Cast draft sill with low profile center plate

An elongated light-weight, cast draft sill mountable at the end of a center sill of a railway car body, and to which a railway car truck is pivotally mountable, said cast draft sill comprising:

• (A) a generally hollow, elongated rectangular body, having a pair of elongated, parallel side walls extending perpendicularly from an elongated top wall;
• (B) a draft pocket adjacent to a first end of said draft sill adapted to receive a coupler yoke and associated draft gear;
• and
• (C) a center plate portion which is mateable to such railway car truck spaced from a second end of said cast draft sill, said center plate portion comprising:
• (a) a generally hollow cubic center plate pocket defined between a pair of spaced and parallel center plate pocket end walls, extending perpendicularly between said parallel side walls of said draft sill that provides an empty hollow space above a floor wall of said center plate pocket;
• (b) a cylindrical pocket extension extending downwardly from said generally cubic plate pocket;
• (c) a floor wall member forming a lower wall of said generally cubic center plate pocket extending horizontally under said cylindrical pocket extension parallel to said top wall, said floor wall member having a circular outer face;
• (d) an aperture axially disposed through said floor wall member at an axial center of said circular outer face, said aperture adapted to receive a king-pin of such railway car truck for mating such railway car truck for rotational movement against said circular outer face;
• (e) a tubular extension extending axially upwardly from said floor wall through which said aperture extends;
• and
• (f) a plurality of reinforcing gusset flanges connecting said tubular extension, said floor wall member and said cylindrical pocket extension.

An elongated unitary light-weight, cast draft sill mountable at the end of a center sill of a railway car body, and to which a railway car truck is pivotally mountable, said cast draft sill comprising:

• (A) a generally hollow, elongated rectangular body, having a pair of elongated, parallel side walls extending perpendicularly from an elongated top wall;
• (B) a striker incorporated into said first end of said draft sill;
• (C) a draft pocket adjacent to said striker adapted to receive a coupler yoke and associated draft gear;
• and
• (D) a hollow center plate portion which is mateable to such railway car truck spaced from a second end of said cast draft sill, said hollow center plate portion comprising:
• (a) a generally cubic center plate pocket defined between a pair of spaced and parallel center plate pocket end walls, extending perpendicularly between said parallel side walls of said draft sill that provides an empty hollow space above a floor wall of said center plate pocket;
• (b) a cylindrical pocket extension extending downwardly from said generally cubic plate pocket;
• (c) a floor wall member forming a lower wall of said generally cubic center plate pocket extending horizontally under said cylindrical pocket extension parallel to said top wall, said floor wall member having a circular outer face;
• (d) an aperture axially disposed through said floor wall member at an axial center of said circular outer face, said aperture adapted to receive a king-pin of such railway car truck for mating such railway car truck for rotational movement against said circular outer face;
• (e) a shallow tubular extension extending axially upwardly from said floor wall through which said aperture extends and at a distance that leaves the center plate pocket empty;
• and
• (f) four shallow reinforcing gusset flanges connecting said tubular extension, said floor wall member and said cylindrical pocket extension, said gusset flanges disposed at right angles to each other extending laterally and axially from said tubular extension.