Articulated railway coupling

In an articulating device for joining railroad car bodies, said device having a male connecting member connected to a rear end portion of a first car body and a female connecting member connected to a front end portion of a second car body, said first and second car bodies being joinable by said device into a unit by a pin insertable through outer end portions of said connecting members with said railroad car body end portions supportable from a single railroad car truck carrying said articulating device, the improvement therein comprising,

• a pin aperture formed in an outer end of said male member to receive said pin, a rear surface portion of said aperture having a horizontal concave configuration and a vertical convex configuration providing a substantial area of contact with said pin,
• a follower disposed in a cavity formed in said female member, said follower having a concave front face portion to complementarily receive a convex end surface formed on said male connecting member outer end, and resilient means carried by a rear face of said follower, said resilient means having an outer surface extending beyond said follower rear face in a natural state, said resilient means having a pair of spaced elongated resilient elements each having a metal strip forming said outer surface and an elastomeric body partially disposed respectively in spaced slots formed on said rear surface of said follower,
• wedging means movably disposed between said outer surface of said follower resilient means and a rear surface of said cavity to form a selective space between said follower and said wedging means, and
• each said slot being vertically orientated and containing a disk-shaped groove centered vertically within an inner surface of said slot and offset laterally toward an outer sidewall of said slot, and a projection carried one each by sidewalls of said slots, each projection extending inwardly toward said groove and having an inner face terminating to proximately align with vertical sides of said groove respectively, each said projection being inwardly offset to form a recess below said rear face of said follower,
• said elastomeric body of said resilient means being compressively held between said projections with said body compressing into said groove and said metal strip received in said recesses upon said resilient means being sufficiently compressed,
• wherein said wedging means may drop to a lower vertical position so as to maintain said follower in contact with said end surface of said male connecting member and said male connecting member pin aperture in contact with said pin as said follower, said male member, and said pin wear from use.