Convertible hopper car
AssigneeModine Manufacturing Company
InventorRichard P. Bessette
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A convertible railway hopper car has parallel longitudinal beams defining the sides of a hatchway for filling the car with granular material from a spout, and hinged on the upper margins of the car sidewalls are cargo cover members which may occupy elevated positions in which they form a roof covering the entire car body except the hatchway, or idle positions hanging inside the car body. Hinged hatch elements are mounted on the cargo cover members at one side of the hatchway and are movable between extended positions closing the hatchway and secured to the cargo cover members at the other side of the hatchway, and open positions lying atop the cargo cover members upon which they are mounted. When the cargo cover members are in idle position the hatch elements hang below them.
Claims20
In a convertible railway hopper car for selectively shipping either those bulk cargoes which need protection from weather or those which do not, said car comprising a car body having first and second solid side walls and end walls with upper margins, a bottom wall including material discharge hopper means, and first and second parallel longitudinal beams carried on the end walls which define the sides of a narrow central hatchway through which a loading spout may fill the car with granular material, the improvement comprising in combination:
- first and second sets each consisting of a plurality of wide cargo cover members each of which has parallel outer and inner longitudinal edges, and transverse edges, said outer longitudinal edges of said first and second sets being hinged, respectively, on the upper margins of the first and second side walls for movement of said cargo cover members between elevated positions in which the inner longitudinal edges of the first and second sets abut, respectively, the first and second longitudinal beams, and idle positions hanging inside the car body, and said cargo cover members in their elevated positions cooperating to form a roof which entirely covers the car body except for the hatchway;
- hanger means for supporting said inner edge of each cargo cover member on a longitudinal beam, said hanger means being movable between an engaged supporting position and a disengaged position in which each cargo cover member is entirely free of any connection to a longitudinal beam so it may swing freely to its idle position;
- a set of hatch elements;
- hinge means mounting all of said hatch elements at the side of the hatchway adjacent the cargo cover members of the first set, for movement between an extended position in which they cooperate to entirely cover the hatchway and an open position lying atop said cargo cover members of the first set, and said hatch elements having an idle position hanging generally vertically inside the car body when the cargo cover members are in their idle position;
- and
- securing means for fastening the hatch elements in said extended position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.