Railway car assembly composed of a series of articulately interconnected cars
US4233909A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 28, 1978 |
| Grant date | Nov 18, 1980 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 28, 1998 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY02T30/00
- WIPO fieldTransport
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
A series of relatively lightweight, short, articulately interconnected cars is disclosed for transporting trailers or other cargo containers on a railway. The interior cars of the series include a center sill which constitutes a narrow width underframe and a length substantially equal to the length of a car, a pair of end sills connected perpendicularly to the center sill at opposite ends thereof and having a width extending beyond each side of the center sill, support members interconnecting the ends of the end sills with the center sill, and male and female portions of an articulated connector respectively attached to each end of a car. End cars have one end, constructed similarly, but are provided with conventional semi-automatic couplings on the other end in place of a portion of the articulated connector. The articulated connectors are mounted on a single conventional railway truck which spans the adjacent ends of interconnected cars and further supports the support members. Special configurations of the cars are disclosed for use in a trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) and container-on-flatcar (COFC) environments.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.