US3246420A

US3246420A - Container simulated toy

Info

Publication number: US3246420A
Application number: US273046A
Authority: US
Inventors: Livingston C Douglas
Original assignee: Colgate Palmolive Co
Current assignee: Colgate Palmolive Co
Priority date: 1963-04-15
Filing date: 1963-04-15
Publication date: 1966-04-19
Anticipated expiration: 1983-04-19
Also published as: GB994339A

Description

April 19, 1966 c. DOUGLAS 3,246,420

CONTAINER SIMULATED TOY Filed April 15, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet l 54 I! Ii 54 4,- g

INVENTOR.

LIVINGSTON C DOUGLAS April 9, 1966 L. c. DOUGLAS 3,246,420

CONTAINER SIMULATED TOY Filed April 15, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 H64 1 36 m1 WWW] 38 FIG, 5 4M1;-

INVENTOR.

LIVINGSTON C. DOUGLAS United States Patent 3,246,420 CONTAINER SIMULATED TOY Livingston C. Douglas, Leonia, N..I., assignor to Colgate- Palmolive Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 15, 1963, Ser. No. 273,046 3 Claims. (CI. 46-11) This invention relates to improvements in container simulated toys and more particularly relates to a bottle type container shaped to simulate a truckless railway vehicle and includes attachable railway wheel trucks for a complete toy simulated railway vehicle.

It is an object of this invention to provide a novel container of the bottle type capable of holding liquid and formed to simulate a wheelless vehicle together with a unique construction for attaching wheels. More particularly it is an object to provide a bottle simulated railway vehicle with unique wheel truck attaching meanstogether with a one-piece pivotally mountable wheel truck and coupler holding the wheels and axle of the toy.

It is another object of this invention to provide a bottle simulated railway vehicle including one-piece wheel trucks and Wheels attachable thereto in practically a non-removable fashion together with couplers so that one container with wheel trucks and couplers thereon may be coupled to any other container to thereby provide a container simulated train of simulated bottle-shaped railway vehicles.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a bottle simulated railway vehicle which is easy and inexpensive to manufacture as a bottle may be molded in the 1 shape of a truckless railway vehicle with wheel truck attaching knobs, and after use as a liquid container it may find further function and use as an attractive toy. The container-toy may be merchandised as an assembled unit, but the invention is not limited thereto in that the wheel assemblies may be attachable after use of the container, but once attached it is very diflicult to remove the wheel truck and wheel assemblies.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a plurality of coupled simulated railway vehicles making up a toy train.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a portion of two adjacent coupled container simulated toy railway vehicles.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 55 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a wheel truck, coupler and wheel assembly.

Referring now to the drawings, a toy train 10 as shown in FIG. 1, may be made up from a plurality of interconnected bottle simulated toy railway vehicles of this invention. For example, the train 10 may include a bottle simulating a diesel engine 12 coupled to a bottle simulating a tank car 14 which, in turn, may be coupled to any number of other type t-oy railway vehicles such as a caboose 16 or the like. Thus, a child may make an entire train and have an interesting plaything from otherwise discarded bottles.

As shown in FIG. 2, the container is of the bottle type and includes a hollow enclosed body 18 capable of holding liquid. The body 18 of the bottle may be molded or formed in a conventional manner so long as the outside surface of the body simulates or is shaped and formed like a railway vehicle. The bottle also includes a suitable filling opening 20, such as the threaded opening shown, capable of receiving a closure cap, such as a screw cap, not shown. It is contemplated that the bottle would initially be filled with a merchandisable material such as liquid soap that children use for taking baths, or any other suitable material.

Each container is shaped and formed to look like the exterior of an individual railway vehicle and is molded in one piece without the truck and wheel units of a normal railway vehicle. On a side of the bottle body 18 corresponding to the bottom of the simulated truckless railway vehicle, there are a pair of projecting knobs '22, best seen in FIG. 5, which extend from the container generally in the position a railway truck assembly would be related to a normal railway vehicle. Fastened to each projecting knob 22 is a wheel truck, coupler and wheel assembly 24 such as shown in FIG. 6, for example. Normally, the wheel truck, coupler and wheel assembly 24 would be already assembled on the projecting knob 22 at the time of the original merchandising. Once the wheel truck has been connected to car 'body 18, they can be separated only with extreme difficulty and with the probability of destroying the knob 22 and/or wheel truck for further assembly purposes.

The knob 22 includes a reduced neck portion 26 and an enlarged button or bulbous tip portion28. The wheel truck, coupler and wheel assembly 24 includes a one-piece wheel truck and coupler support 30, molded, for example, from high impact styrene, with a cross portion or bolster 32 having a chamfered vertical hole 34 centrally therein for receiving the knob 22. As shown in FIG. 5, the bulbous tip or button portion 28 of the knob 22 is of larger diameter. Thus, the wheel truck, coupler and wheel assembly 24 is pushed over the tip portion 28 and then may pivot about the center of knob 22 with the hole 34 around the reduced neck portion 26.

In addition, the one-piece wheel truck and coupler support 30 includes depending truck side frames 36, each having simulated journal boxes 38 and simulated springs 40. Within each journal box 38 is a bore 42 functioning as a journal bearing for a rigid wheel and axle 44. The rigid wheel and axle includes a pair of

wheels

46, 46, secured to an axle 48 with the ends of the axle being journaled in the

bearing bores

42, 42. The wheel and axle 44 may be assembled in the wheel truck support 30 by sliding it up a groove, see FIG. 4, leading from the bottom edge of the side frame 36 to the bearing bore 42.

