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US 4,134,343 AGranted
Radial axle railway truck
AssigneeGeneral Steel Industries, Inc.
InventorKeith L. Jackson
Life of this patent
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AssigneeGeneral Steel Industries, Inc.
InventorKeith L. Jackson
Estimating the term…
A radial axle railway truck has a pair of wheel and axle assemblies with profiled wheel treads of greater than conventional conicity to steer the assemblies by means of the differential effect of the inner and outer wheel diameters on curved track, the axle bearings are located inboard of the wheels, and the truck frame side members are correspondingly located inboard of the wheels and there supported on the axle bearings such that longitudinally acting resilient restraint means between the axle bearings and the truck frame resist substantial movements of the axles longitudinally of the truck frame while offering only limited resistance as a couple to steering movements of the axles with respect to the truck frame because of the relatively short transverse moment arm between the longitudinally acting resilient means. The inboard location of the axle bearings permits the use of straight links extending diagonally of the truck and pivotally connected at their ends to the diagonally opposite axle bearings to oppose hunting movements of the wheel and axle assemblies during movement along tangent track and to couple wheel-induced turning movements of the wheel and axle assemblies in opposite directions on curved track so as to avoid interference with their self-steering ability. An equalized tread brake mechanism is provided to compensate automatically for the differences in longitudinal wheel spacing at the opposite sides of the truck on curved track.
A railway truck comprising a pair of wheel and axle assemblies each having a pair of railway flanged wheels rigidly mounted on the ends of an axle, said axles being capable of pivoting about a vertical axis between positions transverse of the truck on tangent track and positions radial of the track on curved track, said wheels having a profiled tread of sufficient effective conicity to effect self-steering of each wheel and axle assembly by means of the differential effect between the wheel diameters of the outer and inner wheels on curved track, a rigid truck frame supported from said wheel and axle assemblies, resilient means supporting said truck frame and including supports carried on the end portions of said axles, said resilient means including elastomeric elements positioned between the respective end portions of said axles and said truck frame, and being yieldable longitudinally of the truck to accommodate, restrain and dampen movements of the respective end portions of each wheel and axle assembly longitudinally of the truck and pivoting movements of said wheel and axle assemblies and being sufficiently yieldable vertically to accommodate vertical movements of the respective end portions of each wheel and axle assembly with respect to said truck frame necessitated for proper distribution of the vertical load to the wheels irrespective of vertical track irregularities while being sufficiently stiff vertically to bear the entire vertical load of the truck, said resilient means being located inboard of said wheels thereby defining short transverse moment arms through which said resilient means act on each axle as a couple in opposing pivoting movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies whereby to offer less restraint to such pivoting movements than the steering torques generated by the differential effect of said profiled wheel treads on curved track, and means interconnecting said wheel the resilient means supports on the respective axles substantially at axle level to cause said wheel and axle assemblies to pivot in opposite senses and co-operating with the longitudinal action of said resilient means to oppose hunting movements of the wheel and axle assemblies while coupling their wheel-induced steering movements to avoid interference with the self-steering capability of each wheel and axle assembly on curved track.
In a railway truck comprising a pair of wheel and axle assemblies each having a pair of railway flanged wheels rigidly mounted on the ends of an axle, truck framing supported from said wheel and axle assemblies and accommodating relative turning movements of said wheel and axle assemblies in the horizontal plane for steering, said wheel and axle assemblies having steering means causing them to pivot in opposite senses on curved track, a brake system comprising substantially upright levers pivotally suspended from the sides of said truck framing adjacent said wheels at each side thereof, brake shoes carried by said levers and engageable with the respective wheel treads responsive to longitudinal separation of said levers, an extensible rod device connecting said levers at each side and comprising a longitudinally extending cylinder and piston assembly connected at its respective ends to said levers, said levers forming the sole support of said cylinder and piston assembly from the truck framing and a hydraulic fluid interconnection between said cylinders at opposite sides of the truck whereby to positively equalize braking pressure on the separate brake shoes on both sides irrespective of differences in the longitudinal spacing of the wheels on the opposite sides of the truck resulting from steering action of said wheel and axle assemblies.
In a railway truck comprising a pair of wheel and axle assemblies each having a pair of railway flanged wheels rigidly mounted on the ends of an axle and axle bearings on the end portions of each axle, a rigid truck frame supported from said wheel and axle assemblies, resilient means supporting said frame from said axle bearing means to permit steering movements of said wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said frame, said wheel and axle assemblies having steering means causing them to pivot in opposite senses on curved track, said resilient means comprising upwardly converging fore and aft surfaces on each said axle bearing means, each of said surfaces being V-shaped in plan and mounting similarly shaped elastomeric pad devices, a yoke element having its sides upwardly converging similarly to said bearing means surfaces and correspondingly V-shaped in plan, said elastomeric pad devices being secured to said yoke converging surfaces whereby to resiliently support said yoke from the respective axle bearing means vertically and being substantially yieldable in shear vertically and transversely to accommodate substantial vertical movement of the respective bearing means with respect to said rigid truck frame as required for proper distribution of the vertical load from said rigid frame to the respective wheels irrespective of vertical irregularities in the track rails and to provide a transverse component for steering movements of said wheel and axle assemblies, said V-shaped pad devices being stiff longitudinally of the truck whereby to substantially fix said yoke longitudinally with respect to said bearing means, said yoke having upwardly facing horizontal surface means and opposing horizontal surface means on said truck frame, and horizontally oriented elastomeric pad devices interposed between and fixed to said opposing horizontal surfaces of said yoke and said truck frame and being yieldable in shear longitudinally of the truck whereby to accommodate the longitudinal component of steering movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said truck frame.
In a railway truck comprising a pair of wheel and axle assemblies, each having a pair of railway flanged wheels rigidly mounted on the ends of an axle and journal bearings on the end portions of each said axle, a truck frame supported from said wheel and axle assemblies and accommodating relative yawing thereof for steering, resilient means supporting said frame from said journal bearing means and comprising an annular grommet of elastomeric material surrounding said axle bearing means, a rigid element surrounding said grommet and clamped around the same, said rigid element having upwardly converging fore and aft surfaces, each of said surfaces being V-shaped in plan and mounting similarly shaped elastomeric pad devices, said truck frame having downwardly open pedestal jaws at each of its ends with their inner jaw surfaces similarly inclined and complementarily V-shaped in plan to said pad devices, said elastomeric pad devices being secured to said pedestal jaw surfaces whereby to resiliently support the respective ends of said truck frame from the respective axle bearing means vertically, the V-shape angle of said pad devices being sufficiently acute that said pad devices are yieldable substantially lengthwise to accommodate longitudinal components of said yawing movements and are relatively stiff transversely of the truck and said elastomeric grommet being substantially yieldable transversely of the truck whereby to provide transverse components of said yawing movements and co-operate with said pad devices to accommodate and yieldingly resist yawing movements of the respective wheel and axle assemblies with respect to said truck frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.