Patents Assigned to National Steel Car Limited
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Publication number: 20200276992Abstract: A railroad freight car may have external fittings, such as trackside-accessible ladder fittings that permit personnel to climb onto the decks and walkways of the car. Several embodiments of movable ladder assemblies are described that provide an extended or deployed or raised position of a handhold, and a retracted or lowered, or stored position. In other embodiments, the assembly is provided with a compliant member that allows the handhold resiliently to flex when encountered by solid objects such as shipping containers.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 19, 2020Publication date: September 3, 2020Applicant: NATIONAL STEEL CAR LIMITEDInventors: Maryam Mansouri Nasrabad, Mohamed Al-Kaabi, Max Vanderby, Kenneth Wayne Black, I, Tomasz Bis
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Patent number: 10745034Abstract: A railroad car truck for a railroad freight car, such as an autorack car, has a bolster mounted cross-wise between two sideframes. The bolster ends are mounted on respective spring groups carried by the sideframes. The bolster can translate laterally relative to the sideframes. The side frames are mounted to swing laterally relative to the wheel sets, and hence relative to the rails. Resistance to lateral deflection is provided by the resistance of the sideframes to the pendulum swinging motion, and by shear in the spring groups. The truck has a doubled damper arrangement of dampers in a four-cornered layout at each end of the bolster, giving a flexing resistance to yaw between the sideframes and the bolster ends. The doubled damper arrangement works against large wear plates mounted on the sideframe columns. The large wear plates are mounted normal to the dampers and square to the sideframes.Type: GrantFiled: August 30, 2017Date of Patent: August 18, 2020Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventor: James W. Forbes
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Publication number: 20200240193Abstract: A railroad hopper car body includes a set of hopper and hopper discharges. Egress of lading from the discharges is governed by movable doors that swing between a closed position and an open position. The motion is driven by a mechanical transmission that is itself driven by an actuator. Each pair of doors is driven by a single actuator. The actuator is mounted to act through the center sill. A portion, or substantially all, of the actuator may be mounted in a predominantly squat, vertical orientation within the center sill. In alternate embodiments, the transmission output may be bifurcated. The center sill bottom flange may be narrower adjacent to the doors. The mechanism may have a secondary lock. The mechanism may have an auxiliary manual release.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 13, 2020Publication date: July 30, 2020Applicant: NATIONAL STEEL CAR LIMITEDInventors: Tomasz Bis, Oliver M. Veit
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Patent number: 10689012Abstract: A railroad freight car may have external fittings, such as trackside-accessible ladder fittings that permit personnel to climb onto the decks and walkways of the car. Several embodiments of movable ladder assemblies are described that provide an extended or deployed or raised position of a handhold, and a retracted or lowered, or stored position. In other embodiments, the assembly is provided with a compliant member that allows the handhold resiliently to flex when encountered by solid objects such as shipping containers.Type: GrantFiled: May 11, 2017Date of Patent: June 23, 2020Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: Maryam Mansouri Nasrabad, Mohamed Al-Kaabi, Max Vanderby, Kenneth Wayne Black, Tomasz Bis
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Patent number: 10648217Abstract: A railroad hopper car body includes a set of hopper and hopper discharges. Egress of lading from the discharges is governed by movable doors that swing between a closed position and an open position. The motion is driven by a mechanical transmission that is itself driven by an actuator. Each pair of doors is driven by a single actuator. The actuator is mounted to act through the center sill. A portion, or substantially all, of the actuator may be mounted in a predominantly squat, vertical orientation within the center sill. In alternate embodiments, the transmission output may be bifurcated. The center sill bottom flange may be narrower adjacent to the doors. The mechanism may have a secondary lock. The mechanism may have an auxiliary manual release.Type: GrantFiled: April 19, 2017Date of Patent: May 12, 2020Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: Tomasz Bis, Oliver M. Veit
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Patent number: 10377392Abstract: An autorack railroad car has decks that are movably reconfigurable between tri-level and bi-level configurations. They are also movable to permit greater vertical clearance room for loading the main deck. The decks may be constrained to a single degree of freedom of motion, namely in the vertical direction, by guides that run along the vertical side posts of the car. The decks may include a passive counterbalance transmission linking the mid-level and upper level decks, such that the decks counterbalance each other when the decks are moved between the various positions. There is a separate, independent drive provided to move the decks. The drive may include scissor jacks. More than one scissor jack may share a common drive axis and shafting arrangement. The drive is operable from a trackside accessible drive distribution point. A secondary lock system is provided to prevent the decks from moving inopportunely.Type: GrantFiled: July 13, 2016Date of Patent: August 13, 2019Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: Tomasz Bis, James Wilfred Forbes
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Patent number: 10286932Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.Type: GrantFiled: March 8, 2016Date of Patent: May 14, 2019Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
