Elevated Railway System

Abstract

An elevated railway system having a pair of horizontally spaced rails disposed a substantial distance above the ground, and a rail vehicle rollingly supported on the rails. The rail vehicle is divided into upper and lower compartments, with at least a major portion of the upper compartment being above the rails and at least a major portion of the lower compartment being disposed below the rails. The drive wheels which support the vehicle on the rails are preferably provided with opposed frustoconical shapes which mate with corresponding beveled surfaces provided on the rails. The drive wheels are disposed adjacent the floor which divides the vehicle into its upper and lower compartments, and are preferably driven by electric motors disposed within the upper compartment.

Description

This invention relates to improvements in and relating to rail vehicles and railway systems.

According to the invention there is provided a railway system including a pair of horizontally spaced rails supported above the ground, a rail vehicle divided into an upper level and a lower level, and drive wheels supporting the vehicle on the rails with at least a major portion of the upper level above the rails, and at least a major portion of the lower level below the rails.

Further, this invention refers to improvements in the manufacture of high-speed electric railways with the rolling device situated at half the height of the convoy of two practicable floors and provided with remote control by means of a closed television circuit, with automatic control combined between the central station and each circulatory automotor by means of electronic automatic registration systems, with a televisor at the head and another at the tail of the convoy, and fixing of the transmitted orders by perforations on tapes for their automatization into preestablished orders, which controls and orders are realized from the respective electric boards and may be manual or automatic under the direct inspection of the technical attendants in the cabin in front of the group of traction motors.

The motors grouped in various units within the upper cabin have their shafts disposed at right angles to the direction of the convoy, and project from the vehicle-housing at their extremities where they are solidly connected to the wheels which will be called rollers from now onward in this specification.

These rollers are of truncated pyramid form and move longitudinally on a bevel provided in their interior sides by adequate rails sustained by and solid with longitudinal horizontal reinforcements of H-section that form continuous fixing girders on supporting arms on inverted double-angular section beam embedded and fixed to the supporting mortised columns of square or vertical rectangular section at their supporting bases comprising blocks of stone, cement or concrete held in the ground.

The upper floor is much narrower than the lower one, the two units constructed to form a single aerodynamic block, accessible by means of a doubleleaf sliding door at the center of the convoy.

The trolley has been provided above the roof of the upper floor, one in the center of each unit and over the respective motor group.

In order to facilitate the explanation, a sheet of drawings accompanies this specification where one case of realization is shown as an example only, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a two-unit convoy showing the two floors; the two trolleys, one in the center of each unit; the central two-leaf sliding door; the command and control cabins, one anterior and the other posterior; the foundations supporting the whole assembly; the two groups of motors beneath both of the respective trolleys.

FIG. 2 shows a section through A', B', of the assembly in FIG. 1, where the two branches of each trolley are seen which collect the current from the biphase line; the stairway that leads from the lower to the upper floor.

FIG. 3 is a cross section of the lower floor showing the distribution of the easy chairs separated by a central passage.

FIG. 4 is a cross section of the upper floor in the central part destined to a passage.

FIG. 5 shows partly in section a frontal view of the motor group with the rollers bearing on the specially designed rails solidly fixed onto the H-section reinforcements arranged horizontally.

Referring to the figures, 1 shows each of the motor units integrated in the respective groups; 2 represents the commutation terminals of each motor; 3 shows the truncated pyramidal rollers fixed solidly to each projecting shaft extremity of each motor; 4 shows the rails specially provided with bevels adapted to the bevel angle of the rollers 3; 5 shows the leaf springs between the chassis and the ends of the shaft of each motor; 6 shows the bearing bracket and lubricators of the motor shafts; 7 represents each of the motor shafts; 8 shows the bases of the supporting columns on the ground that support the assembly structural framework; 9 shows the columns embedded axially in the upper portions of the bases 8 with square or rectangular section; 10 shows the round bar transversal tie rods between the columns 9 close to the bases 8; 11 shows the round bar inclined tie rods fixed to the ends of the arms 13 that support the rails and of whose lower portions are embedded in the bases 8 to pass through and consolidate one in each column 9; 13 represents the horizontal arms whose inner extremities support the rails, while the outer extremities are lengthened to receive the tie rods 11 which consolidate them to the columns 9 and the bases 8; where 14 represents inverted double "L" section beams embedded in the upper base of each column 9 consolidated to the horizontal arms 13 that support and conjointly consolidate the conductor supports for feeding the trolley; by 15 showing horizontal "H" section longitudinal reinforcements for solidly supporting the rails 4 above the inner extremities of the arms 13; where 16 represents the vertical conductor supports that feed the trolley 24, which supports 16 are provided with outer reinforcement gusset plates 17 whose upper extremities are united by a horizontal crossmember 25 whose lower surface is provided with an insulating piece in ceramic or special plastic material 19 which supports the two double-trolley feeding conductors 18, of rectangular section each one with distinctive phase; where 20 shows the lower level or cabin of the convoy; where 21 represents each of the passengers' easy chairs; where 22 shows the upper lever or cabin; and where 23 represents the stairway communicating the two floors.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A railway system, comprising a pair of parallel and horizontally spaced rails and means supporting said rails a substantial distance above the ground, and a motorized rail vehicle rollingly supported on said rails, said rail vehicle having a plurality of opposed pairs of drive wheels disposed in rolling engagement with said rails, said drive wheels and said rails having cooperating means for maintaining said rail vehicle centered relative to said rails, said cooperating means including opposed frustoconical surfaces of substantial slope formed on each pair of said wheels and correspondingly opposed beveled surfaces of substantial slope formed on said rails, the frustoconical surfaces of said wheels having a substantial lateral contact with the beveled surfaces on said rails for causing said rail vehicle to be centered relative to said rails while also permitting said rail vehicle to be rollingly supported on said rails, and said rail vehicle including means dividing same into upper and lower compartments, with at least a major portion of the upper compartment being disposed above the rails and at least a major portion of the lower compartment being disposed below the rails.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein electric motor means is mounted on said vehicle and positioned coaxially with a pair of said drive wheels for rotatably driving same.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein two electrical conductors are disposed above and extending in substantially parallel relationship to said rails, said conductors being relatively fixed with respect to the rails and being positioned above said vehicle, and trolley means mounted on the top of said vehicle and disposed in engagement with said conductors to transmit electrical current to said motor means.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said upper and lower compartments have seat means disposed therein so that said upper and lower compartments can each constitute passenger compartments, and stairway means providing communication between said upper and lower compartments.

5. A railway system, comprising a pair of parallel and horizontally spaced rails and means supporting said rails a substantial distance above the ground, and a rail vehicle rollingly supported on said rails, said rail vehicle having drive wheels in rolling engagement with said rails, said rail vehicle also including means dividing same into upper and lower compartments with at least a major portion of the upper compartment being disposed above the rails and at least a major portion of the lower compartment being disposed below the rails, said lower compartment being substantially wider than said upper compartment and having portions extending laterally outwardly on opposite sides of said upper compartment, and said drive wheels and said rails being disposed substantially adjacent the interface between said upper and lower compartments with said rails being disposed directly above the laterally extending portions of said lower compartment for improving the stability of the vehicle.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein said means for supporting the rails includes upwardly extending column means disposed in engagement with the ground and transversely extending support means fixedly secured to said column means adjacent the upper ends thereof, said transverse support means being positioned on substantially opposite sides of the space through which the rail vehicle travels, and elongated H-shaped beams fixedly secured to said transverse supporting arms, said beams having said rails fixedly secured thereto.