Amsted Industries Inc.

Terry L Pitchford

Charles P Spencer

V Terrey Hawthorne

Vaughn Terrey Hawthorne

Charles Moehling

Robert D Wronkiewicz

Robert P Radwill

Charles L Van Auken

Daniel J Schuller

Emmanuel Vander Vennen

A railway truck assembly has an arrangement for constraining the free travel clearance between the mated bolster and side frame at the side frame window, and more particularly for reducing or eliminating the clearance or separation gap between the bolster lands and the side frame column wall at the outer edges of the bolster lands and the column wall for reduction of truck warping during service.

Bolster land arrangement for a railcar truck

A constant contact spring bearing for use with a railway car truck bolster is provided. Greater design flexibility and installation tolerances are available because a longer travel spring, with potentially lower spring load rate and stress rate, may be used. The present invention facilitates the establishment of loadings that may be expected to fall reliably within set-up tolerances from unit to unit. Instead of mounting the spring bearing on the surface of the truck bolster top member, the present invention provides a recess in the truck bolster to receive the spring, allowing for use of longer springs. With longer travel springs available for use, a spring may be selected with a lower load rate and a lower stress rate.

Side bearings for truck bolsters

A railcar truck, bearing-adapter assembly for an axle end has vertically extending arms to securely capture and maintain a roller bearing and axle end assembly at about an as-assembled reference position within the adapter assembly and sideframe pedestal jaw, where the as-assembled reference position has the railcar truck side frames about parallel and the axles about normal to the side frames, and which adapter assemblies in the opposed sideframe pedestal jaw are secured within a cross-passage at the ends of the truck side frames to capture and retain the axle ends in opposing side-frame pedestal jaws at about the reference as-assembled position to inhibit both horizontal and vertical axle displacement truck and thus minimize railcar truck warping.

Railcar truck bearing adapter construction

A constant-contact load-bearing assembly for a railcar truck bolster and operable against a complementary body bolster bearing and biased to continuously contact the body-bolster bearing to transfer the lading and railcar weight forces, which assembly has an outer element of a first coefficient of friction, a second or inner element with a second and larger coefficient of friction and biasing apparatus to maintain the inner assembly pad element in contact with the body-bolster assembly at an empty-railcar condition to provide control of the railcar body at the empty or unloaded car status with the biasing apparatus compressible at a loaded railcar state to provide contact between the outer pad element and the body-bolster bearing pad for transfer of the railcar loads and forces over the range of operating loads between the empty-car state and the loaded to capacity state.

Multi-rate vertical load support for an outboard bearing railway truck

A freight railcar undercarriage constant-contact sidebearing arrangement provides a load force transfer mechanism with a more direct or less redundant force transfer path between the railcar body with its lading and the sideframe and wheels of a truck assembly, which system obviates the present use of a bolster center plate structure for load transfer, carries all the load forces through the side bearing assemblies, fulfills the dynamic operating requirements of the American Association of Railroads standards, reduces the weight of the railcar while maintaining the load-carrying capacity, and is particularly adaptable to three-piece truck assemblies in broad use on freight railcars.

Dynamically stable, lightweight railcar support system

An integrally cast bearing adapter arrangement is provided in the pedestal of a railcar truck side frame, which side frame is cast with a pedestal jaw having a roof, and vertical walls of a first and second leg which roof and walls operate as a bearing adapter to receive and grasp a bearing assembly outer surface at a horizontal diameter of the bearing assembly for an axle end without introducing the manufacturing and assembly tolerances from discrete component assemblies, thereby avoiding the lateral displacement associated with the added tolerances and operating to minimize angular displacement between each mated axle and side frame.

A sideframe pedestal jaw accommodates a bearing adapter which locks the adapter to the sideframe, thereby preventing it from all forms of movement within the pedestal jaw opening. Locking the bearing adapter forces the truck axles to remain at a right angle with respect to the sideframes. Maintaining this right angular relationship substantially curtails truck warpage, which induces wheel misalignment that leads to undesirable truck hunting and high speed instability.

Device for improving warp stiffness of a railcar truck

A constant contact side bearing or railcar trucks utilizes wedges or rollers to adjustably separate opposing and converging surfaces of a base member and a vertically biased cap member.

Self adjusting constant contact side bearing for railcars

An improved fifth wheel structure for over the road tractors wherein a resilient elastomer pad placed between a fifth wheel pocket surface and a bearing surface includes non-extrudable end members to prevent extrusion of the pad from the pocket and wherein the pocket surface and corresponding shoe surface may also be undulated to better retain the elastomer pad.

Growing community of inventors

St. Louis, MO, United States of America

Terry L Pitchford