For coupling purposes the one-piece wheel truck and coupler support includes an extending channel-shaped coupler arm 50. Each coupler arm includes a hole 52 in the flat outer end thereof and a depending male coupler pin 54 of slightly less diameter than hole 52. The coupler pin extends a short distance downwardly and is substantially perpendicular to the coupler arm 50. As shown, for example, in FIGS. 2 and 3, the simulated railway cars are coupled together by inserting a coupler pin 54 into a coupler hole 52 of a coupler arm 50 on another simulated railway car. Also, as shown in FIG. 2, the length of the coupler arms 50 is such that they extend beyond the filling neck 20 and prevent the necks from interfering with the articulation of the train cars.

It is believed that the operation of the invention is evident from the foregoing description. Individual bottle bodies 18 simulating truckless railway vehicles have wheel truck, coupler and wheel assemblies 24 applied thereto, and separate simulated vehicles may be coupled and uncoupled as a toy train. The individual cars of the train will articulate about the knobs 22 and coupler pairs 52 of each wheel truck assembly so that the train can go around curves in a track or imaginary track.

While the invention has been particularly shown and 3 described with reference-to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A container simulated toy railway vehicle compris- (a) a hollow container of the bottle type capable of holding liquid and being molded as a one-piece unit,

(b) means defining an irregular outer surface on the hollow molded container shaped to simulate a truck less railway vehicle,

(c) a filling opening in one end of the container, the filling opening being capable of receiving a closure p,

(d) a pair of spaced depending wheel attaching projections extending from a side of the container which simulates the bottom of the truckless railway vehicle,

(e) a one-piece wheel truck and coupler arm unit attached to each projection, said coupler arm unit being integral with said wheel truck, coupling means on an extending end'of each coupling unit so that one simulated railway vehicle container may be coupled to another in the manner of a railway train,vand

(f) a wheel and axle means journaled in each one-piece wheel truck unit.

2. A container simulated toy railway vehicle compris- (a) a hollow container of the bottle type capable of holding liquid,

(b) means'defining an irregular outer surface on the container, the irregular outer surface formed to simulate a' truckless railway vehicle,

(c) means defining a filling capable of receiving a closure member in one end of the container,

(d) a pair of spaced button-shaped knobs extending from a side of the container which simulates the bottom of the truckless railway vehicle, each knob being in a position generally corresponding to which railway trucks would be attached to the simulated truckless vehicle,

(e) a one-piece wheel truck unit attached to each knob, the wheel truck unit including a cross top bolster with a hole therein to receive the knob, and a pair of depending simulated side frames with journals to receive wheel and axle units,

(f) a coupler arm integral with each one-piece wheel truck unit and extending therefrom,

(g) a depending coupler pin integral with the tip of each coupler arm, and means defining a receiving a hole in each coupler arm of a diameter slightly larger than the coupler pin and spaced therefrom so that each coupler arm of each wheel unit may couple to another wheel truck unit of another container simulated toy, and

(h) a pair of rigid wheel and axle units journaled in each one-piece wheel truck unit.

3. A container simulated toy railway vehicle as defined in claim 2 wherein the coupler arm of each wheel truck unit is of sufiicient length to extend beyond the filling opening of each container.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,507,663 9/1924 Carley et al. 46-11 3,120,080 2/1964 Hahn 46221 3,154,882 11/1964 Bossiere 46--11 FOREIGN PATENTS 808,440 4/ 1951 Germany.

888,820 2/ 1952 Great Britain.

RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner.

Claims

1. A CONTAINER SIMULATED TOY RAILWAY VEHICLE COMPRISING; (A) A HOLLOW CONTAINER OF THE BOTTLE TYPE CAPABLE OF HOLDING LIQUID AND BEING MOLDED AS A ONE-PIECE UNIT, (B) MEANS DEFINING AN IRREGULAR OUTER SURFACE OF THE HOLLOW MOLDED CONTAINER SHAPED TO SIMULATE A TRUCKLESS RAILWAY VEHICLE, (C) A FILLING OPENING IN ONE END OF THE CONTAINER, THE FILLING OPENING BEING CAPABLE OF RECEIVING A CLOSURE CAP, (D) A PAIR OF SPACED DEPENDING WHEEL ATTACHING PROJECTIONS EXTENDING FROM A SIDE OF THE CONTAINER WHICH SIMULATES THE BOTTOM OF THE TRUCKLESS RAILWAY VEHICLE, (E) A ONE-PIECE WHEEL TRUCK AND COUPLER ARM UNIT ATTACHED TO EACH PROJECTION, SAID COUPLER ARM UNIT BEING INTEGRAL WITH SAID WHEEL TRUCK, COUPLING MEANS ON AN EXTENDING END OF EACH COUPLING UNIT SO THAT ONE SIMULATED RAILWAY VEHICLE CONTAINER MAY BE COUPLED TO ANOTHER IN THE MANNER OF A RAILWAY TRAIN, AND (F) A WHEEL AND AXLE MEANS JOURNALED IN EACH ONE-PIECE WHEEL TRUCK UNIT.