Railway car hinge-deck lock
AssigneePortec, Inc.
InventorsChandrakant D. Ravani, James C. Robertson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lock mechanism for a railway car hinge-deck section includes a locking lever pivotally attached to a railway car and having an upper and lower wedge bar alternately engageable with a wedge plate carried by the hinge-deck section when the section is displaced to a raised or lowered position, respectively. Seat means affixed to the car restrict vertical displacement of the deck section and cooperates with mating inclined surfaces on the wedge bars and wedge plate to provide positive, tight retention of the hinge-deck section in either of its locked positions.
Claims10
In a multi-level auto rack railway car having a hinge-deck section, the improvement comprising, a deck section lock mechanism including, a locking lever having an upper portion pivotally attached to said car and a lower portion depending to a point below said deck section, a catch plate on said deck section having an outer edge juxtaposed said lever, an upper and lower wedge bar on said lever spaced apart from one another to provide an opening therebetween, a wedge plate on said catch plate adjacent said outer edge, fixed upper and lower seat elements on said car disposed above and below said catch plate defining respectively upper and lower limits of displacement of said deck section whereby, when said deck section is lowered to engage said lower seat element said lever may be pivoted to position said lower wedge bar in overlying relationship with said wedge plate and when said deck section is raised to engage said upper seat element said lever may be pivoted to position said wedge plate within said opening between said upper and lower wedge bars.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.