Abstract: In order to determine a rail's neutral temperature, the length of an unconstrained piece of steel (or "gage") is compared with a similar length of railroad track rail which is constrained and thereby deflected at most temperatures because of the track structure's tie-in to the earth's surface. The gage represents the length that the counterpart piece of rail would be if it were not constrained by the track's connection to the earth's surface. The difference in length is an analog of an associated rail characteristic, such as the number of degrees that the rail's instantaneous temperature (e.g., in degrees F) is above or below the rail's neutral temperature. Length comparisons are made with precision measuring devices configured to directly read out in conventional units the rail characteristic being considered, such as pounds of force or rail neutral temperature in degrees F.

Abstract: A system for recording railroad track curvature utilizes linear motion transducers between the tracks of a railroad vehicle and the sides of the vehicle, or between adjacent vehicles, to continually measure the degree of curvature together with speed, stopped time and distance. A conventional event recorder is used for actual recording of the curvature information as a trace, which may be recorded on a conventional channel not then in use, such as the dynamic brake set up signal. A switching circuit substitutes that signal for the curvature signal immediately upon the dynamic brakes being applied. Thus substituting load (amps) for the curvature signal in the trace being recorded.

Abstract: A railroad car having an extraordinary height is more efficiently utilized for hauling large highway trucks, each having a cab but no body on the frame behind the cab. Raised platforms are provided for the trucks along both sides of a railroad car, leaving a channel for a lifting device to be moved under its own power. The lifting device first lifts one end of a truck at one end of the car and moves the lifted truck back toward the other end of the car. The process is repeated until the railroad car is full.

Abstract: The position of an event, such as emergency braking, of a railroad vehicle enroute on a track mapped on a chart is accurately recorded by continually sensing the degree and direction of track curvature, and recording the track curvature and event data for later display. Speed is also recorded as a function of time to provide a scale as an aid to interpolation of a recorded event position between recorded curves. The event position thus recorded and identified by nearby curves in the track is accurate to within a small fraction of a mile.

Abstract: A unitary, prefabricated railway car roof and its method of manufacture. Two elongated flat webs of galvanized sheet metal disposed in edge to edge abutting relation, and having a combined width slightly greater than the width of the finished roof, are preferably unwound from rolls and are intermittently moved through a welding station which bonds the two webs together into a single wide sheet. Downstream of the welding station the sheet is fed through dies of a hydraulic stamping press which form transverse corrugations at approximately two foot intervals in the combined sheet to provide stiffening panels extending substantially the full width of the roof, and at the same time to form a gable with the longitudinal weld line being the crest of the gable and defining the longitudinal centerline of the roof.

Abstract: A unitary, prefabricated railway car roof and its method of manufacture. Two elongated flat webs of galvanized sheet metal disposed in edge to edge abutting relation, and having a combined width slightly greater than the width of the finished roof, are preferably unwound from rolls and are intermittently moved through a welding station which bonds the two webs together into a single wide sheet. Downstream of the welding station the sheet is fed through dies of a hydraulic stamping press which form transverse corrugations at approximately two foot intervals in the combined sheet to provide stiffening panels extending substantially the full width of the roof, and at the same time to form a gable with the longitudinal weld line being the crest of the gable and defining the longitudinal centerline of the roof.