Abstract: Bottom discharge hopper rail cars generally have a chassis on flanged wheels, and a hopper body mounted on the chassis and including transversely and longitudinally extending edges which border a discharge opening from the body. In the present invention, the opening is wholly or substantially wholly at a level below the tops of the wheels but above the bottoms of the wheels and extends at least partly between pairs of said flanged wheels.

Abstract: A bottom discharge hopper rail car train includes a pair of hopper rail cars each having a hopper body mounted on a chassis. Adjacent ends of the two hopper rail cars are supported by a split bogie assembly having bogie parts each pivotally mounted at an end region of a respective rail car and each including a pair of flanged wheels rotatable about a common axis. In this invention, the bogie parts are mounted adjacent to one another and each have formations for co-operating with complementary formations on the other bogie part for co-operating movement of the bogie parts of the assembly with respect to one another when the assembly moves along a curved track. The invention also extends to a split bogie assembly.