Railway hopper car door latch

Abstract

An outlet gate assembly for a hopper car including a frame at the bottom of the hopper with a door plate slidable therein. A pair of laterally spaced racks extend cantilever fashion from one side of the frame. A transversely extending operating shaft, mounted in brackets secured to the door plate, carries pinions which engage the teeth of the racks so that as the operating shaft is turned the pinions walk along the racks thereby imparting sliding movement to the door plate. A latch shaft extending parallel to and below the level of the operating shaft mounts, in radial position, a pair of latches having hooked portions underlying the respective racks so that when the door plate is open the latches are blocked from moving into latching position by the underside of the racks and so that when the door plate is closed the hook portions of the latches engage the ends of the racks to lock the door plate in its closed position. Operating handles at the ends of the latch shaft serve individually to rock the shaft into unlatching position with the position of the handles serving as a telltale to indicate that the door plate is both closed and latched. In one aspect of the invention the latch serves as a retention member for the door plate in that the door plate assembly may not be removed until it has traveled to fully open position and until a limit stop has been moved out of the way.