Abstract: The sideframe and bolster of a railway car truck are constructed such that basic overall sideframe and bolster appearance is maintained, but the actual material it is constructed of is changed. The material used is changed from cast steel to an austempered metal, such as, cast austempered ductile iron; whereas cast iron has a density, 0.26 lbs/in{circumflex over (?)}3, which is approximately 8% less than steel, 0.283 lbs/in{circumflex over (?)}3. This immediately allows for a reduction in weight. A second benefit is that iron is easier to pour than steel and actually increases in volume, slightly, as metal cools compared to steel which shrinks. Efficient use of materials is improved, meaning less metal is used to make the same final shape, as a way of reducing the sideframe and bolster weight. Both factures combined allow for a lighter weight railway car truck, sideframe and bolster, while utilizing standard designs.

Abstract: A rail road car truck has a bolster having the form of a hollow beam that has a deep central portion and shallow ends. The bolster has a top flange, a bottom flange and internal and external webs extending between, intersecting and merging with the top and bottom flanges. A center plate bowl is located in the middle of the top flange, and brake rod passages are defined transversely through the bolster. In some embodiments, transverse ribs run underneath the center plate bowl. The ribs may be curved. The ribs may be flush with the brake rod openings in the various webs. There may be upwardly standing ribs running transversely across the bottom flange. Those lower ribs may terminate upwardly flush with the brake rod openings. Alternatively, the bottom portion of the bolster may by cast with a greater thickness, up to the bottom of the break rod openings. In other embodiments, the bolster may have partial or fully tubular brake rod opening liners or tubes that extend across the bolster beneath the center plate.

Abstract: An open top container for transporting loads and a rail for strengthening an upper rim of the container's peripheral wall. The rail includes a U-shaped first region including first, second, and third legs secured end-to-end; and an F-shaped second region comprising a base with first and second arms extending downwardly from the base. The base is secured end-to-end with the third leg of the first region. A first strengthening rib extends outwardly from the first region and toward the container's wall. The first rib is laterally spaced from the wall but runs parallel thereto for substantially the entire length of the rail. A second rib vertically spaced from the first rib but parallel thereto may also extend outwardly from the first region and toward the container's wall. The rail increases progressively in thickness from the first leg to the second leg, then the third leg, and finally the base.

Abstract: An open top container for transporting loads and a rail for strengthening an upper rim of the container's peripheral wall. The rail includes a U-shaped first region including first, second, and third legs secured end-to-end; and an F-shaped second region comprising a base with first and second arms extending downwardly from the base. The base is secured end-to-end with the third leg of the first region. A first strengthening rib extends outwardly from the first region and toward the container's wall. The first rib is laterally spaced from the wall but runs parallel thereto for substantially the entire length of the rail. A second rib vertically spaced from the first rib but parallel thereto may also extend outwardly from the first region and toward the container's wall. The rail increases progressively in thickness from the first leg to the second leg, then the third leg, and finally the base.

Abstract: An open top container for transporting loads and a rail for strengthening an upper rim of the container's peripheral wall. The rail includes a U-shaped first region including first, second, and third legs secured end-to-end; and an F-shaped second region comprising a base with first and second arms extending downwardly from the base. The base is secured end-to-end with the third leg of the first region. A first strengthening rib extends outwardly from the first region and toward the container's wall. The first rib is laterally spaced from the wall but runs parallel thereto for substantially the entire length of the rail. A second rib vertically spaced from the first rib but parallel thereto may also extend outwardly from the first region and toward the container's wall. The rail increases progressively in thickness from the first leg to the second leg, then the third leg, and finally the base.

Abstract: A running gear frame for a rail vehicle includes a central transverse beam, and two longitudinal beams connected together in a frame transverse direction via the transverse beam, wherein the transverse beam has at least a front web element, a rear web element and a transverse beam lower chord. The web elements run between the longitudinal beams in the frame transverse direction and in a frame height direction and are connected therewith and are arranged spaced apart in a frame longitudinal direction. The transverse beam lower chord extends on an underside of the transverse beam between the longitudinal beams and is connected with the web elements. Furthermore, the transverse beam lower chord extends beyond the front web element and/or the rear web element by at least 10% of the web element distance.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a bolster of a railway car truck includes providing a drag portion and a cope portion of a mold. In a main body section of the mold, a parting line that separates the drag portion from the cope portion is substantially centered between portions of the mold that define brake window openings in sides of the bolster. One or more cores are inserted into the mold and a molten material is poured into the mold to thereby case the bolster.

Abstract: There is disclosed a light weight truck bolster for railway car trucks. Metal has been removed in the compression and tension members of the bolster near the center bowl. One longitudinal rib is located in each end of the bolster arms and a pair of transversely extending vertical ribs are located on opposing sides of the center bowl and extend from the tension member to the compression member. The disclosed light weight truck bolster satisfies the Association of American Railroads (“A.A.R.”) design qualifications for truck bolsters while weighing significantly less than traditional truck bolsters.

Abstract: There is disclosed a light weight truck bolster for railway car trucks. Metal has been removed in the compression and tension members of the bolster near the center bowl. One longitudinal rib is located in each end of the bolster arms and a pair of transversely extending vertical ribs are located on opposing sides of the center bowl and extend from the tension member to the compression member. The disclosed light weight truck bolster satisfies the Association of American Railroads (“A.A.R.”) design qualifications for truck bolsters while weighing significantly less than traditional truck bolsters.

