IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY VEHICLE WHEEL BRAKE RIGGINGS

1,212,643. Railway brake riggings. SVENSKA AB. BROMSREGULATOR. 14 Feb., 1969, No. 8051/69. Heading F2E. In a brake rigging for a railway vehicle of the kind comprising a " live " brake lever 5 pivotally connected at one end 4 to a piston-rod 3 of the pneumatic cylinder-piston unit 2, a " dead " brake lever 7 is pivotally connected at one end to a part of the vehicle frame and a tension force transmitting rod 6 is connected to the other ends of the " live " and " dead " brake levers, brake shoes 10, 11 being pivotally mounted between the " live " and " dead " brake levers and the vehicle wheel rim 12 and an automatic slack adjuster is mounted between one of the brake shoes (10) and the respective adjacent brake lever 5. In operation, a strong compression spring provided inside the tubes 26 and 27 (Fig. 2) moves the levers 25 and 5 apart to pull a screw-threaded rod 14 of the automatic adjuster outwardly from the member 9. A clutch a-a in the automatic adjuster is engaged and prevents a nut 15 from being rotated on the rod 14. When the brakes are applied, the piston-rod 3 is advanced towards the pivoted connection at 21 and a sleeve 19 and the member 9 are moved towards each other. A cup spring 22 engages a roller bearing 18 at the moment the brake block, fitted to the brake shoe 10, engages the wheel rim. The clutch a-a will now open and the clutch b-b will be engaged. Any further increase in brakeapplying force results in the member 9 and the rod 14 being moved together towards the wheel rim and the spring 22 will be deflected accordingly. Following the brake release operation, the member 9 and the rod 14 will be initially moved towards the right and the clutch b-b will open and the clutch a-a will be engaged as soon as the brake-applying force transmitted becomes equivalent to the force transmitted by the strong compression spring inside the tubes 26 and 27, and the brake rigging parts will return to their initial positions. If slack adjustment is required during brake operation, the spring 22 will contact the bearing 18 and the clutch a-a will open to allow the nut 15 to freely rotate on the screw-threads of the rod 14 until the brake block on the brake shoe 10 engages the wheel rim. During rotation of the nut 15, the spring 22 will expand and after the brake block has contacted the wheel rim the spring 22 may be compressed again during the increase of brake applying force at the last stage of the brake application. An alternative embodiment is disclosed