Reinforced railway pedestal liner

In a pedestal liner for a railway vehicle wherein said vehicle comprises, pedestal trucks comprising pairs of pedestal legs and a journal box disposed between each pair of pedestal legs, each journal box having a vertically disposed planar guide surface and a pair of spaced vertically disposed parallel side surfaces disposed on opposite sides of said guide surface, said pedestal liner being roughly U-shaped and having a bight provided with antifriction material which is adapted to engage said guide surface and a pair of parallel legs provided with antifriction material which is adapted to engage said side surfaces, said pedestal liner being adapted to be disposed between an associated pedestal leg and journal box and fastened to its associated pedestal leg, said antifriction material being comprised of ultra high molecular weight polymeric material, the improvement comprising a perforated reinforcing structure embedded in said polymeric material which serves as a matrix therefor and substantially completely surrounds said structure, said structure having openings therein for receiving said polymeric material completely therethrough and enabling better embedment of said structure, said structure providing reinforcement and preventing cold flow of said polymeric material, said reinforcing structure consisting of a single piece of material disposed in a substantially U-shaped configuration and being embedded substantially centrally between opposed outside surfaces of said bight and opposed outside surfaces of each of said parallel legs, said bight having a particular thickness and each of said legs having an upper portion and a rear portion substantially equal in thickness of said particular thickness, and said substantially equal thickness upper portion providing a high strength junction at the upper portion of each leg to said bight and said substantially equal thickness rear portion providing a high strength portion for fastening said pedestal liner to its pedestal leg.