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US 4,356,776 AGranted
Corner connector for open top rail cars
AssigneeRailgon Company
InventorsRene H. Brodeur, Boris S. Terlecky
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeRailgon Company
InventorsRene H. Brodeur, Boris S. Terlecky
Estimating the term…
Disclosed is a corner connection for open top type rail cars such as gondolas, hoppers, etc. The top side chords of the rail cars have plates mounted to the upper and lower surfaces thereof which extend beyond the end of the top side chords. Circular openings are formed through the extending ends of the plates which align with a circular opening through the end of the top end chord when the end chord is positioned between the plates. A pin is positioned through the opening in the plates and the opening in the end chord so that a flexible corner connection is formed between the side chord and the end chord that will absorb stresses such as those occurring during loading, humping, or load shifts, without fixed end moments or failure at the upper corner connection of the rail car.
In an open top rail car including wheel trucks, a rail car underframe mounted on the wheel trucks, a floor supported by the underframe, side walls and end walls rigidly mounted to the underframe and extending upwardly and essentially perpendicularly therefrom, top side chords mounted to the upper edge of the side walls and top end chords mounted to the upper edge of the end walls, an improved corner connector for permanently joining the top end chord to each top side chord comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.