Gravity outlet

A gravity outlet for discharging lading from a railway car comprising:

• means defining an outlet assembly attached to a discharge opening in the railcar, the assembly means including an upper end attached to the discharge opening and sidewalls and endwalls sloping downwardly and inwardly from the upper end with a bottom portion of the sidewalls and endwalls defining a discharge outlet through which lading flows, by gravity, when it is discharged from the railcar;
• an outlet gate positioned beneath the outlet assembly and movable relative to the discharge outlet between respective open and closed positions to open and close the outlet;
• latch means for latching the outlet gate in its closed position when the gate is closed to prevent inadvertent opening of the gate and spillage of lading, the latch means including a latch for the gate and a lock contacted by the latch to block movement of the gate when the gate is in its closed position;
• gate operating means for moving the gate between its open and closed positions, the gate operating means automatically unlatching the latch means when the gate operating means is moving the gate from its closed to its open position, the gate operating means unlatching the latching means prior to moving the gate, and the gate operating means automatically relatching the latch means when it moves the gate from its open to its closed position, the gate operating means including a rack attached to one surface of the gate and a pinion engaged with the rack for moving the gate when the pinion is rotated, the pinion being mounted on an operating shaft rotatable in one direction to effect opening of the shaft and in the opposite direction to effect gate closing, the gate operating means further including means for moving the latch out of contact with the lock to free the gate for movement, the means for moving the latch out of contact with the lock including a cam mounted on the operating shaft and movable thereby, and, lost motion means by which movement of the operating shaft in the direction to effect opening of the gate first causes the cam to move the latch out of contact with the gate and then subsequently causes rotation of the pinion to move the rack, the lost motion means being formed on the pinion, and means for pivotally mounting to the latch directly on the gate and the lock comprising a blocking bar against which one face of the latch abuts when the gate is closed whereby inadvertent movement of the gate is blocked by the contact of the one face of the latch with the blocking bar.