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Patent number: 10259472Abstract: A railroad gondola car may have stake pockets in which to mount stakes to permit a greater vertical envelope to be occupied by lading. The stake pockets are collapsible from a deployed position to a storage position. The stake pockets are mounted on doublers that mount to the side walls of the car in line with the side wall stiffeners and their associated cross-bearers. The connection between the stake pocket and the doubler is deliberately made weaker than the connection between the doubler and the side wall such that under abusive loading conditions the stake pocket may tend to shear off the doubler, and may tend thereby to leave the side wall less damaged than might otherwise be the case.Type: GrantFiled: March 5, 2015Date of Patent: April 16, 2019Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventor: Oliver Veit
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Patent number: 10239542Abstract: A hopper car discharge outflow is controlled by closure members, at least one of which is movable. The doors are hingeless, being mounted on four bar linkages, such that the distal edge of the doors sweeps predominantly horizontally while the proximal edge of the door moves predominantly upwardly. The doors move through noncircular arcs, such that the size of the vertically projected door opening is abnormally large compared to the clearance heights of the door. The doors are driven by a longitudinal shaft that is mounted within the center sill. It drives a set of single input, double output bell cranks that drive adjacent pairs of doors, and that employs an over-center toggle to hold the doors in the closed position when the car is laded. The actuators may be mounted in shelters midway along the car, and may be offset from the centersill. The actuators may be mounted predominantly vertically such that gravity may obviate the need for a secondary lock.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2015Date of Patent: March 26, 2019Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: James W. Forbes, Tomasz Bis
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Patent number: 10214224Abstract: A hopper car discharge section may be wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Outflow is controlled by movable closure members. The hopper car has a plurality of hoppers of which two hoppers share a common ridge assembly. The ridge assembly forms a common mating and fit up location for the upper margins of the slope sheets of two lengthwise adjacent hoppers. The ridge assembly includes an horizontal center section and two end plates that angle upwardly outboard toward the top chords of the side walls. The ridge assembly stands proud of the upper margin of the respective adjacent slope sheets. A gusset is mounted between the adjacent slope sheets below the ridge plate such that the slope sheets and gusset form a reinforcement tube running across the car, the end plates forming the stems of a vertical T-section attached to the side wall and overlapping the top chord.Type: GrantFiled: January 25, 2016Date of Patent: February 26, 2019Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: James W. Forbes, Mohamed A. Khattab, Tomasz Bis, William R. Davis
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Patent number: 10023206Abstract: A railroad hopper car discharge outflow is controlled by closure members, at least one of which is movable. The closure members (or doors) are hingeless, being mounted on four bar linkages, such that the distal edge of the doors sweeps predominantly horizontally while the proximal edge of the door moves predominantly upwardly. The doors move through noncircular arcs, such that the size of the vertically projected door opening is abnormally large compared to the clearance heights of the door during opening and closing. The doors are driven by a transverse drive linkage that is driven by a transversely mounted actuator. The actuator may be mounted in an accommodation in the lee of slope sheets between adjacent hoppers in a mid-span portion of the car. Drive from the actuator is carried to a pair of symmetrically mounted doors through drive train linkages.Type: GrantFiled: December 23, 2014Date of Patent: July 17, 2018Assignee: NATIONAL STEEL CAR LIMITEDInventors: Tomasz Bis, James Wilfred Forbes
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Patent number: 9834230Abstract: A bottom discharge open topped hopper car has a center sill with a bottom flange having laterally protruding edges. A shed plate assembly is provided to discourage accumulation of product on the exposed upwardly facing shelf otherwise presented by the bottom flange protrusions. The shed plate assembly may be mounted to the center sill in a manner that avoids impairment of the stress performance of the flanges of the center sill, whether by mechanical fastenings to other objects, or welding to objects that are not the center sill. The shed plate assembly may have walls having upper margins that are higher than the upper extremity of the hopper discharge opening such that the shelf of the center sill bottom flange is in the lee of, or sheltered by, the shed plate. The lading may thereby move under the influence of gravity past the shed plate to its desired unloading receptacle.Type: GrantFiled: May 27, 2015Date of Patent: December 5, 2017Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: Maryam Agahi, Jamal Hematian
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Patent number: 9789886Abstract: A railroad car truck for a railroad freight car, such as an autorack car, has a bolster mounted cross-wise between two sideframes. The bolster ends are mounted on respective spring groups carried by the sideframes. The bolster can translate laterally relative to the sideframes. The side frames are mounted to swing laterally relative to the wheel sets, and hence relative to the rails. Resistance to lateral deflection is provided by the resistance of the sideframes to the pendulum swinging motion, and by shear in the spring groups. The truck has a doubled damper arrangement of dampers in a four-cornered layout at each end of the bolster, giving a flexing resistance to yaw between the sideframes and the bolster ends. The doubled damper arrangement works against large wear plates mounted on the sideframe columns. The large wear plates are mounted normal to the dampers and square to the sideframes.Type: GrantFiled: September 4, 2011Date of Patent: October 17, 2017Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventor: James W. Forbes
