US1548125A - Safety top guide for car doors - Google Patents

Description

A ug. 4, 1925. 1,548,125

P. M. ELLIOTT SAFETY TOP GUIDE FOR CAR DOORS Filed May s', 1919,

Patented Aug. 4, 1925.

UNITED STATES i y 1,548,125 PATENT OFFICE.

rPana-cv ML ELLIOTT,

on CHICAGO, ILLINOIS;V NELLIE s. ELLIOTT, EXECUTRIX orl SAID PEncY n. ELLIOTT, DnCEAsEn, AssIGNoItlro CAMEL COMPANY, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ,al CORPORATION` oFILLINoIs.

SAFETY' 'roP GIJIDE Fon; can :occas Application filed May 3, 1919. ySerial No. 294,495.

T 0 all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, PERGY M. ELLIOTT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in th county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Top Guides for Carvr Doors, of which the following is aspeciication.

The object of the present invention is to provide a combined water-prooing and 4emergency supporting top guide for car doors which will remain normally free-running in thesense that its bar carried by the door and its guide rail mounted onf the car are free from vertical support, the one upon the other, so long as the normal roller or other traversing support remains in service, but nevertheless has its said bar and rail so linterlocked vertically as to prevent the door dropping from the rcar in case the traversing support is carried away or seriously impaired by accident, and so interlocked horizontally that it will on the one hand afford a more effective barrier to weather elements, and on the other hand will resist lateral displacement of the ldoor from its guide rail when the latter assumes emergency support of the door.

Another object of the invention is to realize the conditions above stated without material change in the vertical dimensions of the door or doorway, as by having the in.- terlocking portions of the door and its guide located below the top of the door. In some instances, the horizontal interlock between the parts will be such as to normally resist inward chang of the door against the car, as well as outward tipping of the door, while still maintaining the guide :tree from the vertical load of the door.

In carrying out the invention, the guide rail carried by the car is made with avertically opening trough that receives the rib, lip, or flange extending from the curb rail on the door with a sulcient vertical oii'set therefrom to adapt it to enter said trough and to be confined horizontally by the sides of the latter, these members being upon a car and door having other and independent means affording normal vertical support to the door, so that the trough and the cooperating lip or flange are normally out of vertical bearing and come into verticalsupport one upon the other only under emergency per portionl of the dooroutwardly,

impairment of the normal support of the door; the conlinement' of the door by the guide rail being such that the door cannot escape laterally therefrom, either inwardly or outwardly, at the time of such emergency support, and the upper portion of the door being recessedv to admit the interlocking parts within its y'outerplane f Severall embodiments of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings by way offillustration. In said drawings- Figure lshows a vertical section of a. door and its associated partsv in -a freight car structure 'to which the present invention' is applied; and f 4 are similar viewsof the upand` appurtenant parts of the car structure with modified constructions of top guide applied thereto.

I According to VFigure 1 a car vstructure A has a sliding door B associated therewith through lany approved means such as traversing vroller support C, which is shown at the bottomy but which may lbe at the topof Figures 2 to k,the door. In order to confine the top of the door against outward tipping, it is customary-t0 provide-acurb-bar on the door and a guide rail on the car overlapping the same.

According to the present invention the guide rail 1 is provided for this purpose, but to enable it to serve the additional purposes incident to the present invention, it is provided with a trough 1a which opens vertically, its opening being presented upwardly in the several embodiments here selected for illustration, while the curb-bar 2 on the door is deflected to provide a depending flange or tongue 2a (Figs. 2, 3, and 4), or is formed with a bulb 2a (Fig. l) presented to the opening of the trough and in such relation to the latter that in addition to the horizontal engagement of the curb-bar by the guide rail which prevents the door from tipping outward as is usual, and in addition to vertical interlock, so that the curb-bar can rest upon the guide rail in case the door is dropped by its normal support, the curbbar on the door is adapted to drop into the trough in case of an emergency, and when the parts are so engaged even though the door be entirely free at bottom and swing it cannot be displaced from its emergency support thus provided.

In addition to serving as an interlocking emergency support, the parts, when formed as above described, provide a more eiicient Weather-prooling for the top of the door, particularly because of the' Vertical over-` lapping oi the parts. As shownin some of the embodiments, for instance Figure 3, the portion 2- of the cur'b-bar-may dip suiic-iently into the trough 1a of the guide rail to provide chafing surfaces which 'act'in the normal condition of the door and so serve as means for preventing 'the door from `changzthe side of the car.vk

Various forms ofstructural metal may be employed in realizing the several features of the present invention, and various Ways of applying` the same lto the car structure and its door may 'be 'resorted to. l

According to Figures l, 2, and 3,' the guide rail 'secured to the side plate of the c'ar'a-nd the curb-bar attached to the inncr face 'of the' door and extending Vacross the top thereof are otisetoutwardly sufficiently to permit the intcrengaging part-s to be dropped beloWth'e-top ot the door into a recess provided to receive them. According to Figure '4: a similar result is vobtained by lsecuring the curb-bar tothe outer face of the door.

In Wooden'doors the-upperhportion of the outer 'sheathing of the door is cutaway to v cured to the inner tace of the door, but a special form of guide rail, depending directly from the side plate of the car and offset inwardly into a recess formed in the upper end of thedoor, adapts the device to be used in an ari'angenaentof door which is Whollywithin the outside lines of the car structure.

The variousfornis herein illustrated Will be sufficient to indicate the Wide variety` of arrangements that may be devised for realizing the conditions of the present invention.

I claim:

In combination with a car door having a normal traversing support, a combined Weather proofing and Vemergency supporting top guide comprising a curb-baranda guide-rail, said cui-babar carried by the car door and having a vertically presented portion spaced from the door, said guide rail carried by the car in position to overhang the top of the door; said curb-bar and guide-rail being normally free from vertical support, one upontheother, but adapted the one to rest upon the other in an emergency, andthe guide-rail being constructedto project beneath and overlap vertically both inner and outer faces of the vertically Ypresented portion of the curb-bar, the upper :portion of the door beingA recessed to admit said interlocking parts Within the .plane of itsiouterface. y

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 22nd d-ay of April,v 1919.

PERGY M. ELLIOTT.

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