Abstract: A force analysis system and method include a truck assembly that is configured to travel along a track having rails. The truck assembly includes a first side frame, a second side frame, a bolster extending between the first side frame and the second side frame, a first wheel set coupled to the first side frame and the second side frame, a second wheel set coupled to the first side frame and the second side frame, and one or more load cells disposed within the first side frame and/or the second side frame. The load cell(s) are configured to detect forces exerted in relation to the first side frame, the second side frame, and/or the bolster.

Abstract: A railroad car truck including one or two new side frames that each includes one or more of a plurality of different improvements that individually and in various combinations reduce, inhibit, or minimize the likelihood of stress fractures or cracks in the side frame.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a pneumatic suspension for a rail vehicle comprising a body and a bogie, said pneumatic suspension extending between the body and a chassis of the bogie, comprising: at least one secondary pneumatic suspension element for vertically supporting the body on the chassis and capable of being supplied with compressed air at a supply pressure, and a pressure source, wherein it further comprises: a control unit, for each suspension element, a sensor connected to the command unit and able to measure a height between the chassis and the body at the level of said suspension element, and for each suspension element, a solenoid valve connecting said suspension element to the pressure source, said solenoid valve being commanded automatically by an electric command signal, generated by the command unit as a function of the measured height(s).

Abstract: A rail car truck bolster wear plate surface connects to a wear plate using two fasteners of different length. The first fastener passes through an upper opening and an upper channel into a first recess where it can be tightened against a first engaging surface. The second fastener is longer than the first fastener and passes through a lower opening and lower channel into a second recess adjacent to the first recess. The surfaces of the first and second recesses form a series of ribs in the upper end surface between the wear plate surface and the longitudinal centerline of the bolster.

Abstract: A railway freight car bogie includes a side frame, a bolster and a friction damper. The friction damper includes a wedge, a constant friction damping spring, a variable friction damping spring and an ejector rod. The variable friction damping spring in the middle and below the wedge is deviated at a distance in a direction away from a center of the bolster with respect to damping springs at two sides of the variable friction damping spring. An axis of each of the constant friction damping spring and the ejector rod is coincident with an axis of the variable friction damping spring in the middle and below the wedge. The bogie not only has an ideal relative friction coefficient in both an unloaded condition and a loaded condition, a large diamond resistant rigidity, a better vertical dynamics performance and a better transverse dynamics performance.

Abstract: A railway truck includes two parallel side frames, a suspension spring assembly supported by the side frames, and a bolster transversely mounted between the side frames and supported by the suspension spring assembly. Each side frame has at least one vertical support face, and the bolster has at least one sloped support face. A friction shoe includes a bottom base engaging and supported by a support spring, and a sloped wall engaging the sloped support face of the bolster. The friction shoe prevents bolster side wall wear.

Abstract: A friction shoe includes a bottom base engaging and supported by a pair of support springs, and a sloped wall engaging the sloped support face of a bolster. The bottom base includes a cylindrical spring lug that has a center opening that extends through the spring lug. The bottom surface of the spring lug is flat and smooth and is configured to engage an additional concentrically nested support spring. The additional spring increases the force between the vertical support face of the wedge and the vertical wear plate of the side frame.

Abstract: A railroad car truck for a railroad freight car, such as an autorack car, has a bolster mounted cross-wise between two sideframes. The bolster ends are mounted on respective spring groups carried by the sideframes. The bolster can translate laterally relative to the sideframes. The side frames are mounted to swing laterally relative to the wheel sets, and hence relative to the rails. Resistance to lateral deflection is provided by the resistance of the sideframes to the pendulum swinging motion, and by shear in the spring groups. The truck has a doubled damper arrangement of dampers in a four-cornered layout at each end of the bolster, giving a flexing resistance to yaw between the sideframes and the bolster ends. The doubled damper arrangement works against large wear plates mounted on the sideframe columns. The large wear plates are mounted normal to the dampers and square to the sideframes.