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Patent number: 9738292Abstract: A railroad tank car may have external fittings, such as a bottom opening valve, that protrude from the bottom of the tank car tank. In a derailment the tank car tank may meet the ground. A tank skid plate assembly has an accommodation in which to shelter such fittings. The skid plate assembly has a shell with tapered ramps at either end. It mounts to tank reinforcement structure, such as reinforcing bars. Reinforcements may be mounted in the lee of the shell. Those reinforcements may be mounted to the shell only, without welding connection to the tank car tank. The reinforcements may be, or combine with the shell to define either a bridge or a truss that spans the space between the reinforcement bars. The assembly may have an access passageway, such as for admitting a heating pipe. The assembly may include lateral and longitudinal internal webs for providing crush resistance.Type: GrantFiled: July 14, 2015Date of Patent: August 22, 2017Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventor: Sina Moloodi
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Patent number: 9475508Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster mounted transversely to a side frame pair. A mounting interface between the axel ends and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral swing truck like rocking motion of the sideframes combined with a longitudinal selfsteering capability by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that permits resistance to deflection proportionally to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements made of resilient elastomeric material mounted in the pedestal seats and may also have friction dampers provided with brake linings or like on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, having a disinclination to stick-slip behavior and operate to yield upward and downward friction forces that are not overly unequal and may be mounted in a four-cornered arrangement at each end of the truck bolster. Spring groups may include subgroups of springs of differing heights.Type: GrantFiled: December 31, 2013Date of Patent: October 25, 2016Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: James W. Forbes, Jamal Hematian
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Publication number: 20160257312Abstract: A railroad gondola car may have stake pockets in which to mount stakes to permit a greater vertical envelope to be occupied by lading. The stake pockets are collapsible from a deployed position to a storage position. The stake pockets are mounted on doublers that mount to the side walls of the car in line with the side wall stiffeners and their associated cross-bearers. The connection between the stake pocket and the doubler is deliberately made weaker than the connection between the doubler and the side wall such that under abusive loading conditions the stake pocket may tend to shear off the doubler, and may tend thereby to leave the sidewall less damaged than might otherwise be the case.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 5, 2015Publication date: September 8, 2016Applicant: National Steel Car LimitedInventor: Oliver VEIT
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Patent number: 9346472Abstract: A drop-center rail road freight car may have a gondola body for carrying lading, which may have end sections and a deep central section therebetween. The body may include a decking or floor structure, and longitudinally extending side beams bordering the floor structure. The car may have U-shaped bending-moment transmitting cross-bearers. The cross-bearers and side beam stiffeners may have inner and outer flange continuity such as to transmit a bending moment. The car may have stub sills. The stub sills may each have an inboard gooseneck that extends downward and inboard. The gooseneck may have a longitudinally extending portion that connects to the endmost cross-bearer of the central portion of the car. The main shear plate may lap the side sills, and may be bent downwardly to mate with the end margins of the side sheet lower portion to form a converging box-like truncated pyramidal structure.Type: GrantFiled: September 12, 2013Date of Patent: May 24, 2016Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: Ken Black, James Batchelor, James W. Forbes, Damon King Quan
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Patent number: 9278700Abstract: A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.Type: GrantFiled: May 12, 2014Date of Patent: March 8, 2016Assignee: NATIONAL STEEL CAR LIMITEDInventors: James Wilfred Forbes, Jamal Hematian
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Patent number: 9272717Abstract: A hopper car discharge section may be wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Outflow is controlled by movable closure members. The hopper car has a plurality of hoppers of which two hoppers share a common ridge assembly. The ridge assembly forms a common mating and fit up location for the upper margins of the slope sheets of two lengthwise adjacent hoppers. The ridge assembly includes an horizontal center section and two end plates that angle upwardly outboard toward the top chords of the sidewalls. The ridge assembly stands proud of the upper margin of the respective adjacent slope sheets. A gusset is mounted between the adjacent slope sheets below the ridge plate such that the slope sheets and gusset form a reinforcement tube running across the car, the end plates forming the stems of a vertical T-section attached to the sidewall and overlapping the top chord.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2013Date of Patent: March 1, 2016Assignee: NATIONAL STEEL CAR LIMITEDInventors: James W. Forbes, Mohamed A. Khattab, Tomas Bis, William R. Davis
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Patent number: 9266539Abstract: A hopper car discharge outflow is controlled by closure members, at least one of which is movable. The doors are hingeless, being mounted on four bar linkages, such that the distal edge of the doors sweeps predominantly horizontally while the proximal edge of the door moves predominantly upwardly. The doors move through noncircular arcs, such that the size of the vertically projected door opening is abnormally large compared to the clearance heights of the door. The doors are driven by a longitudinal shaft that is mounted within the center sill. It drives a set of single input, double output bell cranks that drive adjacent pairs of doors, and that employs an over-center toggle to hold the doors in the closed position when the car is laded. The actuators may be mounted in shelters midway along the car, and may be offset from the centersill. The actuators may be mounted predominantly vertically such that gravity may obviate the need for a secondary lock.Type: GrantFiled: January 22, 2013Date of Patent: February 23, 2016Assignee: National Steel Car LimitedInventors: James W. Forbes, Tomasz Bis