Trough hatch locking device
AssigneePullman Incorporated
InventorsGeorge A. Tedesco, Marvin Stark
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A locking device for railway hopper cars having continuous trough hatch openings and a plurality of associated hinged covers arranged end-to-end. Hold-down arms, also pivotally mounted, are positioned to overlap and seal adjacent hatch cover ends. Each hold-down arm has a spring loaded, locking latch with a keeper hook for automatically engaging an associated keeper lug mounted to the hopper car adjacent the hatch opening. The locking hatch has an upper flange that may be foot engaged to unlock the hold-down arm by pivoting the locking latch to disengage the keeper hook from the keeper lug.
Claims9
A locking device for use in a railway hopper car having a roof with a hatch opening defined by an upstanding coaming, the improvement comprising:
- hatch cover means movable to an open position at one side of the opening and to a closed position over the opening;
- resilient means interposed between the coaming and the hatch cover means for biasing the hatch cover means upwardly in the closed position thereof;
- hold-down means adapted to move pivotally between locked and unlocked positions with respect to said hatch cover means;
- locking means pivotally attached about a generally horizontal axis to said hold-down means for positioning in the locked position of the hold-down means overlapping the hatch cover means at one side of the hatch cover means;
- said locking means comprising an upper footengageable portion, and a lower keeper finger;
- keeper lug means mounted on the roof beneath said locking means and having means engageable with the keeper finger to secure the hold-down means attendant to said hold-down means being positioned in locking position;
- said keeper finger adapted to be disposed beneath said keeper lug means and said resilient means biasing said lug means and keeper finger into engaged position;
- and
- said locking means being movable downwardly with said hold-down means upon said foot portion being depressed against the resistance of said resilient means to release said finger from said keeper lug.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.