Fishplates The device was invented by William Bridges Adams in May 1842, because of his dissatisfaction with the scarf joints and other systems of joining rails then in use. He noted that to form the scarf joint the rail was halved in thickness at its ends, where the stress was greatest.It was first deployed on the Eastern Counties Railway in 1844, but only as a wedge between the adjoining rails. Adams and Robert Richardson patented the invention in 1847,but in 1849 James Samuel, the engineer of the ECR developed fishplates that could be bolted to the rails.

Posted by Dave Allen at 2021-04-30 07:35:54 UTC