Westinghouse Air Brake Company

Fotios Golemis

Evin Lavery

The present invention is a cartridge bridge plate assembly for mounting under a floor structure of a transit vehicle adjacent a door opening. It has a frame assembly and means for attaching the frame assembly underneath the floor structure of the vehicle. It has a bridge plate for covering a gap between the floor of the vehicle and an adjacent surface to facilitate passenger ingress and egress when the vehicle is stopped. It has a bridge plate positioning means for positioning the bridge plate and accommodating motion of the bridge plate from a stowed position within the frame assembly to an extended position for covering the gap. A motor is connected to the bridge plate positioning means for moving the bridge plate from the stowed position to the extended position and from the extended position to the stowed position. The system includes a power connection to the motor, and a drive screw connected to and rotated by the motor. It has a drive nut engaging the drive screw to be translated thereby, the drive nut having mechanical connection to the bridge plate positioning means to move the bridge plate from the stowed position to the extended position and from the extended position to the stowed position. The system also has an elevating means connected to the bridge plate positioning means for elevating an inner edge of the bridge plate to match an elevation of the floor surface of the transit vehicle.

Growing community of inventors

Dublin, Ireland

Evin Lavery