Actuating and locking means for the hopper doors of a railroad hopper car

In a railroad hopper car of the type having a longitudinally extending center sill of substantially inverted U-shaped cross section and a plurality of hopper doors arranged in opposed pairs and extending transversely of said center sill, said hopper doors of each opposed pair being swingable between a downwardly depending open position and a closed position wherein their bottom edges meet in abutting relationship, each of said opposed pairs of hopper doors having a pair of inner hopper sheets and a pair of outer hopper sheets, the improvement comprising a door actuating means for each opposed pair of hopper doors to shift said doors between said open and closed positions from either side of the car, each door actuating means for each opposed pair of hopper doors comprising a rotatable shaft assembly extending transversely of said hopper car between its respective pair of opposed hopper doors and through said hopper car center sill and said inner and outer hopper sheets of said pair of hopper doors, said shaft assembly having a central portion located within said center sill, a lever structure non-rotatively mounted on said shaft center portion, said lever structure comprising a pair of substantially identical L-shaped lever portions in the same radial relationship with respect to said shaft center portion and in parallel spaced relationship with a spacer portion therebetween, each of said L-shaped lever portions having first and second legs, said first legs of said lever portions being connected to a first door of said pair by two V-shaped links pivotally attached at one end to said first door and pivotally attached at their other ends to their respective first leg, said second legs of said lever portions being connected to a second door of said pair by a single V-shaped link pivotally attached at one end to said second door and pivotally attached at its second end to and between said second legs, means on both ends of said shaft assembly by which either of said shaft assembly ends may be engaged by a rotation-imparting tool, said shaft assembly and said lever structure being rotatable between a first portion in which said pair of hopper doors are in said downwardly depending open position and a second position in which said pair of hopper doors are in said closed position and said lever structure and said links are in an over-center position with respect to said shaft assembly.