Abstract: A vehicle body reinforcement apparatus extending along at least one of a front-rear direction and a width direction of a vehicle body, the vehicle body reinforcement apparatus includes at least two brackets via which the vehicle body reinforcement apparatus is fixed to the vehicle body, a housing connected to one of the two brackets, a rod including a first end portion that is movably housed within the housing and a second end portion connected the other of the two brackets, a spring member disposed between the first end portion of the rod and the housing and applying a biasing force to the rod against a force for increasing and decreasing a distance between the two brackets in an axial direction of the rod, and a friction mechanism mounted to the housing and pressing the rod in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction of the rod.

Abstract: A stabilized railway car truck consists of two side frames and a holster. The bolster has laterally opposite ends, each end extending into and supported within a side frame opening on a spring group. The stabilized railway car truck also includes a transom extending into, and supported within, a side frame opening. The spring group is supported at each transom end. Each side frame has a pedestal opening at each end that receive a rotating lug to accept a elastomeric steering pad and bearing adapter. The attachment of the side frames and transom is a rigid pivotal connection. Friction shoes between the side frames and bolster provide damping of an initial low to a high rate friction once engaged. The pivotal decoupling of the side frame and transom, and the lateral movement of the friction shoes to the bolster, eliminates track displacement irregularities from reacting at the bolster and into the vehicle.

Abstract: A stabilized railway car truck consists of two side frames and a holster. The bolster has laterally opposite ends, each end extending into and supported within a side frame opening on a spring group. The stabilized railway car truck also includes a transom extending into, and supported within, a side frame opening. The spring group is supported at each transom end. Each side frame has a pedestal opening at each end that receive a rotating lug to accept a elastomeric steering pad and bearing adapter. The attachment of the side frames and transom is a rigid pivotal connection. Friction shoes between the side frames and bolster provide damping of an initial low to a high rate friction once engaged. The pivotal decoupling of the side frame and transom, and the lateral movement of the friction shoes to the bolster, eliminates track displacement irregularities from reacting at the bolster and into the vehicle.

Abstract: An improved railway car truck is provided that includes two sideframes and a bolster. The bolster has laterally opposite ends, each end extending into and supported within a sideframe opening on a spring group. Each sideframe also has a pedestal opening at each end to receive a bearing adapter assembly. The railway car truck also includes a transom extending into and supported within a sideframe opening. The spring group is supported at each transom end. A lateral damping cylinder is connected between the bolster and the transom. A vertical damping cylinder is connected between the bolster and the sideframe.

Abstract: A railway truck has two wheel sets, a bolster, and two side frames each having a bolster opening. At least one friction plate is connected to one of the bolster openings, a car body, and end portions of the bolster and extends generally vertically. Two suspension assemblies operatively connect the bolster to the side frames. Each suspension assembly includes at least one load supporting spring biasing a corresponding end portion of the bolster upwardly, two wedges disposed on either side of the at least one friction plate, and two springs biasing the wedges. Each wedge has a generally vertical and a sloping face. The two springs bias the sloping faces of the wedges against corresponding sloping faces provided in one of the bolster openings and end portions of the bolster such that the generally vertical faces of the wedges are pressed into contact with the at least one friction plate.

Abstract: A single-piece friction wedge for use in damping relative movement between a bolster and a side frame of a railroad car truck includes a generally horizontal bottom surface, a generally vertical front surface, and a back surface oriented at an acute primary angle with respect to the front surface. The back surface has first and second sloped surfaces which are angled toward each other. A damping system employing such a friction wedge includes a bolster pocket insert. The bolster pocket insert is configured to be at least partially received within a pocket of the bolster and has an inner face configured to engage the pocket of the bolster and an outer face configured to engage at least one of the first and second sloped surfaces of the back surface of the friction wedge.

