Door assemblies for closing rail car end openings

Abstract

A rail car having an interior cavity and an end opening for loading and unloading lading. A pair of door assemblies, each of which includes a plurality of panels, each pivotally movable with respect to the other for closing at least a portion of the end opening. Pivot means for mounting each of the door assemblies are provided to move the door assemblies between their respective open position and closed position. The pivot means are mounted for movement toward and away from the interior of the rail car to permit storage of the door assemblies within the rail car when their panels are folded back upon one another. The means for moving the pivot means include a guide means in the form of a pair of parallel racks and co-operating pinions drivingly mounted on a common manually driven shaft, one rack and co-operating pinion each at the top portion and the bottom portion of the door assembly. The rack and pinions function to keep the top and bottom portions in register as the folded door assemblies move along tracks extending normal the opening into the interior of the car for storage. The pinion driving shafts are manually driven and include pawl means which hold the doors in storage until the pawl is automatically removed from the teeth of its associated pinion upon manual pulling out of the door assembly. Intermediate locking means on the edges of horizontally disposed lading deck members adjacent the opening are provided, as well as a final locking means which includes a plurality of cams pivoted for movement in unison on a common locking shaft. The shaft includes a locking flange by which vertically movable interference means can selectively restrain the locking flange to prevent rotational movement of the locking shaft for unlocking of the doors. A pivoted sealing lug and appropriately positioned adjacent apertures on the lug and member prevent movement of the interference member during transit of the car.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.