Footplate of gangway and railway car
The invention provides a thin footplate of superior quality while suppressing noise caused by the footplate. A footplate 10 is formed by connecting extruded shape members 110 arranged in parallel along the width direction of a railway car by a pipe 80, with the upper surface of the extruded shape members 110 used as the walking surface. Adjacent extruded shape members 110 contact each other via bushings 90. Both ends of the pipe 80 are pulled via draft springs 50 and 50 disposed in V-shape onto the underframe. A slip stopper 120 is adhered to the upper surface of the extruded shape members 110. Bottom surfaces of the extruded shape members contact the upper surface of the underframe via sliding members 70. When the railway car passes a curve or the like that causes relative displacement of the cars, the footplate 10 is slid easily. When one of the railway cars is subjected to rolling, each extruded shape member gradually rotates (rolls) along the width direction of the railway car so that crews and the like can easily walk on the footplate.
The present application is based on and claims priority of Japanese patent application No. 2004-337333 filed on Nov. 22, 2004, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a footplate of a gangway provided at a connecting portion of railway cars connected to form a train formation.
2. Description of the Related Art
A gangway is provided at ends of respective cars of a train formation in which railway cars are connected to form a train, so as to enable easy and safe movement of passengers from one car to another.
Generally, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 50-43848 (patent document 1), the gangway is composed of a footplate connected at a longitudinal end of a railway car and overlapped with another footplate, and a bellows connected to the longitudinal end of the railway car to cover the gangway at the longitudinal end of the railway car.
Such conventional gangway is not especially appropriate for application to the latest railway cars that are required to have superior outer appearance.
Japanese Patent No. 3060367 (patent document 2) discloses an art that is aimed at solving the problem and to provide improvement of the appearance. The footplate is placed on an end of the adjacent railway car. Rollers are provided at the bottom surface of the footplate that enable the footplate to move in the width direction when one railway car is displaced in the width direction with respect to another railway car.
The document, however, does not refer to the bellows.
According to the footplate disclosed in patent document 2, a wide gangway in the width direction can be formed.
Generally, in most commuter trains in Japan, there is no particular consideration provided to the design and structure of the gangway. Therefore, in comparison to the passenger cabin with improved interior and exterior design, the design of the gangway has not been improved for a long time.
Especially, according to the gangway disclosed in patent document 1 in which the plates provided at ends of railway cars are overlapped with one another, the vibration and the displacement of railway cars during movement of the train causes noise to be generated from the footplates.
The disclosure of patent document 2 solves the above-mentioned problem of the footplates. However, the footplates disclosed here is arranged so that the footplates deform into a parallelogram when the adjacent car bodies are displaced in the width direction, and requires rollers for supporting the footplate structure, so the thickness of the whole footplate structure is relatively large. Therefore, it is applicable to railway cars in European countries having a relatively large distance between the upper surface of the floor of the railway car and the upper surface of the coupler, but since the railway cars in Japan have couplers that have a height higher by approximately 200 mm than the railway cars in Europe, so the distance between the upper surface of the floor of the railway car and the upper surface of the coupler is not large enough to adopt the disclosed footplate structure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe object of the present invention is to provide a footplate that has a relatively small thickness and generates only a small noise, to improve the overall quality of the gangway including the footplate.
The above object is realized by a footplate provided on a floor of a gangway at a connecting portion between railway cars to enable passengers and the like to move from one car to another, the footplate comprising: a plurality of flat panels disposed in parallel along a longitudinal direction of the railway car that are connected by a connecting member disposed along a width direction of the railway car; wherein the plurality of flat panels are capable of rotating around the connecting member.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
We will now describe a preferred embodiment for carrying out the present invention with reference to
In
In
In
The end plate 85 on one axial end of the pipe 80 is welded onto the pipe 80. The end plate 85 on the other end and the pipe 80 are formed separately. The coil spring 100 is passed through the pipe 80 onto which the end plate 85 is welded, and the bushing 90 is passed through from the other side of the pipe 80 at one end side of the plural extruded shape members 110. After the extruded shape member 110 (bushing 90) on the other end side is passed through, another coil spring 110 is placed and another end plate 85 is attached to the end of the pipe 80. Then, a screw portion of the end plate 85 is screw-engaged with the screw 81 at the end of the pipe 80 so as to fix the members together.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Further, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The technical scope of the present invention is not restricted to the language used in the claims, the embodiment and the summary of the invention, but is extended to the range in which a person skilled in the art could easily substitute based on the present disclosure.
Claims
1. A footplate provided on a floor of a gangway at a connecting portion between railway cars to enable passengers and the like to move from one car to another, the footplate comprising:
- a plurality of flat panels disposed in parallel along a longitudinal direction of the railway car that are connected by a connecting member disposed along a width direction of the railway car; wherein
- the plurality of flat panels are capable of rotating around the connecting member.
2. The footplate according to claim 1, wherein
- the plurality of flat panels has a member with lubricating property at a portion coming into contact with an end portion of the railway car.
3. The footplate according to claim 1, wherein
- the plurality of flat panels has a member with lubricating property at a portion coming into contact with an end portion of the railway car; and
- the member with lubricating property has an arced surface that comes into contact with the end portion of the railway car.
4. The footplate according to claim 1, wherein
- the footplate is connected between a width-direction end of the connecting member and the width-direction end of the railway car via a stretchable coil spring.
5. A railway car comprising:
- a footplate provided on a floor of a gangway at a connecting portion between railway cars to enable passengers and the like to move from one car to another, the footplate comprising:
- a plurality of flat panels disposed in parallel along a longitudinal direction of the railway car that are connected by a connecting member disposed along a width direction of the railway car; wherein
- the plurality of flat panels are capable of rotating around the connecting member.
6. The railway car according to claim 5, wherein
- the plurality of flat panels has a member with lubricating property at a portion coming into contact with an end portion of the railway car; and
- the member with lubricating property has an arced surface that comes into contact with the end portion of the railway car.
7. The railway car according to claim 5, wherein
- a width-direction end of the connecting member and the width-direction end of the railway car are connected via a coil spring.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 24, 2005
Publication Date: May 25, 2006
Inventors: Kenji Kobayashi (Kudamatsu-shi), Seijiro Todori (Hikari-shi), Hidekazu Nakamoto (Kudamatsu-shi)
Application Number: 11/209,738
International Classification: B61D 3/00 (20060101);