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US 4,048,755 AGranted
Full length door arrangement for railway house car
AssigneeEvans Products Company
InventorsNorbert S. Wolak, Thomas J. Wolak
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeEvans Products Company
InventorsNorbert S. Wolak, Thomas J. Wolak
Estimating the term…
A railway house car side has an elongated opening closed by four doors disposed in end-to-end relation lengthwise of the car with respect to each other, two of the doors, which may be designated end doors, being movable solely lengthwise of the car to uncover the end portions of the opening, the other two doors, which may be designated center doors, being movable transversely, to disalign them transversely of the car side from the end doors and lengthwise of the side alongside of the end doors to uncover the center portion of the opening. The edges of the end doors nearest the respective ends of the car side have beveled flanges engageable with outwardly diverging door stops on the car side to wedge the end doors against the car side when closed and the opposite edges of the end doors have flanges overlaid by the adjacent center door edges to hold the end doors against the car side, and the edge of one center door overlies that of the other to afford a seal between them. Each end door is provided with a manually actuable device for unwedging the door and initiating its opening movement. As a safety feature the side plate of the car mounts a common top retainer rail for both sets of doors comprising a generally S-section elongated member having an upwardly open inner channel forming the top retainer for the center door cranks and a downwardly open outer channel forming the top retainer for the end doors. The side plate also mounts an outwardly extending ledge overlying the inner retainer channel to prevent the center door crank terminals from rising out of the inner retainer channel, and the web and outer depending flange of the outer retainer channel provide additional obstacles to outward movement of the center door top crank terminals in the event of failure of the common vertical web separating the two channels. An idler safety retainer crank on each door in addition to the operating retainer cranks prevents separation of the door from the car side if the operating retainer cranks fail. Novel gasket construction provides an improved seal between the adjacent doors and between the doors and the car side sill and side plate.
In a wall having a horizontally elongated rectangular opening, a pair of parallel horizontal tracks on the wall beneath said opening, a pair of end doors mounted in spaced apart relation on one of said tracks for sliding movement lengthwise of said wall, door stops on the wall adjacent the ends of said opening each wedgingly engageable with the adjacent end of one of said end doors to limit its movement lengthwise of the opening and to force the adjacent margin of the respective end door against the wall, center door structure mounted on said other track for movement transversely of the wall into and cut of a closed position in the space between said end doors and longitudinally of the car parallel to said end doors, said center door structure having vertical marginal portions overlyingly engageable with adjacent vertical marginal portions of said end doors when in the closed position for holding the adjacent marginal portions of said end doors against the wall.
In a wall, an elongated horizontal bottom member, a pair of upright members spaced apart lengthwise of said bottom member, and an elongated horizontal top member spaced vertically from said bottom member and connected to said upright members to define with said upright members and said bottom members, an elongated rectangular door opening, a first horizontal track mounted on and parallel to said bottom member, a first door mounted on and movable longitudinally along said track between respective positions therealong partially closing parts of said opening, a second horizontal track mounted on said bottom member and extending parallel thereto alongside said first track, carriages movable along said second track, upright crank shafts pivotally mounted on said carriages, a second door mounted on said crank shafts and movable along and transversely of said second track to an advanced position in which said second door is in end relation with said first door and to a position in which it is positioned transversely outwardly of said first door and alongside the same, said crank shafts extending above said doors and mounting retainer cranks at their upper ends, said top member having a longitudinally extending top retainer for said doors comprising a generally S-section member formed with an upwardly facing inner channel and a downwardly facing outer channel, said downwardly facing channel forming a top retainer for said first door and retainably receiving the upper edge of said first door, said upwardly facing channel forming a top retainer for the second door and receiving members depending from the terminals of said top retainer cranks, said downwardly facing channel portion of said S-section top retainer member providing additional safety means opposing separation of said top crank depending elements from said upwardly facing channel.
In a wall, an elongated horizontal member defining the top of an opening therein and having a common top retainer for a first door of the longitudinal sliding type and a second door of the laterally and longitudinally movable type arranged to close said opening jointly, said top retainer comprising a generally S-section member formed with an upwardly facing inner channel and a downwardly facing outer channel, said downwardly facing channel being adapted to retainably receive the upper edge of the first door, said upwardly facing channel being adpated to receive members depending from the terminals of top retainer cranks on the second door, said downwardly facing channel portions of said S-section top retainer member providing safety means opposing separation of the top retainer crank depending element from said upwardly facing channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.