Counterbalanced deck for railroad freight car
AssigneeGunderson LLC
InventorJames Jarvis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A railroad car includes a body having a pair of side walls and at least a pair of parallel horizontal support beams extending along the side walls at substantially the same height. A movable end portion of a deck built as a lightweight composite structure may pivot with respect to the pair of support beams. A respective counterbalance apparatus is arranged between each of the pair of side walls and the movable deck portion at a location spaced apart from the pivot axis so as to provide a lifting force acting on the movable end portion to urge it to pivot upward about the pivot axis.
Claims14
In combination with a railroad freight car body having a length, a deck having a selectively raisable end portion comprising:
- (a) a core of low density material, said core having a length oriented along said length of said car body;
- and
- (b) a skin of fiber reinforced plastics adhered to said core, wherein said end portion has a concave bottom surface.
A selectively raisable end portion of a deck for a railroad freight car body, said end portion comprising:
- (a) a core of low density material having a length and width oriented to correspond with said length and width of said railroad freight car;
- (b) a skin of fiber reinforced plastics material adhered to said core, said skin having a nominal thickness;
- and
- (c) said end portion being movably engaged with an interior portion of said deck about a pivot axis defined by a hinge member mounted to said end portion by at least one fastener, and said skin having a thickness around said fastener that is greater than said nominal thickness.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.