket carried by a railway car and rotatable about a line extending between the bracket and the inner end of the rod, a handle portion depending from the outer end of the rod in the inoperative position thereof and extending below said line, and an intermediate zone on the coupler operating rod including two angularly related portions disposed in a substantially horizontal plane above and forwardly of said line in the inoperative position of the rod.

Gilpin July 9, 1935 Swint July 14, 1953

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