The present invention relates generally to a hopper railcar, and in particular, to a three bay covered hopper car.
A common type of railroad freight car in use today is the type wherein the load may be discharged through hoppers on the underside of the body, which can be generally referred to as a hopper railcar or hopper car. Hopper cars are used to haul coal, grain, and other commodities. Covered hoppers include a top over the hoppers and are often used for transporting dry bulk loads, varying from grain to products such as sand and clay. The cover protects the loads from the weather—for example dry cement would be very hard to unload if mixed with water in transit, while grain would be likely to rot if exposed to rain. After hopper cars are positioned over an unloading pit, the discharge doors of the hoppers are rotated to an open position, allowing the material within the hopper car to be emptied into the pit.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,214,224 discloses a railroad hopper car with a hopper discharge section having a width varying center sill configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,035,521 discloses a railroad hopper car with a plurality of bottom side sheets and a trough assembly coupled to the plurality of bottom side sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,834,230 discloses a railroad hopper car with a shed plate assembly is provided to discourage accumulation of product on the exposed upwardly facing shelf otherwise presented by the bottom flange protrusions.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,272,717 discloses a railroad hopper car
U.S. Pat. No. 10,407,972 discloses a method and mechanism for controlling gravitational discharge of material from a railroad hopper car. U.S. Pat. No. 10,315,668 discloses a hopper gate with multiple openings. U.S. Pat. No. 10,023,206 discloses a hopper car door operating mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,531 discloses an effective actuating system for operating the doors of a railroad hopper car in which a plurality of levers for each hopper operate to rotate the doors of the hopper between an open and a closed position. U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,658 effectively discloses a modified individual manual version of the '531 patent. Other prior art references that teach operating mechanisms for opening and closing hopper doors include U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,684; U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,947; U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,764; U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,514; U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,842; U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,681; U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,334; U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,757; U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,244; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,118. Further patents of interest include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,418,907; 1,444,730; 1,584,436; 3,608,500; 3,654,873; 4,163,424; and 4,224,877.
There remains a need for efficient and effective covered hopper railcars.
One aspect of the invention provides a covered hopper railcar includes a pair of spaced trucks; a three bay covered hopper railcar body on the pair of trucks; and a partition structure separating each bay from an adjacent bay, wherein each partition structure is extending vertically from sloped floor sheets to a roof structure and extending horizontally between side walls of the railcar body, wherein each partition includes a pair of horizontal ribs.
One aspect of the invention provides a covered hopper railcar includes a pair of spaced trucks; a three bay covered hopper railcar body on the pair of trucks; and a partition structure separating each bay from an adjacent bay, wherein each partition structure is extending vertically from sloped floor sheets to a roof structure and extending horizontally between side walls of the railcar body, wherein each partition is coupled to the sloped floor sheets of adjacent bays through a reinforcing triangular member extending between the side walls.
One aspect of the invention provides a covered hopper railcar includes a pair of spaced trucks; a three bay covered hopper railcar body on the pair of trucks; and a partition structure separating each bay from an adjacent bay, wherein each partition structure is extending vertically from sloped floor sheets to a roof structure and extending horizontally between side walls of the railcar body, and a top chord structure which includes an outer top chord member coupled to the side wall of the railcar and to the roof structure, wherein the sidewall extends up to the roof structure and is coupled whereby the top chord member together with an upper portion of the side sheet and outer portion of the roof cover form a closed structure.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be clarified in the following description of the preferred embodiment in which like reference numerals represent like elements throughout.
The construction of a standard covered hopper railcar is well-known in the industry and is described in greater detail in the above cited patents all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The railcar 10 of the present invention includes a railcar body on conventional trucks 12 sitting at 42″7″ centers. The length over pulling faces of the car 10 is 55′ 1½″. The car 10 is a three bay 14 covered hopper car with a fabricated center sill 16 and integrated long hood 18. The railcar 10 of the present invention represents the shortest covered hopper having at least a 5450 cubic foot capacity.
Internally the hopper bays 14 are separated by a partition structure 20, shown in outline in
The partition 20 includes a rounded U shaped cutout 32 at the inlet near the roof 24 and a reinforcing piping member 34 around the cutout 32. Gussets 36 are provided on either side of partition 20 at the connection to the roof collar 38 that forms the inlet.
The lower part of the partition 20 structure, shown in detail in
The top chord 50 structure of the railcar 10 is best illustrated in
The roof 24 structure includes two roof platform members 52 coupled to the roof 24 by a plurality of separate left and right coupling brackets 54. The left and right coupling brackets 54 are separate from each other thereby saving weight in the roof design.
The railcar 10 of the present invention utilizes the fabricated center sill 16 and integrated long hood 18 construction which are best illustrated in
The car-jacking structure 60 of the railcar 10 is shown in
The hoppers 80 of the present invention include valley plates 82 at the coupling of adjacent hopper forming floor components to improve stress distribution without adding additional thickness to the slope sheets forming the hoppers 80. Fit up plates are positioned inside of hopper center sill and slope sheet yielding improved fitting time.
The overall design yields improvements which focuses on reduction in localized stresses, an decrease in length relative to a comparable 5200 cubic foot car while still increasing carrying capacity of the car 10 to at least to 5450 cubic feet while still achieving a weight reduction and cost reduction overall in the car 10 design relative to the comparable 5200 cubic foot covered hopper previously manufactured by the applicant. Total car 10 weight is less than 60,000 lbs, specifically 58,796 lbs.
Whereas particular embodiments of this invention have been described above for purposes of illustration, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that numerous variations of the details of the present invention may be made without departing from the invention as defined in the appended claims. The present invention is not intended to be restricted to the particular embodiments disclosed.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 63/183,077 titled “Covered Hopper Railcar” filed May 3, 2021 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63183077 | May 2021 | US |