Abstract: Articulating devices may be used to combine railroad cars into a semi-permanent unit. Each device includes a male and female connecting member having ends attached respectively to adjacent ends of the railroad car bodies forming the unit. A pin disposed in aligned apertures formed in the outer end of each member forms a joint therebetween. To allow for vertical and horizontal movements between the members during operation of the unit, the pin aperture in the male member is larger than the pin and has a rear surface portion providing a substantial contact area with the pin. To maintain the pin aperture and pin in a controlled slack relationship, the male member is urged forward by a follower which is carried within the female member and engages an end surface of the male member. The position of the follower in turn is regulated by a wedge element which engages a pair of resilient elements carried by the follower.

Abstract: An improved railway truck friction shoe is provided. The contact point of the shoe slope face with the bolster and the spring center line of the shoe are substantially coincident; the contact point is substantially equidistant from the top and bottom edges of the shoe column face. The convex sloped surface of the shoe has a reduced crown radius, and the vertical face of the shoe has an increased length. The shoe is designed to provide a more even distribution of contact pressures across its column face. This results in a longer wear life for the shoe by providing for more uniform wear.

Abstract: Oil, used as a lubricant and coolant in an industrial process, may become contaminated by foreign materials, for example, water and solid particulate. Because of its cost, continued use of the oil is desirous but impossible if the foreign materials are not removed when the concentration of such becomes excessive. By heating the contaminated oil and adding a chemical agent such as an alkaline solution of sodium metasilicate, the oil may be selectively separated from its contaminants allowing its further use.

Abstract: A friction shoe is provided for use in a railway truck. The shoe is placed such that it frictionally engages both a side frame vertical column and the slope surface of the bolster to dampen the oscillating motion of the bolster in the side frame. The shoe is provided with winged extensions and tapered flanges that engage a complementary slope surface and raised flange on the bolster.

Abstract: A wearplate for a column of a railway freight car side frame is attached by fastener means to a column web and additionally is welded to top and bottom lugs of the column web by weld metal in recesses of said lugs and in recesses of the web which communicate with the lug recesses at the side of the plate which seats against the web.

Abstract: An elongated conveying device suitable for connecting spaced work stations, for example, receives a flow of objects such as component parts at an appropriate entrance. The objects are placed on a pair of spaced stationary rails from which the objects are lifted, carried forward and then returned to the stationary rails by a pair of movable rails which is rotated in a circular-shaped cycle. With each cycle of the movable rails, the objects are stepped from the entrance to an exit located some distance away. Because the rate of object input may vary from the rate of part discharge, the conveying device may include holding stations adjacent to the exit allowing the objects to accumulate in a damage resistant manner until removed from the conveying device.

Abstract: Filtering devices wherein solid particulate matter is separated by filter media from a liquid flow often contain conveying means for moving the separated solid particulate to an external point for disposition. One such conveying means usable in filtering devices includes spaced endless chain loops wherein each chain comprises alternate center links pivotally joined by pins to alternate sets of spaced side bars. In each center link is an elongated aperture which in a controlled manner holds an extension bar attached to each end of a traversely positioned flight. The spaced chain may be operatively connected to a source of rotary power to periodically advance the conveying means so that the flights may be moved over a section of the filter media to effectively remove separated particulate matter collected thereon.

Abstract: This relates to a load spring indicator for a railway car truck for indicating the load condition of springs supporting the bolster on the truck side frame. A reference is carried by the bolster and an indicator is carried by the truck side frame. The bolster reference is preferably the lower edge of the bolster gib or side rib while the indicator is an added plate or casting portion having an upper edge alignable with the lower edge of the bolster gib in the light condition of the car and a lower edge alignable with the bolster gib lower edge in the loaded condition of the car when the spring sets are of the proper strength and the car is not overloaded.

Abstract: An alloy steel is provided along with a method of making the same. The alloy is heat, wear, corrosion and oxidation resistant, and is preferably made utilizing powder metallurgy techniques. The method involves the addition of carbon and silicon to an iron base alloy containing chromium to improve the properties of the steel.

Abstract: There is provided a warpage gage for railroad wheels and the like wherein a suitable support such as a fixed plate is fitted with spacers adapted to seat against a planar surface of the wheel. A plurality of displacement gages are carried by the support, each adapted to seat against the planar surface to be gaged. The displacement gages provide an indication of the deviation of the planar surface from a true plane.

