LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE SAFETY TRUCK CO. 



OF NEW YORK. 



Proprietors of the followiug Letters Patent granted to Levi Bissell, Aug. 4, 18o7, Nov. 2, 1S58 (e 

 tended Nov. 2, 1872); A. W. Smith, Feb. 11, 1862; D. R. Pratt, Oct. 16, 1860; W. H. Hudbun, Apri\ 5, 18 

 and May 10, 1864. 



DKA WINGS FURNISHED AND LICENSES GRANTED ON APPLICATION. 



A. F. SMITH, President. M. F. MOORE, Secy and Agent 



ALBERT BRIDGES. Treaa. No 40 Cortlandt .-^t. N.Y. 



Figure 12. — Notice of the Locomotive Safety Truclc Company listing tiie patents field by it. From Railroad 



Gazelle, March 3, 1876. 



but in a way to allow the truck to swing horizontally. 

 The fulcrum for each lever was mounted on the 

 underside of the front frame rail. A number of old 

 8-wheel Baldwin flexible-beam engines and several 

 Winan's Camels were rebuilt in this way. One of 

 these is shown in figure 8. Laird, however, eventually 

 became dissatisfied with his arrangeinent and re- 

 equipped the engines with Bissell trucks. 



John L. Whetstone on April 10, 1860, obtained 

 U.S. patent 27850, which strikingly anticipated the 

 plan Hudson was to develop four years later. — 

 Whetstone did not use a Bissell truck and was in fact 

 more concerned in relieving the excess weight, often 

 a 50% overload, from the front axle of 0-6-0 

 locomotives and in distributing a portion of that 

 weight to a pony truck. His arrangement may be 

 readily understood from the patent drawing in figure 

 9. Probably the best features of the design was the 

 transverse H-beam that connected the spring hangers 

 to the truck frame, which in this case also served as 



- Whetstone was chief designer for Niles & Co., a Cincinnati 

 locomotive builder. His invention apparently did not receive 

 a test, since the company closed shortly before the patent was 

 granted. No other builder seemed interested. 



the equalizing lever (note that the ball "C" acts as 

 the fulcrum). 



Hudson made use of this same device but in a more 

 practical manner. He found that while the Bissell 

 pony truck could satisfactorily adjust itself laterally 

 and could lead the locomotive around curves, it could 

 not handle the varying loads imposed upon it by the 

 rough trackage typical of American railroads. At one 

 moment an undue amount of weight would fall upon 

 the truck because the drivers were over a depression 

 in the roadbed. This condition overloaded the truck's 

 springs and also resulted in a momentary loss of 

 adhesion, causing the drivers to slip. Conversely, 

 when the truck hit a depression too much weight was 

 thrust upon the driving wheels, and broken springs 

 or other damage might result. 



Hudson's ingenious remedy to this problem was 

 simple and straightforward (see fig. 10). A heavy 

 equalizing lever that connected the truck to the 

 springs of the front driving wheels was placed on 

 the longitudinal centerline of the locomotive, with the 

 fulcrum under the cylinder saddle. Thus the truck 

 and front driver reacted together to all the inequalities 

 and shocks offered by the roadbed. 



130 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



