Lightweight center beam railroad car

Abstract

A freight carrying railroad car including a body supported at each end by wheel-containing trucks; the body having a vertical center beam extending the length of the car between bulkheads at each end of the car; the center beam having a center sill, a top sill parallel to and spaced above the center sill, and a plurality of vertical spaced apart columns connected at their lower ends to the center sill and at their upper ends to the top sill; a vertical plate at each end of the car extending from the center sill to the top sill, and from the respective bulkhead at that end inwardly along the center sill; each vertical plate being joined to the center sill, top sill, bulkhead and a plurality of said columns such that opposed facing ends of said vertical plates are spaced from each other a distance of at least about 60% of the length of said car between the bulkheads; and between the facing end of each of the vertical plates and the car length center, at least one bracing bar extending diagonally downwardly, toward the car length center, from the top sill to the center sill, so that when the car is subjected to impact loads the bars on one side of the car center are placed in tension and the bars on the other side of the car center are placed in compression.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.