Abstract: An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has trucks that have multiple dampers in a four corner arrangement in the sideframes. The dampers may include damper wedges having primary and secondary wedge angles. The spring groups in the side frames are relatively soft, giving a low vertical bounce natural frequency. In an articulated embodiment, differentially placed ballast is mounted in a biased arrangement to load the coupler end trucks to encourage a dynamic response similar to the dynamic response of the internal trucks.

Abstract: A railroad car truck bolster may be formed as a steel casting. That bolster may include side bearing fitting access sockets located abreast of the side bearing seats. It may also include substantially continuous internal cavities to either side of a cross-wise internal vertical web plate mounted under the center plate bowl. The truck bolster may have large brake rod apertures that have large radii of curvature, and that may be bounded internally be a shear reinforcement at the vertical plane of the truck mid-span centerline, and another shear reinforcement spaced laterally outboard of the mid-span vertical plane. The webs of the bolster may be substantially imperforate outboard of the brake rod openings. The brake rod openings may have a profile that is large enough to accept either conventional or Wabco brake rods. The end portions of the truck bolster may include bolster pockets that have both primary and secondary wedge angles.

Abstract: An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car employs wheels that are greater than 33 inches in diameter.

Abstract: A swing motion rail road freight car truck is provided that has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The side frames have spring seats for the groups of springs. The springs seats may be rigidly mounted in the side frames. Friction dampers are provided in inboard and outboard pairs. The biasing force on the dampers urges then to that act between the bolster ands and sideframes to resist parallelogram deflection of the truck. The bearing adapters and sideframe pedestal seats interact on a rolling linear contact interface that has a relatively small radius of curvature.

Abstract: A gondola car has a body for lading carried on an underframe. The underframe includes a center sill and cross-bearers. The car has deep side beams having top chords, side sills, and side sheets. The lower portion of the car includes tubs that seat between the cross-bearers. The car may have an internal volume of more than 8000 cu. ft. The car may have rotary dump claw sockets. The car has opposed internal and external stiffeners aligned at the longitudinal stations of the cross-bearers. The internal stiffeners may be triangular cantilevers extending upwardly inside the side sheets. The side sheet lies intermediate the stiffeners and their flanges. The top chords may be wider in cross-section than the side sills. The side sills may define torque tubes that co-operate with the sidewall stiffeners and the top chords to resist lateral deflection. The car may include a false deck, or dog-house at one end to accommodate the brake reservoir and brake valve, such that the car is longitudinally asymmetric.

Abstract: A railroad freight car may have a body for carrying lading. The body may be a gondola car body. The car body may include a decking or floor structure, and may include longitudinally extending side beams bordering the floor structure. The connection of the side beams to the floor structure may be may without the use of a dedicated side sill. The car body structure may include cross-bearers and side beam stiffeners that are joined together by structural knees. The car body may also include clean out ports to facilitate cleaning of the lading receptacle.

Abstract: An auto rack rail road car has a main deck and upper deck. It is provided with a door for controlling access thereto. The door is a radial arm door, and has a ladder mounted thereon by which personnel can ascend the second deck when the door is open. A second ladder is mounted to the first deck so that when the door is open the second ladder is positioned to co-operate with the first ladder. The arcuate path of the door is free from overhanging obstructions. The door also has internal and external weld-free stiffeners member for enhancing the rigidity thereof. A roller mounted to the door permits the door to be moved between open and closed positions. The door may further include a lock. A guide member protruding from the door co-operates with a groove in the main deck which slidingly guides the door as it moves between open and closed positions to control access to the car.

Abstract: 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 such that the bolster can move laterally relative to the sideframes. The range of travel of the bolster may be greater when the car is fully laded than the car has no lading. This may be achieved by the use of tapered bolster gibs. Friction dampers are mounted to work between the bolster and the sideframes. 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. The friction dampers may be mounted in a four-cornered arrangement at each end of the truck bolster.

Abstract: A swing motion rail road freight car truck is provided that does not have lateral underslung cross bracing in the nature of a transom, a frame brace, or lateral rods. The truck has a truck bolster and a pair of sideframes, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the sideframes. The sideframes have spring seats for the groups of springs. The springs seats may be on rockers, or may be rigidly mounted in the sideframes. Friction dampers are provided in inboard and outboard pairs. The biasing force on the dampers urges then to that act between the bolster ands and sideframes to resist parallelogram deflection of the truck.

