Fittings for autorack railroad car
AssigneeNational Steel Car Limited
InventorsJamal Hematian, Ryan Duwyn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autorack rail road car has an underframe having a main deck, and a rack mounted to the underframe. The rack supports one or more decks above the main deck, and also supports, or defines, an enclosure that protects the automobiles carried as lading. One way to prolong the life of the rack is to delay corrosion. Corrosion may start in locations that are difficult to clean, or that have not been cleaned prior to painting. Autorack upper decks may use longitudinally extending stringers. A stringer of closed section may be less prone to facilitating early corrosion, and may be less prone to drip rust-filled water on automobiles carried as lading. In some embodiments the stringer may be placed at a slope discontinuity in the lading deck, and may overlap that slope discontinuity.
Claims20
An autorack rail road car deck assembly for mounting to a framework of a rack of an autorack car, said autorack car having a lengthwise rolling direction, and a direction cross-wise to the rolling direction, and wherein said deck assembly comprises:
- at least a first decking member for mounting in a position supported by said framework;
- said decking member having undulations, said undulations being oriented cross-wise;
- at least a first stringer, said first stringer being oriented lengthwise;
- said first stinger having a hollow cross-section of closed periphery;
- said decking member having a central portion and at least a first side margin, said first side margin running lengthwise along said central portion and meeting said central portion at a first transition, at which there is a first slope change in said decking member in the cross-wise direction;
- and
- said first stringer overlaps said first transition.
An autorack rail road car deck assembly for mounting to a framework of a rack of an autorack car, said autorack car having a lengthwise rolling direction, and a direction cross-wise to the rolling direction, and wherein said deck assembly comprises:
- at least a first decking member for mounting in a position supported by said framework;
- said decking member having undulations, said undulations being oriented cross-wise;
- at least a first stringer, said first stringer being oriented lengthwise;
- said first stinger having a hollow cross-section of closed periphery;
- said first deck member defines a roadway over which to conduct wheeled vehicles in the lengthwise direction;
- there are at least first and second stringers;
- said first deck member has a central portion and first and second side margins, said first and second side margins running lengthwise along said central portion;
- said first and second side margins each meeting said central portion at respective first and second slope changes in said first decking member in the cross-wise direction;
- said first stringer under-girds said first slope change of said first decking member;
- and
- said second stringer under-girds said second slope change of said second decking member;
- said central portion of said deck member is crowned;
- said side margins meet said central portion at respective first and second transitions;
- said first and second side margins are mated to said central portion such that said side margins extend in a common, substantially horizontal plane;
- and
- said first and second stringers overlap said first and second transitions, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.