Acf Industries, Incorporated

Conway H Melcher

James C Hammonds

Jan D Holt

Gerald D Garner

Railway car truck

A railway car truck assembly includes spaced side frames supported by truck journal bearings. A bolster extends transversely between the side frames. A spring assembly is supported on the spaced side frames and engages the lower surface of the boltster. The bolster includes a center bearing and a pair of side bearings mounted on either side of the center bearing. The side bearings receive the weight of the car body. Each of the side bearings includes an upper surface made of a first low friction material. The car body includes a depending center portion engaging the center bearing and spaced side portions having a lower surface made of a second low friction material engaging the side bearings. One of the first and second low friction materials is selected from nylon polyesters, polycarbonates, polyacetals and polysulfones. The other of the first and second low friction materials is selected from polytetrafluoroethylene. The coefficient of friction between the upper and lower surfaces is sufficiently low that the truck easily rotates with respect to the car body. The second low fricion material may optionally include a polymeric polyolefin component such as polyethylene, having a low exchange time, and the minor amount of a chemically inert fluorinated hydrocarbon polymeric material such as polytetrafluoroethylene.

Railway car truck and side bearing assembly

In accordance with the present invention a railway car truck is provided including a pair of transversely spaced side frames and a transom which is attached solely to the side frames with a rigid connection to define an integral H frame to maintain the side frames parallel and resist truck hunting. The transom has a cross section which provides torsional flexibility which allows the side frames to rock relative to one another. Above the transom a bolster is provided which extends transversely between the side frames and rests upon spring assemblies mounted in openings in the side frames. The weight of the car body is by car body bearing assemblies mounted on the bolster above the spring assemblies. A bolster center bearing is provided which engages the car body and transmits substantially all horizontal loads from the car body through the bolster to the side frames. The spring assemblies may include two components in which one component has a resultant low spring rate which at all times in traversing ordinary track transmits the weight of the car body to the side frames, and another component having a resultant high spring rate which functions when rough track is traversed to transmit the weight of the car body to the side frames from where the weight is transmitted to the wheels to maintain the wheels on the track while the rough track is being traversed.

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Kirkwood, MO, United States of America

Conway H Melcher