Abstract: A freight rail car suspension has independent but co-operating springs; a first spring is load carrying and has a variable damping function and a second control spring operates on a friction shoe to apply a constant damping component. A practical embodiment has a friction shoe engaged for vertical displacement by the first spring which is mounted on a side frame and the second spring is obliquely arranged between the bolster of the bogie and the friction shoe, which has guides to cause it to move into greater frictional engagement upon load being applied through the spring. This arrangement provides a dual damping characteristic involving both constant damping and variable damping forces.

Abstract: A freight rail car suspension has independent but co-operating springs; a first spring is load carrying and has a variable damping function and a second control spring operates on a friction shoe to apply a constant damping component. A practical embodiment has a friction shoe engaged for vertical displacement by the first spring which is mounted on a side frame and the second spring is obliquely arranged between the bolster of the bogie and the friction shoe, which has guides to cause it to move into greater frictional engagement upon load being applied through the spring. This arrangement provides a dual damping characteristic involving both constant damping and variable damping forces.

Abstract: A suspension for a rail vehicle includes a bogie pedestal 10, an axle box 11 and suspension springs 16, 18 and 19 arranged such that the axle box supports load exerted on the pedestal via the springs. The suspension includes a pair of wedge elements 20 urged, by means of springs 18 and 19, into engagement with faces 30 of the pedestal and faces 21 of the axle box. This engagement causes damping of axle box movements. Wedge elements 20 are urged resiliently in opposing directions A and B into frictional slidable contact at the faces 21 by means of additional preset springs 40 mounted at the pedestal 11. This further urging is independent of the load carried by the springs and provides improved suspension characteristics.

Abstract: An improved three-piece truck system for railroad cars provides long travel side bearings for improved stability, a “wide” friction shoe design or equivalent to improve sideframe and bolster squareness, a resilient pedestal pad for improved curving performance and enhanced wear resistance, and a suspension system tuned and optimized for rail cars to have a minimum reserve capacity of less than 1.5 to improve motion control and ride quality, increase resistance to suspension bottoming, and increase hunting threshold speed. Such a motion control truck system is able to meet recent, more stringent American Association of Railroads standards, such as M-976, for railcars having a 286,000 lb. gross rail load rating.

Abstract: A BWR jet pump assembly has a wedge slidably mounted on a jet pump that is movable under the force of gravity to seat between a bracket and the jet pump in order to horizontally support the jet pump against vibrations. The wedge or the bracket is repaired in situ by: providing a spacer layer between mating surfaces of the wedge and the bracket; and then lowering the wedge until the spacer layer is between and in contact with the wedge and the bracket.

Abstract: An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has trucks that have multiple dampers in a four corner arrangement in the sideframes. The spring groups in the side frames are relatively soft, giving a low vertical bounce natural frequency. In an articulated embodiment, differentially placed ballast is mounted in a biased arrangement to load the coupler end trucks to encourage a dynamic response similar to the dynamic response of the internal trucks.

Abstract: A damping system for a rail car truck utilizes friction wedges supported on side springs to damp relative movement between the rail car truck bolster and the side frames supporting it. Each friction wedge has a generally triangular shape with an angle &thgr; defined between a vertical friction surface which bears against a side frame and a sloping friction surface which moves relative to the bolster. The angle &thgr; and the force P of each side spring are defined by Fw W .

Abstract: A friction shoe is provided for use in a railway freight car truck. A freight car truck comprises two laterally spaced sideframes with a bolster extending transversely between said sideframes. The bolster has two ends each of which extends into an opening in each sideframe and is supported by a spring group in each sideframe opening. A friction shoe is provided in a sloped pocket between each bolster end and a vertical face of the sideframe. The friction shoes are themselves comprised of a sloped wall, a vertical rear wall extending from a lower part of the rear wall to a lower part of the sloped wall, and side support walls. The friction shoe provides damping for the bolster supported on each spring group. The friction shoe of the present invention also includes generally circular openings in the side support walls.