Railway tank car cradle support

Abstract

A tank car stub sill support structure is provided in which a half ring is attached to the inner end of a stub center sill at each end of the car. The half ring includes a top cover plate which engages the lower half of the tank, and a lower cover plate which is vertically spaced below the top cover plate. A vertical web joins the top cover plate and the bottom cover plate. The height of the vertical web and the distance between the top cover plate and the bottom cover plate varies in accordance with the bending moment applied to the ring by the tank and lading in the car. Thus the height of the vertical web is maximum at the centerline of the car and decreases to a minimum at the sides of the car. The stub sill is welded to the upper cover plate, bottom cover plate and to the vertical web on the outboard side of the vertical web. The coupler impact loads are thus transmitted into the upper cover plate and into the tank substantially entirely in shear. Applying the coupler impact loads to the tank shell in shear is a desirable way of dissipating the impact load into the tank shell, and prevents distortion and deformation of the circular cross section of the tank shell, thus making the shell more resistant to buckling.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.