Abstract: A bogie for a railway vehicle which is supported on wheels mounted on at least two axles wherein the bogie includes a chassis which includes at least one housing in the form of a tubular beam which receives a side member which connects the at least two axles. The side member is selected based upon the anticipated use of the railway vehicle to which the bogie is to be secured.

Abstract: A railway vehicle bogie made of composite material which includes at least one elongated rigid support secured in a chassis made of composite material. The support is adapted to removably receive fasteners for mounting functional elements of the bogie at a plurality of locations along the length of the support. The process includes disposing the elongated rigid support in a mold before the bogie chassis is cast.

Abstract: There is disclosed a light weight truck bolster for railway car trucks. Metal has been removed in the compression and tension members of the bolster near the center bowl. One longitudinal rib is located in each end of the bolster arms and a pair of transversely extending vertical ribs are located on opposing sides of the center bowl and extend from the tension member to the compression member. The disclosed light weight truck bolster satisfies the Association of American Railroads (“A.A.R.”) design qualifications for truck bolsters while weighing significantly less than traditional truck bolsters.

Abstract: An improvement in cast metal bolsters for railway trucks is disclosed. The bolster has a top wall, a bottom wall and sidewalls. All of the walls have interior and exterior surfaces. Two transverse ribs extend between the top wall and bottom wall and two spaced longitudinal ribs extend from the top wall to the bottom wall. The bolster has a top portion, a bottom portion, a central vertical longitudinal plane between the sidewalls and a perpendicular vertical transverse plane. The transverse ribs have opposite faces in the top portion and in the bottom portion. A vertical plane extends between the opposite faces of the transverse ribs in the top portion and in the bottom portion. The opposite faces of the transverse ribs in the top portion do not diverge from a vertical plane in the same direction and opposite faces in the bottom portion that do not diverge from a vertical plane in the same direction. The transverse ribs may have a vertical plane of symmetry.

Abstract: A bolster for a railroad car truck is described as having a generally hollow, box-like construction between its opposing ends which are transformed into I-shaped sections which are rigidly secured to the sideframes. The box-like frame provides the stiffness or rigidity necessary to resist high vertical and longitudinal loads which can cause the bolster to bend during operation of the truck. The I-shaped sections are relatively more flexible than the box-like frame to accommodate or absorb the twist loads that are encountered while being rigid enough to resist the loads that can cause the bolster to bend.

Abstract: A bolster of a railroad car truck is shallow and has a unique reinforcement rib which extends longitudinally of the bolster between a pair of stops which are designed to engage adjacent abutments which are carried by a transom to limit relative axial movement between the bolster and transom. The transom is generally flat and is provided with an elongated slot between the abutments to receive the reinforcement rib should the bolster, under load, deflect toward the transom a distance where the rib would contact the transom, if it were not for the slot in the transom.

Abstract: A light weight fatigue resistant cast steel bolster for a freight railcar truck without any opening in the bolster bottom wall having internal risers connected to the bottom wall at bend points and with a ratio of metal in the top and bottom walls that lessens the distance of the neutral axis above the bolster bottom wall as compared to comparable prior art bolsters.

Abstract: A bolster for use in a railroad car truck has spring seat areas at the outer ends and a generally central section intermediate the spring seat areas and generally of substantially greater depth than the spring seat areas. A vertical reinforcing rib extends from the central section into the spring seat areas. The central section has slanted bottom walls which merge with the bottom walls of the spring seat areas. The spring seat areas and central section are subject to loading in opposite vertical directions thereby creating areas of localized bending stress at the junction of the spring seat bottom walls and the central section slanted bottom walls. The improvement of the present invention is specific to means for reducing such localized bending stress and includes vertical reinforcing rib means extending from the spring seat areas into the central section and being positioned on opposite sides of the vertical reinforcing rib.

Abstract: A railroad car truck bolster has a centrally disposed vertically arranged longitudinally extending web. The web has spaced reinforcing means with the spacing of the reinforcing means being sufficient to cause certain fractures in the web propagating along lines of maximum shear stress at approximately 45 degrees to lines of principal stress to reach a reinforcing means at a point closer to the neutral axis of the web than the next adjacent external surface of the web. The bolster side walls have openings with the above-described spaced web reinforcing means being generally in alignment with the bolster side wall openings.

Abstract: Railway rolling-stock truck bolster or cross-member provided with a bearing for receiving the vertical pintle of the vehicle, wherein at least one of a first pair of front and rear sectors of the upper edge of the bearing, facing the front and rear end of the vehicle, respectively, is substantially tangent, in a central area, to the upper edge of a corresponding lateral wall portion of the cross member, at least one of the sectors of the first front and rear sectors of the upper edge of the bearing is connected via a pair of skew surface portions each beginning in each one of two lateral portions of said sector to a pair of inclined lateral surfaces of the cross member.

Abstract: Bolster re-enforcement systems, applicable both to new and existing bolster designs, provide for pre-stressing the bottom bolster center plate region utilizing lugs transmitting tension forces in opposition to the stress pattern applied to the center region of the bolster as the result of vertical loading associated with normal operating conditions.

Abstract: A bolster for a railway car truck having an obstacle-free cavity located below a center plate so as to more readily accommodate truck linkage members, brake apparatus and other associated mechanical components. The obstacle-free cavity is defined by a top and a bottom member, sidewalls each having an elliptical opening therein and two spaced vertically inclined lateral ribs which distribute the weight of a body of the car between the top and bottom members.