Abstract: A damping system for a truck assembly of a rail vehicle includes a first friction shoe configured to engage a first portion of a side frame of the truck assembly, and a first lever pivotally coupled to the first friction shoe.

Abstract: The disclosure discloses a swing bolster, a swing bolster vibration reduction assembly and a bogie. The swing bolster includes a body, wherein a mounting cavity for mounting a friction block is formed in two ends of the body; the mounting cavity is provided with a first horizontal opening and a second horizontal opening, which are opposite to each other; and opening directions of the first horizontal opening and the second horizontal opening are perpendicular to an extending direction of the body. When the swing bolster in the disclosure is used, the friction block is mounted in the mounting cavity of the swing bolster body, and end parts of the friction block extend out of the first horizontal opening and second horizontal opening of the mounting cavity.

Abstract: A railway vehicle local multi-functional component includes a main body. The main body is an aluminum alloy profile, a reinforcing plate is provided on an outer surface of a bottom plate of the aluminum alloy profile as a vehicle lifting pad, built-in threaded seats are provided on an inner surface of the bottom plate of the aluminum alloy profile as a mounting seat for an anti-yaw damper of a bogie, and a through hole integrally formed with the aluminum alloy profile is provided in the aluminum alloy profile as a cable passage. Multifunction is realized by one structure, thus greatly simplifying the vehicle body local structure, and improving structural strength. A railway vehicle including the local multi-functional component is included.

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 dampers may include damper wedges having primary and secondary wedge angles. 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 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 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 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 rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to deflection that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The truck may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.

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 dampers may include damper wedges having primary and secondary wedge angles. 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 rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to self steering that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The trucks may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.

Abstract: Split wedges biased against sloped upper surfaces and the side walls of pockets in the ends of the bolster of a rail car truck are provided with non-metallic wear plates which interface with pocket side walls to reduce or eliminate pocket side wall wear. The wear plates are typically cast polymeric pads selected from the group comprising nylon, Delrin, UHMW and urethane, have a hardness in the range of between about 700° and 900° and a sliding coefficient of friction of about 0.10 to about 0.30. The pads are mounted in recesses within the sidewalls of the wedges and are held in place by means such as threaded fasteners for ease of replacement.

Abstract: An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has a relatively soft suspension and an empty vertical bounce natural frequency of less than 2.0 Hz. The car also has additional ballast to increase the dead sprung weight of the car relative to the weight of the lading. In the embodiments in which multi-unit articulated freight cars are employed, such as for auto rack rail cars, the ballast is located preferentially toward the coupler end trucks. The trucks for the rail car have an increased wheel base and damping located to provide a greater moment arm and bearing face to encourage a higher threshold for rail car hunting.

Abstract: A friction wedge assembly for use in a suspension system of railroad car trucks. The friction wedge assembly comprises a cast metal wedge having a bolster engaging surface, a truck side frame engaging surface and a surface disposed between the bolster engaging surface and the truck side frame engaging surface for engaging a spring that provides the load on the friction wedge assembly. There is a metal bonding matrix disposed on the truck side frame engaging surface of the wedge and a composition liner having a first side engageable with the metal bonding matrix and a radially opposed second side for engaging a metal wear liner on a side frame of such railroad car truck.

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 friction wedge assembly for use in a suspension system of railroad car trucks. The friction wedge assembly comprises a cast metal wedge having a bottom face, a vertical face that is substantially perpendicular to the bottom face and a sloped face for contacting a mating surface on a bolster of such railroad car truck. There is a metal backing plate that has a first side removably engageable with the vertical face of the cast metal wedge, a means for securing the metal backing plate to the cast metal wedge and a composition liner disposed on a second side of the metal backing plate for engaging such metal wear liner on such side frame of such railroad car truck.

Abstract: A friction wedge assembly for use in a suspension system of railroad car trucks. The friction wedge assembly comprises a cast metal wedge having a bottom face, a vertical face that is substantially perpendicular to the bottom face and a sloped face for contacting a mating surface on a bolster of such railroad car truck. There is a metal backing plate that has a first side removably engageable with the vertical face of the cast metal wedge, a means for securing the metal backing plate to the cast metal wedge and a composition liner disposed on a second side of the metal backing plate for engaging such metal wear liner on such side frame of such railroad car truck.

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.

Abstract: A friction wedge for a railroad car truck including a body and a wear member. The body includes a front face having a pocket adapted to removably receive the wear member. The pocket includes a bottom wall and a peripheral side wall extending outwardly from the bottom wall. The wear member includes a wear pad having a first wall and a connector member such as an adhesive layer attached to the first wall. The connector member removably attaches the first wall of the wear pad to the body. The peripheral side wall of the pocket extends around a side wall of the wear pad and prevents lateral sliding movement of the pad member with respect to the bottom wall of the pocket. The wear pad includes a second wall that is adapted to slidably engage the side frame of a railroad car truck to provide dampened movement of the bolster of the truck. The wear pad may be easily removed from the pocket when worn and replaced with a new wear pad while the body may be reused.