£ S3 



1854.] 



NORRIS'S RAILWAY JOINT CHAIR 



177 



€\)t (foimMim Stomal 



TORONTO, MARCH, 1854. 



Morris's Railway Joint Cliair,* 



The following paper on Mr. Norris's new joint chair was read 

 at the last meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at 

 Birmingham : — 



In bringing before the Institution a plan for a new kind of 

 joint chair for railways, it will be unnecessary to expatiate on 

 the advantages of a. firm joint, as regards economy of maintenance 

 of the road and rolling stock, and safety. 



The object of this paper is to describe a method which has 

 been in use on a crowded part of the London and North 

 Western Railway for above eighteen months, during which time 

 it has stood well, and is now being extensively used on the same 

 line. 



The plan is to cast a chair or coupling on the rails at the 

 joints as they lie in the line, by means of chills and a portable 

 cupola. The hot metal flowing freely into the chill is allowed 

 to come in close contact with the rails, and in cooling contracts 

 bo as to grip the ends of the rails firmly together. The great 

 object to be attained is the converting of the rail into a con- 

 tinuous girder, which shall not deflect at the joint more than at 

 any other part; every successive year's experience having 

 forced the attention of engineers and others to this point, to 

 attain which many plans have been tried with more or less 

 success. 



Whatever mode of joint is adopted, or whatever method of 

 jointing the ends of rails, it is necessary that a certain allowance 

 should be made for the longitudinal motion caused by the 

 expansion and contraction of the rail. This object is attained, 

 wherever necessary, by putting the chills, previously heated, on 

 the ends of the rails for a short time, until they become hot, 

 when they are taken off, and a thin wash of loam and blacking 

 is laid upon the rail end, which instantly dries on, and when the 

 melted iron is poured against it, absolute contact with the rail is 

 prevented. Although provision is thus made for the expansive 

 and contractile force of the rail, the cavity in the chair 

 being parallel to the rail, clips it sufficiently tight to prevent any 

 vertical or lateral motion of the rails ; the amount of surface of 

 contact between the rail and chair is about 100 square inches, 

 being 50 square inches to each rail end. 



This great surface prevents any perceptible wear taking place 

 on rail-ends from the longitudinal motion of expansion ; and as 

 no motion can take place vertically or laterally, no shock can 

 take place by the action of the wheels, so that the joint will re- 

 main good for years, which has been confirmed by practice, so 

 far as it has gone. 



The operation of casting is very simple, and is performed with- 

 out hindering the pacing of trains during the execution of the 

 work. 



The apparatus consists of chills and a portable cupola, and 

 the process is as follows, when operating on a line already laid : 

 — Each joint-sleeper or block is first lowered bv the plate-layers 

 about three inches, so as to give room for the application of the 



* Prom the London Mechanics' Magazine, October, 1.853, 



Voi,. II. No, 8, March, 1854. 



chills, or is removed altogether for the time, and the old chair 

 being taking off the joint, the chills are applied, consisting of a 

 bed plate with two lips, one on each side, holding down the 

 side-chills, which slide in the grooves ; these are put to the rail 

 and held together by screw-clips, forming a mould for casting 

 the chair. This operation is quickly performed, and the chill is 

 then packed under temporarily with loose metal plates: the 

 moment this is done a train may pass over it without hindrance. 



Two steel pins are then put in their places in the chills, so as to 

 form the cores for the holes of the holding-down spikes. The 

 chill mould being thus fastened in its place is ready for 

 the melted metal, which is run into it at the lip, until it is level 

 with the top of the sides, where a large open space is left for the 

 escape of air, which prevents all possibility of blowing. 



The chills are made to fit the rails by projections at each end, 

 which grip the rail firmly, and a little loam is applied on the 

 outside, to prevent the hot metal making its way out of the 

 chill-mould. 



After a lapse of about five minutes the mould is taken off, 

 which is done in an instant, leaving the chair perfect, and closely 

 embracing the contiguous ends of the rail. The form of this 

 chair is such as to make it a strong and rigid clip, closely fitting 

 the two ends of the rail along its whole length. Chairs may by 

 this method be cast of any form. When the chair is cold 

 enough, the sleeper or block is replaced, and the chair spiked to 

 it. 



The operation is the same in relaying new roads, only that 

 the expense of lowering or removing the block or sleeper is 

 saved. 



The metal used up to the present time has consisted of old 

 chairs, mixed with a little new iron. This is melted in a portable 

 cupola, formed of a cylinder of sheet-iron 1-1 6th of an inch 

 thick, 2 feet 3 inches in diameter, and 4 feet 6 inches high, lined 

 with fire bricks and clay in the usual manner, 4 inches thick. 



The cupola weighs about 6 cwt, and is easily lifted by the 

 workmen on to a plate-layer's lorry, and taken to the place re- 

 quired, when it is lifted off, and placed on a few sleepers laid on 

 the slope of a cutting or embankment. When once so placed it 

 will serve for a half a mile of road without moving again, as the 

 metal is so hot as to enable its being taken, in a moulder's ladle, 

 on a lorry, to the chills at a quarter of a mile on each side the 

 cupola. 



The cupola has a belt or air chamber, into which passes the 

 air from the fan, and it has four tuyeres of two inches orifice to 

 admit the air to the fire The fan consists of a chamber 1 foot 

 10 inches inside in diameter and 9 inches wide, and weighs 

 about 3 cwt. ; it is detached from the cupola by drawing out 

 the nozzle from the entrance to the air belt, and can then bo 

 lifted separately into its place. The fan is either turned by 

 hand-winches, or, when the operations are extensive, by a small 

 steam-engine, weighing about 10 cwt., and can be lifted by 

 eight men, and placed on and off a lorry, and on the slope, in 

 the same manner as the cupola. 



The yield of metal from so small a cupola is very great: a3 

 much as 3|- tons has been run down in seven hours, by two men 

 turning the handles of the fan, and nearly 4^ tons by the use of 

 the engine in the same time. A smaller cupola, weighing about 

 2 cwt., is used for repairs of the line. 



A good fastening is made for middle chairs by taking out the 

 wooden key from the common middle chair, and casting an iron 



