一 61 — 
vertical face being made continuous with the outer face of tlio rail head. The angle 
iron and a portion of the plate rest upon and aro attached to a 5" x 9" on-k timber 
laid on its flat, dapped and well spiked to the ties, and having the end bevelled 
off so as to mako the plate and angle iron form an inclined plane. The other end 
is also bevelled off, but 1110 re suddenly. The vertical legs of tlie angle irons are so 
trimmed as to liavo tlieir upper edges horizontal, and the other legs so that they 
will not approach too closely to tlio track rails. The outer facos of the vertical legs 
approach the inner faces of the track rail heads till the distance between thorn is 
two and a half inches, then run parallel thereto for a sliort distance aud again 
diverge. The greatest elevation of the upper face of the six inch leg of tlie angle 
iron is three quarters of an inch loss than that of tlio track rails. 
On tlio outside of each track rail and close up to its lower flange is a 吾 " plate 
resting upon an oak timber 4 i" deep ancl of varyiug width : tho width of tlio plate 
also varies. The timber is bevelled off at ouo end so as to form an inclined plane 
leading up to a level surface of the same height as that of the rails. The outer 
plate begins a few feet further from tlio bridge that does the inner one, and its rise 
ls greatoi. and more rapid, thus giving tlio derailed carriage or locomotive a cant 
towards tlie track, which with its momentum helps to throw it back on the rails. 
The modus operandi is as follows : a derailed, car, for instance, approaches the 
bridge, and tlie wheels which are between tho rails strike either tlie frog point or 
one of the diverging rails. These direct the wheels unto tlie inclined planes up 
wliicli they mount and upon which they are conducted by the vertical legs of the 
an gle towards tlie track, approaching it so closely that the outer portion of their 
peripheries will rest upon the rails as soon as the angle iron begins to descend. 
The space between the outer plate and the liead of the rail is so small that tlie 
flange of the wheel lias no cliance to enter it, so that the car cannot but regain its 
Place upon the rails. 
Mi’. McClure lias experimented upon this apparatus with perfect success, but 
as not yet adopted it on his roads ; because it infringes upon a safety switch device 
alre ady patented. 
But as Americtan patent laws do not extend as far as Japan, there seems to 
b。 no objection to tho use of tlie apparatus on Japanese roads. 
• It is possible though not probable that a car may jump tlie track when on the 
bridge, to provide for -which case tlie author has adapted tlie apparatus so as to 
1 e-rail sucli a car ： this portion of tlio design may, liowover, be omitted without in- 
curring any possibility of injury to tlio bridge. 
There is still one case in which a derailed locomotive might injure a bridgo 
with this appliance in use ; that is, wlien the wheels are more than half tlio 
of the gauge out of line. There is nothing to be done in such a case except 
to ditch the train at tlie nearest comparatively safe place to the bridge. This can 
)e done very easily by the apparatus shown on Plate YI, a design of the author s, 
^liich is probably also an infringement oil one or more American patents. Its 
action is very simple : one of a pair of diverging angle irons, beginning at a distance 
frora tlie track rails equal to half tlie gauge, catches tlie wheel flanges on one side 
