Abstract: A coupler knuckle casting having an enhanced bearing surface area and which is utilized in a railway freight car coupler. The coupler knuckle casting includes a tail section, and a hub section. The hub section has a pivot pinhole formed therein. Such pivot pinhole has generally straight cylindrical sidewalls. A front face section is connected to the hub section. Such front face section includes a nose section and a pulling face portion formed inwardly from such nose section. At such least a portion of such front face portion and such nose section includes an enhanced bearing surface area which includes a substantially flat portion disposed substantially in a vertical direction and which is substantially arcuate in a horizontal direction. The substantially flat portion extends for a predetermined distance in the vertical direction and for a predetermined length along the horizontal direction. There is the a transition section joining the tail section to the hub section.

Abstract: A railroad car (18) uses a coupling system (10) to couple to other railroad cars. The coupling system includes a coupler (12), a knuckle (14), a knuckle pin (16) and a lock (30). When two railroad cars are coupled to each other, the knuckles of the two railroad cars are engaged and the forces produced during buff and draft movement of the railroad cars are transmitted through the knuckles, the coupler and the locks. Under normal operation, the knuckle pin should experience minimal forces during the buff and draft movement of the railroad cars. However, over time the various components that make up the coupler system may fall out of tolerance due to usage, wear and other factors. As the various components of the coupler system fall out of tolerance, increasing bending forces are applied to the knuckle pin. A knuckle pin with a slot (52) and a hollow body (50) is capable of withstanding bending forces applied to the knuckle pin by out-of-tolerance coupling systems.

Abstract: A Type E railway freight car coupler having an expanded gathering range is achieved by attaching or forming an extension wing extending diagonally outward from an outer end of the gathering arm to thereby provide an extension to the angled gathering surface. The extension wing can either be cast as one piece directly with the coupler, or cast separately and welded onto the coupler.

Abstract: An elongated light-weight, cast draft sill mountable at the end of a center sill of a railway car body, and to which a railway car truck is pivotally mountable, the cast draft sill having a generally hollow, elongated rectangular body, with a pair of elongated, parallel side walls extending perpendicularly from an elongated top wall and further including a draft pocket adjacent to the forward end adapted to receive a coupler yoke and associated draft gear, and a light weight center plate portion which is mateable to a railway car truck spaced from the rearward end of the cast draft sill.

Abstract: A non-binding, slack-adjusting, gravity wedge member for use in a railway slackless drawbar system, the wedge member having a pair of opposed friction faces at an inclined angle to each other, with a first of the faces having at least one recess therein adapted to receive an elastomeric body bonded therein such that an outer, flat surface of the elastomeric body is exposed and spaced outwardly from and parallel to the first face, such that the elastomeric body has an exposed outer flat surface of at least about 35 square inches, and a hardness of at least about 50 durometers.