Abstract: A railroad rail support system is provided which utilizes tire carcasses filled with annular concrete cores. Railroad rails are attached to the concrete tire carcasses by means of load distribution plates anchored to the concrete cores and hold-down clips which are attached to the load distribution plates and retain the rail flanges against lateral and excessive vertical displacement with respect to the load distribution plates. Gage bars may extend between opposed pairs of ties and be anchored in the concrete cores to retain proper gage spacing of the rails.

Abstract: A unit train consisting of a plurality of hopper cars and a multi-purpose trailer car. The hoppers cars have one or more hoppers each having a bottom discharge opening and a controllable gate. An endless belt conveyor traverses the length of the train including a portion of the trailer car, and underlies the hopper discharge gates so that the hoppers may be emptied sequentially onto the train conveyor to unload the entire train. The trailer car includes a lift portion of the train conveyor to elevate the material for discharge onto a transfer conveyor carried on the trailer car. The elongated transfer conveyor is pivotally mounted at the receiving end to be swung laterally to discharge the material received from the train conveyor at some selected point relative to the trailer car. The trailer car may include the power systems and control systems for operating the conveyors and the hopper gates.

Abstract: A unit train consists of a plurality of hopper cars and a multi-purpose trailer car. The hopper cars have one or more hoppers each having a bottom discharge opening and a controller gate. The hopper cars are constructed with load bearing side sills to provide an unobstructed longitudinal channel immediately above the wheel axles and between the wheels. An endless belt conveyor traverses the length of the train including a portion of the trailer car within those car channels, and underlies the hopper discharge gates so that the hoppers may be emptied sequentially onto the train conveyor to unload the entire train. The trailer car includes a lift portion of the train conveyor to elevate the material for discharge onto a transfer conveyor carried on the trailer car. The elongated transfer conveyor is pivotally mounted at the receiving end to be swung laterally to discharge the material received from the train conveyor at some selected point relative to the trailer car.