Autorack railcar structure
AssigneeNational Steel Car Limited
InventorMohamed A. Khattab
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A railcar has a substructure, a superstructure and intermediate webwork sides joining the substructure and the superstructure to form a truss-like structure for carrying automobiles. The resultant truss-like structure does not have a straight through center sill, but does retain end stub sills. The main deck of this structure can be depressed between the railcar trucks, and, in combination with a vehicle supporting deck structure allows vehicles of a greater height to be carried in the depressed center than over the end structure above the railcar trucks. The integrated structure, including a structurally significant roof frame, is also used to support the vehicle carrying decking.
Claims24
An autorack railcar for carrying vehicles, comprising:
- a truss suspended between two railcar trucks and a multilevel staging mounted to the truss for supporting the vehicles;
- the truss having an overhead frame structure, a pair of side sills, and a pair of side webworks joining each side sill to the overhead frame structure;
- said overhead frame structure including a plurality of diagonally and longitudinally oriented rigid frame members;
- and wherein
- said autorack railcar has two ends and a stub centre sill mounted to one end thereof, the stub centre sill having an outboard end for receiving a railcar connector;
- and
- said staging includes decking supported between the side sills at a medial level relative to the centre sill whereby depressed trackways are formed on either side of the centre sill.
An autorack railcar for carrying vehicles, comprising:
- a truss suspended between two railcar trucks and staging mounted to the truss for supporting the vehicle;
- the truss having an overhead frame structure located over said a multilevel staging, a pair of side sills, and a pair of side webworks joining each side sill to the overhead frame structure;
- said overhead frame structure said overhead frame structure including a plurality of diagonally and longitudinally oriented rigid frame members;
- said railcar having two ends and a stub centre sill mounted to one of said ends, the centre sill having an outboard end for receiving a railcar connector;
- said staging including a main deck having an end portion above one of the trucks, an inboard portion between the trucks at a lower height than the end portion, and a descending portion between the end portion and the inboard portion, and
- said stub sill having an inboard end formed to accommodate the descending portion.
An autorack railcar for carrying vehicles, comprising:
- a truss supported between two railcar trucks and staging mounted to the truss for supporting the vehicles, the truss having an overhead frame structure located over said staging, a pair of side sills, and a pair of side webworks joining each side sill to the overhead frame structure;
- said overhead frame structure including transverse frames, each transverse frame having a flat central portion, a first pair of inclined portions extending downwardly and transversely outwardly from said flat central portion, and a second pair of further, more steeply inclined portions extending outwardly and downwardly from said first pair of downwardly inclined portions;
- and
- said overhead frame structure including longitudinal stringers extending between said frames, a first pair of said longitudinal stringers meeting said transverse frames at respective junctures between said flat central portion and said first pair of downwardly inclined portions;
- and a second pair of longitudinal stringers meeting said transverse flames at respective junctures between said first pair of downwardly inclined portions and said second pair of downwardly inclined portions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.