Abstract: Particulate matter collected by an environmental air quality control device may be in part toxic in nature and thus not readily disposable. By separating the toxic portion of the particulate matter from a nontoxic portion, disposal of nontoxic portion may be more easily accomplished. This separation may be readily effected where the toxic portion is soluble and the nontoxic portion is insoluble, thus allowing the toxic soluble portion to be formed into a solution with a dissolving liquid. The nontoxic insoluble portion then may be filtered from the toxic solution, rinsed, dried and disposed of accordingly.

Abstract: A rotary type railroad car coupler is provided with a symmetrical and invertible yoke. A yoke collar, constructed so as to be capable of being reversible, is disposed within a cavity of the yoke. In one preferred embodiment, a pin connecting a shank of the coupler to the yoke collar is positioned so as to be equidistant from both ends of the yoke collar. Thus, as one end of the yoke collar becomes worn, the collar can be reversed. Improved yoke collar service life is obtained.

Abstract: An apparatus for the thermal monitoring of railway wheels is provided. The monitor comprises an insert placed into the railway wheel near its rim. If the wheel overheats, the monitor will be released from its location. A subsequent inspection will readily indicate that the wheel has been overheated during operation.

Abstract: A composite friction element suitable for the manufacture of railroad brake shoes of the composition type is prepared from a mixture of a curable rubber binder having distributed therethrough a plurality of fillers and a reinforcing fiber, at least one of the fillers having an oil absorption value of at least 30 and the fiber being formed from an aramid polymer.

Abstract: A piston or wrist pin for joining a pistonhead to a connecting rod commonly used in an internal combustion engine has an elongated hollow cylindrical configuration. The metal chosen for the pin may contain selective amounts of carbon, boron, nickel, chromium, vanadium and other alloying constituents to produce a metallurgical composition which may be selectively heat treated to provide a final structure having physical properties to meet a particular job requirement. The heat treating of the pin may be accomplished in a two step procedure which creates a pin having microstructural zones of residual stress having equal and opposite values.

Abstract: A railroad car coupler having a knuckle in an open position further includes a lock which rests on a tail portion of the knuckle. By providing a continuous clearance between a leg portion of the lock and an end wall of the knuckle tail portion, lock drop reliability is increased substantially upon the knuckle being swung from the open position to a closed position.

Abstract: An aramid fiber rope having a central core surrounded with aramid fiber rope strands. The core and the aramid strands are coated with a heavy viscous lubricant prior to winding the strands into rope. The lubricated rope is then impregnated and surrounded with a plastic material to entrap the lubricant in the core and the strands.

Abstract: A flow of liquid containing suspended solid particles enters a top inlet of a setting tank of a liquid-solid separator. The tank is of such dimensions that the liquid flows in a nonturbulent flow path under a lengthwise partition in the tank and through an outlet weir opening formed in the tank on a side opposite the inlet. From the outlet the liquid may be returned for further use in a process. Under the influence of gravity, a substantial portion of the solids in the flow slowly settles downward and collects to form a cake on a movable collection means serving as part of a bottom of the tank. Periodically the movable collection means is advanced toward a discharge point located exterior to the tank for convenient disposal of the solids collected on the movable surface.

Abstract: A wear liner is provided for the roof of the pedestal jaw of a side frame. Movement of the wear liner relative to the pedestal roof is inhibited by projections extending upwardly from the lateral edges of the wear liner and/or depending legs which extend from the wear liner and cooperate with the stop lugs of the pedestal jaw. The need for conventional welding is reduced or eliminated.

Abstract: A filtration method and apparatus for removing contaminants from liquids, including a deep bed filter comprised of either a single media layer or of two or more vertically superimposed, substantially distinct, contiguous layers of filter material. In the plural layer deep bed filters the lower layers typically consist of materials such as sand or anthracite, which are inherently comprised of nonuniform filter granules, even when graded or sieved to within a fairly restricted mesh size range. The upper layer in the plural layer filters is comprised of filter media granules having substantially identical configurations and sizes to achieve a high layer porosity for reducing the rate of back pressure buildup during the filtration cycle. Additionally, the media granules of the upper layer preferably have a specific gravity of between about 1.05 and 1.4, are preferentially hydrophilic, i.e., water-wetted, as opposed to preferentially oleophilic, and are preferentially cylindrical.