IMPROVED RAILWAY-RAIL FASTENER.

BY PHILIP KIRKUP.

The very large and increasing railway-traffic of the present day makes the subject of any improvement in the method of securing the rails to the chairs and sleepers of the permanent way of the utmost importance to all concerned. From both an economic and humane standpoint, an appliance giving greater security and safety should be gratefully received by the owners of rolling-stock and the travelling-public generally.

It will be generally known that the ordinary double-headed rail and also the bull-head rail, which are now more generally used by the various railway-companies in this country, are each secured to the chairs by means of an oaken key driven longitudinally between the rail and the outer jaw of the chair. This method of fastening these sections of rail is almost universally adopted, and it will be admitted by engineers and inspectors that its most serious drawback is the liability of the key to become loose and to slip out, owing to the constant vibration caused by the passing of trains over it. Large numbers of men are continually employed on public railways in examining the permanent way and re-adjusting such keys as have become displaced during the interval between each inspection. Another serious source of danger and anxiety is the shaking loose of the keys and fastenings at points and crossings where greater lateral strains arise and liability to derailment is imminent. The danger is more to be feared in summer, owing to the pining of the wooden keys, and consequently greater vigilance has to be observed in keeping them in position so as to secure the maximum of safety.

The cost of maintenance of the fastenings on private railways through workmen and others picking up the displaced keys and taking them home for firewood is an item of some moment. From actual experience, the writer can state that renewals from

this cause are frequent and expensive, more especially where the colliery-owner has a long length of railway to maintain between the pits and the shipping-staithes.

After a considerable number of experiments, the writer has been enabled to arrive at a practical solution of the difficulties enumerated above, and has now pleasure in bringing forward for consideration an entirely new method of fastening the rails to the chairs. This consists of the substitution of a cast-iron or steel wedge and a small hard wooden cushion, for the ordinary key. The wedge has a double flange on each vertical edge, so that when driven downward between the outer jaw of the chair and the wooden cushion, the rail is held secure. The cushion is made of oak, and of a size sufficient only to be embraced by the

inner flanges of the iron wedge, and thus it is retained in position to act as a buffer and to meet the unequal expansion and contraction between the steel rail and the cast-iron chair. The outer flanges of the wedge also embrace the jaw of the chair.

The arrangement can be applied to existing chairs, and has the further recommendation of being inexpensive in primary cost and maintenance. The wedges, when driven down with a light hammer, completely secure the rails to the chairs, and, being fixed vertically, cannot shake out of position so as to render the rails at any time insecure and unsafe.

The writer may mention that the engineers of the Northeastern Railway Company have, during the last few months, severely tested the new fastener on lines near the railway-stations at Newcastle and York; more recently a section of the Team

Valley main line has been laid with it, and so far they express themselves as being thoroughly satisfied with the utility of the invention.

Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate the application of the iron wedge and wooden cushion.

Mr. A. L. STEAVENSON (Durham) remarked that several methods had been tried for improving railway-chairs and fasteners, and a successful method had been recently adopted in Cleveland; the invention of Mr. W. Walker, who had adapted to the railway-chair the principle of the safety over-winding hook. Wood was apt to pine and fall out, and it might be pulled out by any persons mischievously inclined, but with Mr. Walker's clutch no wood was required, the rail had a longer life, because it was held in such a position that it met the pressure of the wheel, and instead of the rail wearing down on one side it wore in the centre. It was no heavier than an ordinary chair, and any vibration only tended to hold the rail faster, and chocks could only be removed by removing the rail.

Mr. CHARLES A. HARRISON (North-Eastern Railway, Newcastle-upon-Tyne) wrote that he considered Mr. Kirkup's railfastener was a very good one, but he could not agree with his conclusion that it would save any labour, because whatever railfastener or key was adopted the men would still have to inspect their lengths of railway twice a day, and other considerations would forbid the increase in the length of line of which each gang of three men are supposed to be in charge.

Mr. KIRKUP pointed out that his paper merely described a fastener adapted to the existing railway-chair, and was not a new form of chair, as in the case of the Walker clutch. As regards the adoption of steel throughout, in preference to castiron and wood, it was considered that greater security was obtained by using a soft material like wood which would allow of greater freedom of expansion between the steel rail and the castiron chair.

Mr. J. K. GUTHRIE (Preston) asked whether vibration caused the iron wedge to creep upward.

Mr. KIRKUP said that, in practice, the surface of an ordinary casting was sufficiently rough to grip the timber, even without the tooth, which, however, was provided. After a practical test of the cast-iron wedge at the Central Railway Station, Newcastleupon-Tyne, where many hundreds of trains were passing over the rails every day, the engineer to the North-Eastern Railway Company had quite recently laid downmile of track with the new fastener on the main line to London, and it was standing the test most admirably.

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. J. S. Dixon) proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Kirkup for his paper.

Mr. M. WALTON BROWN Seconded the resolution, which was cordially approved.

14

Mr. W. C. BLACKETT read the following paper on ground Stables":

UNDERGROUND STABLES.

BY W. C. BLACKETT.

Much interest was shewn by members in their discussion upon a recent paper concerning the feeding of colliery-horses, and it is possible, therefore, that the subject of stabling may attract equal attention.

Moreover, it may be advisable to shew that mining-engineers do give some thought to a subject which has recently engaged the consideration of several well-meaning persons, who without having any adequate means of informing themselves, have arrived at the conclusion that the treatment of pit-ponies deserves more of their sympathy than does that meted out to other people's horses. There is more cruelty and neglect on the surface than is to be found among the pit-lads of Durham and Northumberland, among whom it is, in the few instances discovered, severely punished. Cruelty is an extravagance which even the callous cannot afford.

On the writer's desk is a polished hoof, the silver-mounted inscription of which reads as follows:-

SWALLOW.

A 10 hands Shetland pony, was 5 years old when put to work down Kimblesworth pit on May 2nd, 1876. He ceased work 20 years later on October 12th, 1898, aged 27 years. During the whole of his working life he never had a sick or sorry day, the 6 weeks' strike of 1879 and the 13 weeks' strike of 1892 being the only occasions on which he was idle. On August 8th, 1896, when 25 years old, he took third prize among 20 other pit-ponies shewn in Durham.

This is but typical of many examples which could be brought forward; and every colliery can usually boast of several animals whose life-records would speak equally well of honourable years of comfortable equine servitude, and of the kindness and humanity not only of those who manage the mines, but of the men also who wait upon the ponies in their stables and the lads who direct their labours in far-reaching underground galleries.