Abstract: A rail bogie air suspension for a convertible rail-highway semi-trailer using an invaginating air bag secured between an upper air chamber member affixed to the underside of the rear frame of a vehicle and a load support leg assembly, a bumper carried by said upper air chamber member, a plate and shaft assembly spring urged towards said bumper and a pneumatically operable pin supporting said plate and shaft assembly whereby, when air is vented from the bag, air pressure is simultaneously provided which acts on a member that retracts the pin and allows the bumper plate and shaft assembly to move past the pin under the weight of the vehicle to allow the entire assembly to fully retract for the proper elevated stored position of the bogie during the highway mode.

Abstract: In a convertible rail-highway semi-trailer a mechanism for lifting and retaining a rail wheel-set axle unit or bogie in an elevated stored position in the highway mode when the highway wheels engage the ground. The mechanism includes hooks pre-set to engage the bogie when the body has been lowered and to retain the bogie as the body rises when the air springs of the highway wheel-set axle unit are inflated to convert from the rail to highway mode. The mechanism also includes a device to keep the hooks disengaged from the rail bogie when the air springs of the rail bogie are inflated and the flanged railroad wheels engage the tracks and the highway wheels are in an elevated inoperative position. The mechanism is also provided with a valve device to prevent inflation of the rail bogie air springs when the latter is in its elevated stored position.

Abstract: An air control system is provided for a vehicle convertible between highway and railway modes of travel. A main body on the vehicles includes a highway wheel-set axle unit and a rail wheel-set axle unit. The vehicle is designed so that one wheel-set axle unit is stored in an upper position while the other is in the lowered operative position. During a transfer from the highway mode of travel to the railroad mode of travel, or vice-versa, an air control system selectively allows the wheel-set axle units to be positioned in either the raised or lowered position dependent upon the mode of travel to be used. Rail suspension air springs are connected between the main body of the vehicle and the rail wheel-set axle unit and highway suspension air springs are connected between the body and the highway wheel-set axle units.

Abstract: A coupler to connect rail-highway vehicles end to end including a female member at the end of one vehicle into which extends a sensing member, a male member at the end of an adjacent vehicle adapted to enter the female member, the male member including a vertical hole therethrough, and linkage connecting the sensing member with a vertical locking pin so that as the male member approaches its fully inserted position in the female member it contacts the sensing member and actuates the linkage to automatically urge the vertical locking pin through the vertical hole, the assembly being such that the weight of the vertical locking pin cannot retract from the vertical hole and cause an unlocking action to occur. In the uncoupling action, the vertical locking pin is first retracted and upon full withdrawal of the male member, the sensing member re-enters the female member, the entire assembly then being reset for automatic coupling when necessary.

Abstract: A coupler to connect convertible rail-highway vehicles end to end to achieve train configuration to carry vertical loads of about 25,000 pounds and at the same time provide limited rolling, pitching and yaw actions between the coupled vehicles. The coupler includes a male member extending from the front of a rear vehicle and a female member in the rear sill structure of a forward vehicle receiving the male member and a releasable locking means comprised of a vertical hole through the male member, a bushing in the vertical hole, the outer surface of which bushing is spherical, a spherical seat in the rear sill structure upon which the male member rests, a vertical locking pin, the vertical axis of the hole, spherical seat and locking pin being the same, and linkage means to selectively extend the locking pin through the vertical hole in the male member to effect coupling and uncoupling.

Abstract: A convertible semi-trailer having over-the-road or highway running gear with rubber tired wheels and a flanged rail wheel-set and bogie, the body being supported upon said highway running gear and upon said railroad bogie independently by air spring means associated with the rail wheel-set axle unit and with the highway running gear and means to alternately raise and lower the highway running gear and railroad bogie for selective use in the railroad mode or highway mode of travel, the semi-trailers being couplable end-to-end to form a train of multiple semi-trailers in the railroad mode of travel. The highway running gear may be of the single axle or the tandem axle type, in each case each axle carrying dual sets of tires of conventional size allowing loads as high as legally permitted to be carried over the road in the highway mode of travel, the railroad bogie having a single axle wheel set of approximately 60,000 lb. capacity.

Abstract: A self-steering wheel set for a railway vehicle, particularly a convertible rail-highway semi-trailer, wherein an arcuate member is secured transversely beneath the vehicle body and a wheel-set unit or bogie is provided comprising a yoke to which a tongue is fixedly secured at its rear end, the front end of the tongue having means slidably mounting the tongue on and capturing the arcuate member, an axle and flanged wheels mounted on the yoke and air spring means supporting the vehicle on the yoke, whereby the tongue acts as a tow bar, the connection between the free end of the tongue and the arcuate member is such that it is capable of taking torque reactions, the tongue and its connection to the yoke is such that it is capable of taking longitudinal brake reaction and the bogie follows the curvature of the rails.