Abstract: A freight car is constructed with an undercarriage having a flat cargo floor and with an upright fixed end wall at each end of the floor. A gantry in the form of an arch extends upwardly from the floor substantially centrally between the end walls and a hood support rail extends between the fixed end walls on each side of the floor. The space above the floor is covered by a hood which is of a length to extend between the gantry and one end wall and which includes a roof portion which overlies the gantry and the one end wall and side wall portions which extend downwardly from each side of the roof. The side wall portions carry rollers or casters which are engageable with the rail for supporting the hood for movement along the rail. The hood may be moved when it is in an open position along the rail for example to completely uncover the space between the gantry and one end wall.

Abstract: The sliding wall includes a central wall section and two end wall sections, with the sections being co-planar in the closed state and movable, transversely of the car, out of the closing plane and into a shifting plane in which they are displaceable longitudinally of the car past closed wall sections. During shifting, the sliding wall sections are supported by rollers engageable with a rail, provided in an upper longitudinal stringer, and with the outer lateral surface of an outer lower longitudinal supporting beam, the stringer and the supporting beam forming, in cooperation with two corner posts, a side frame of the freight car. The upper rail is a single rectilinear and uninterrupted rail extending substantially the full length of the upper stringer. Each end section has, in the upper portion of its end adjacent the central section, an outwardly opening pocket having a horizontal catch member extending thereacross.