Amsted Industries Inc.

Other

V Terrey Hawthorne

Horst T Kaufhold

John W Kaim

Ronald D Golembiewski

Glen F Lazar

David Jason Goding

Charles P Spencer

Charles Moehling

Jay P Monaco

John J Steffen

Terry L Pitchford

Norman A Berg

Julius I Pershwitz

John F Deppen

Ronald E Barker

Marlin E Clark

Jeffrey M Ruback

Charles E Burkhart

Stephen W Smith

John W Coulborn

Brian A Toussaint

C Dale Christie

Robert D Wronkiewicz

Charles L Van Auken

Franklin S McKeown, Jr

John R Oliver

Samuel R Williams

John F Oesch

Rami V Nassar

Anthony R Hiatt

Donald J Marlborough

A draft gear assembly is disclosed alone and in combination with a draft sill and a coupler. The draft sill has front and rear stops defining a draft gear pocket. The draft gear assembly has a yoke, a coupler follower, a rear follower, a front resilient member and a back resilient member. The yoke has top and bottom stops. The coupler follower is biased against the yoke top and bottom stops. The draft gear assembly also includes a center rod that extends through the yoke, through the back resilient member and through the rear follower. Prior to installation on a railcar, there is a shortening member on the center rod. The length of the assembly between the shortening member and the front of the coupler follower is slightly less than the longitudinal length of the draft gear pocket. After installation, the rear follower is positioned against rear stops of the draft sill. After installation, the yoke, coupler and coupler follower each have a neutral position and a full buff position. The yoke and coupler also have a full draft position. The draft stroke of the coupler and yoke is 1&frac14; inches forward. The buff stroke of the coupler and coupler follower is at least 4&frac14; inches rearward, while the buff stroke of the yoke is 3 inches rearward. The center rod is free from compression throughout buff movement and free from tension throughout draft movement of the coupler and yoke.

Railcar draft gear assembly and system

A three piece stabilized railway car truck is provided with dimensions corresponding generally with an AAR nominal 100 ton size truck and a load carrying capability satisfactory for use with railway cars having a 315,000 pound gross weight on rail rating. Various components of the truck have been modified to improve the fatigue life of each component and the overall service life of the resulting railway truck.

High capacity integrated railway car truck

A reduced weight fifth wheel generally mountable on a tractor for coupling between a tractor and a trailer, which fifth wheel has the approximately the same bearing surface area, a more continuous surface area by elimination of a lever-bar pin port in the bearing surface, thinner support ribs and smaller fillets, a shorter longitudinal length with a wider kingpin receiving slot for receipt of a trailer kingpin, with a locking-jaw mechanism having a redesigned lever-bar pin and pin-receiving port to enable reduction of the weight and to enhance production casting practices, which fifth wheel further encompasses lateral support ribs at the plate outer perimeter and rearward of the mounting brackets to define support pockets ahead of the engaging ramps to avoid lateral deflection and deformation of the plate at vertical loading.

Reduced weight fifth wheel assembly

An interface between the end of a bolster and a side frame column for a three-piece railcar truck assembly is disclosed. The bolster and side frame have several pairs of facing stop surfaces at the interface. Each pair of facing stop surfaces are at two different spacings: one spacing is close, with a small gap between the stop surfaces; another spacing is greater than the first. The second spacing allows the side frame to pitch with respect to the bolster transverse axis. The bolster stop surfaces may be the lands inboard and outboard of the friction shoe pockets. The lands may be shaped so that there is a raised warp control portion or surface and one or more relief portions or surfaces, the warp control portion extending farther laterally than the relief portions. The warp control portion is used to maintain the truck in a square relationship, and the more loosely spaced relief portions allow for side frame articulation as the truck traverses track at different elevations. The raised warp control portions and reliefs may alternatively or also be formed on the side frame lands or wear plates.

Side frame-bolster interface for railcar truck assembly

The present invention provides a sideframe for use in a traditional three piece railway freight car truck comprising a pair of laterally spaced sideframes supporting a bolster extending between the sideframes. Each sideframe comprises an elongated top compression member, two diagonal compression members extending generally downwardly at acute angles from near the ends of the top compression member, and a bottom member joining the other ends of the diagonal tension members. Two column members also extend vertically between the bottom member and the top compression member. Such column members are strengthened by two ribs that extend laterally across the structure of the column member between sidewalls of the column member.

Railway truck sideframe with reinforced columns

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 reduced weight fifth wheel generally mountable on a tractor for coupling between a tractor and a trailer, which fifth wheel has the approximately the same bearing surface area, a more continuous surface area by elimination of a lever-bar pin port in the bearing surface, thinner support ribs and smaller fillets, a shorter longitudinal length with a wider kingpin receiving slot for receipt of a trailer kingpin, with a locking-jaw mechanism having a redesigned lever-bar pin and pin-receiving port to enable reduction of the weight and to enhance production casting practices.

A railway freight car truck is provided with an elastomeric suspension device between the bolster end and the sideframe bottom support. The elastomeric device is usually of a toroidal shape, and usually has a centrally located vertically extending opening. Positioning protrusions usually are provided from the bolster end and the sideframe bottom support that extend into the elastomeric device opening.

Railway truck with elastometric suspension

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

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 a 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.

Railcar truck bearing adapter construction

A variable spring group for a railcar wheel truck assembly, which spring group has independent variable rate control springs for biasing snubber assemblies of a bolster in the wheel truck assembly, with the spring group having a first linear spring rate at an empty-railcar condition and a second linear spring rate at a loaded railcar condition that is at least five times as great as the empty-car spring rate, and the control springs are variable rate springs with a first and empty-railcar rate and a second and loaded-railcar spring rate, which is about twice the empty car control spring rate.

Spring-pack assembly for a railway truck bolster assembly

A railcar truck side frame has a pedestal jaw arrangement, which inclines the bearing adapter for the axle and bearing assembly with a relative slope in the side-frame longitudinal direction, to provide transfer of the forces causing angular displacement of the axle to stop lugs on the side-frame outer surface and to minimize axle angular displacement and, consequently, truck warping and hunting.

A structural device is attached to each sideframe pedestal jaw of a railcar truck wherein the bearing adapter is joined to the sideframe and is prevented from rotating within the pedestal jaw opening. The bearing adapter inboard and outboard faces maintain a parallel relationship with the sideframe inboard and outboard faces during operations, including curving, thereby causing the truck axles to remain at a right angle with respect to the sideframes. Maintaining this right angular relationship substantially curtails truck wheel misalignment, which directly effects truck hunting and curving.

An accessory fluid cylinder and cam apparatus mounted under a fifth wheel, which is both manually operable or energizable by a tractor air system to enable a driver to automatically and remotely release the safety latch and unlock the fifth wheel jaw to release a trailer king pin when the tractor parking brake is engaged.

Growing community of inventors

Lisle, IL, United States of America

V Terrey Hawthorne