Abstract: A rail road car truck has side frames mounted to rock on the wheelsets. A bolster is mounted cross-wise on the sideframes, each end of the bolster being seated on a spring group, each spring group being seated in one of the sideframe windows. The bolster has damper groups mounted at each end to work between the end of the bolster and the columns of the sideframe windows. The truck has a dynamic response to lateral perturbations that includes a first component due to the swinging of the sideframes on the sideframe pedestal rockers, and a second component that is due to lateral shear in the main spring groups. The pendulum action may tend to be softer than the lateral shear in the springs, and so therefore may tend to dominate the lateral response. This swing-dominant lateral response may be combined with a multiple damper arrangement.

Abstract: An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has trucks that have multiple dampers in a four corner arrangement in the sideframes. The dampers may include damper wedges having primary and secondary wedge angles. The spring groups in the side frames are relatively soft, giving a low vertical bounce natural frequency. In an articulated embodiment, differentially placed ballast is mounted in a biased arrangement to load the coupler end trucks to encourage a dynamic response similar to the dynamic response of the internal trucks.

Abstract: A railroad freight car may have a body for carrying lading. The body may be a gondola car body. The car body may include a decking or floor structure, and may include longitudinally extending side beams bordering the floor structure. The connection of the side beams to the floor structure may be may without the use of a dedicated side sill. The car body structure may include cross-bearers and side beam stiffeners that are joined together by structural knees. The car body may also include clean out ports to facilitate cleaning of the lading receptacle.

Abstract: A well car for carrying shipping containers has a pair of end structures supported by rail car trucks, a pair of first and second spaced apart side beams extending between the end structures and a well defined therebetween. A container support cross member is mounted between the side sills in a position to support an end of a shipping container load carried within the well. The container support cross member may be a monolithic beam member with a attachment fitting formed at an end thereof. The attachment fitting is connectable to a side sill at a moment connection. The remaining end of the cross member is similarly configured and connected to the second side sill. Each end of the cross member has load bearing surface portions which may be used for supporting a corner of a shipping container. The moment connections permit a bending moment to be carried by the cross member between the first and second side sills.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A swing motion rail road freight car truck is provided that has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The side frames have spring seats for the groups of springs. The springs seats may be rigidly mounted in the side frames. Friction dampers are provided in inboard and outboard pairs. The biasing force on the dampers urges then to that act between the bolster ands and sideframes to resist parallelogram deflection of the truck. The bearing adapters and sideframe pedestal seats interact on a rolling linear contact interface that has a relatively small radius of curvature.

Abstract: A flow through railroad freight car may include a body having a containment structure. The body may be mounted upon railcar trucks for rolling motion along railroad car tracks. The containment structure may include one or more hoppers, each of which may have inflow and outflow ports, by which means lading may be introduced into the car, or discharged from it. The inflows may include an upper intake, which may be a series of hatches and hatch coamings. The hatch coamings may stand outwardly from the containment structure, and may also having internally extending skirts. In one instance, the skirts may be of a first length corresponding to a first fill level, or volume, for use with lading of a first density. The length of the skirt may be adjusted at a later time to correspond to a second fill level, or volume, for use with lading of a second density.

Abstract: 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 self steering that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The trucks 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.

Abstract: An hollow railroad car may be a have a lading containment structure that is a pressure vessel. The car may be a covered hopper car having one or more hopper discharge sections. Each hopper discharge section may include a transition from a substantially rectangular upper inlet to a substantially circular outlet. The transition may include developed plate formed as partial conic sections fitted as valleys between respective pairs of fore-and-aft slope sheets and side slope sheets. The car may have substantially planar internal ring reinforcement assemblies that serve to form a jig and a welding surface for the fore-and-aft slope sheet, a self-jig for the skins of the side wall and roof sheets, and which define buckling nodes for longitudinal compression of the car. The rings form local T-sections in combination with the adjacent wall skins, and do not employ out-of-plane formed sections such as hat sections. The reinforcement may be fabricated from flat sheet or flat bar.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A well car for carrying shipping containers has a pair of end structures supported by rail car trucks, a pair of first and second spaced apart side beams extending between the end structures and a well defined therebetween. A container support cross member is mounted between the side sills in a position to support an end of a shipping container load carried within the well. The container support cross member may be a monolithic beam member with a attachment fitting formed at an end thereof. The attachment fitting is connectable to a side sill at a moment connection. The remaining end of the cross member is similarly configured and connected to the second side sill. Each end of the cross member has load bearing surface portions which may be used for supporting a corner of a shipping container. The moment connections permit a bending moment to be carried by the cross member between the first and second side sills.