US404535A - Car-body - Google Patents

Description

3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

J. T. GOODPELLOW.

GAR BODY.

Patented June 4, 1889.

N. PETER; Fhuwulnn n hen Wnhin lnn. D. Cv

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. 1 J. T. GOODFELLOW. OAR BODY.

No. 404,635. Patented June 4 1889.

N, PUERS, Phnloivthographor. wumn nm u. u

(No Model.) 3 Sheets--Sheet 3. J. T. GOODFELLOW.

GAR BODY.

No. 404,535. Patented June 4, 1889.

N PETERS. Photo-Liflmgrnpher. Washmglnn, 0.0.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES THORN GOODFELLOVV, OF HUNTINGDON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE IRON CAR COMPANY, OF CONNECTICUT.

CAR-BODY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 404,535, dated June 4, 1889.

Application filed August 16, 1888.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES THORN GOOD- FELLOW, of Huntingdon, in the county of Huntingdon and State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Railroad-Car Bodies; and the following is declared to be a description of the same.

Before my invention railroad-cars adapted for the transportation of lumber and other merchandise of a similar character have not been adapted for carrying coal or grain or merchandise of a similar character, and-likewise cars especially constructed for carrying hard and soft coal, coke, ore, grain, 850., have not been adapted for carrying lumber or merchandise, either loose or in boxes or barrels, and the various types of especially-adapted cars having these differing carrying capacities are'of almost wholly different construction.

My invention relates to a railroad-car body for carrying freight, which car-body is of any Well-known form, but preferablyof the wellknown flat or gondola shape, and which carbody, by its peculiar construction, is adapted equally well for carrying either merchandise-such as lumber or such othermerchandise as coke, coal, ore, and similar commodities-which latter merchandise is preferablydelivered from the car by means of a hopper or chute beneath the car, or a similar device. lyly invention consists in a railroad-car bodysuch as aflat or gondola car-wherein a portion of the bottom of the car is made as hinged doors, which in one position are secured level with the remainder of the bottom of the car and which in their oth erposition can be dropped by suitable mechanism, soas to form openings in the bottom of the car, and inclines or chutes bywhich the contents of the car are discharged; and I employ operating-shafts, winding-chains, and a combination of links for raising, lowering, and supporting these hinged doors. This mechanism, including the operating-shaft, is located beneath the bottom of the car and out of the way of any merchandise with which the car may be loaded, and said mechanism is so constructed as to be operated by tools at present in use upon railroads for operating the shafts of carhopper-discharging doors.

Serial in. 282,836. (No model.)

In the drawings, Figure 1. is a longitudinal section of one end of the car-body with the hinged doors closed, and Fig. 2 is a similar view with the hinged doors open. Fig. 3 is 5 a plan of one end of the car-body, half of the .car being shown in plan with the floor intact and the other half with the flooring removed. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of one end of the car-body. Fig. 5 is an elevation endwise of the car-body; and Fig. 6 is a cross-section of the car-body at the lines 00 m, Fig. 3.

The car-body shown in the drawings is that of a flat or gondola car, and is made with sides a, ends I), anda bottom 0, and these parts are joined together by vertical irons and corner an gle-irons in the well-known manner of constructing such cars, and said car is supported or carried by longitudinal side frames composed of tubes cl, that are connected together and braced or supported in a manner similar to the constructions shown and described in Letters Patent Nos. 308,034 and 385,17/,heretofore granted to me, and at 6 there is a drawbar of any well-known construction, and the running-gear is indicated at f by dotted lines. These parts heretofore described form no part of my invention, anddo not require a more full description.

My improvement consists in the hinged 8o doors h, which are formed in the flat bottom of the car, and the size of which may be varied according to the circumstances of use. The doors h are shown as hinged at 2' to rods secured to the bottom of the car, and said doors are located between the angle-iron strips 70 and the T-angle-iron strips 1, which strips kl are let into and fastened to the timbers and frame of the bottom of the car. The manner of hinging the doors may, however, be modio fied, and there are vertical depending strips or aprons m m, that are fastened to the under side of the bottom of the car, outside of the width of the hinged doors h, and these aprons, when the doors are down in the po- 5 sition shown in Fig. 2, form side guides for the material being discharged. The device for supporting and operating the hinged doors consists of the strut-links n, tensile-links 0, and operating-links r, and the chains 3, one end of which is connected to an eye upon the operating-link r, and the other end of Which is connected to and wound around the operating-shafts I. These shafts 25 pass across the car from one side to the other, beneath the bottom 0, and upon one end of the shaftst there are ratehets t and engaging-pawls t and the ends of said shafts are made square, so that they can be turned by an ordinary operating-wrench.

The strut-links n are connected at their upper ends pivotally to the under side of the hinged doors h, and the tensile links 0 are connected at one end pivotally to the car-body, and there are short shafts "a passing through the lower ends of the links a, 0, and '7, which shafts form hinged joints for said link's, said links being duplicated at each end of the shaft 24, at each side of each of the hinged doors. The links 0' may be replaced by a continuation of the chains 8. It is preferable to construct these hinged doors in pairs that open downwardly away from each other, forming a V- chute, delivering in one or more piles the contents of the car, which pass through the openings in the bottom of the car formed by the dropping of the doors.

From the drawings, Fig. 1, it will be seen that the links 92, o, and 1' form a truss, as it were, for the support of the hinged doors, the links r and 0 being inclined at about an angle of forty-five degrees, while the links at are vertical, or approximately so, and support the weight of the contents of the car that are directly in the doors and partof the weight of the doors, and said doors close up snugly and securely against the surfaces of the angleiron strips 75 and Z in such a manner as to form, with the balance of the car-bottom c, an even and smooth surface, which is adapted to sup port and transport lumber or similar merchandise that requires to lie flat upon bottom 0, and when the car is required to'transport coal, coke, ore, or similar merchandise that requires to be delivered beneath the car the same is equally available, and said materials can be discharged at their point of destination by the hinged doors 7:, which can be dropped, as heretofore described;

I claim as my invention 1. The combination, in a freight-car, with the bottom 0, of hinged doors 7;, connected to and, when closed, forming a portion of the level and even bottom of said car, and with mechanism, substantially as described, for dropping said doors to discharge the contents of the car, and for raising said doors and supporting them in place, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, in a freight-car, with the bottom 0, of the hinged doors 7L, connected to and, when closed, forming a portion of the bottom of said car, the strut-links a, connected at one end to the hinged doors, the tensile links 0, connected at one end to the car-body, the shaft u, to which the other ends of the links at and 0 are pivoted, and operating-links "1', connected at one end to the shafts u, the chains 8, and cross-shafts t, by which the hinged doors are supported and operated, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

The combination, in a freight-car, with the bottom a, of the hinged doors 7:, connected to and, when closed, forming a portion of the bottom of said car, the strutrlinks a, connected at one end to the hinged doors 7L, the tensile links 0, connected at one end to the car-body, the shaft 11, to which the other ends of the links a and 0 are pivoted, and operating-links 7', connect-ed at one end to the shafts a, the chains 8, and cross-shafts t, by which the hinged doors are supported and operated, and the angle-iron bars It I, connected to the bottom of the car and at two or more opposite edges of the hinged doors, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

Signed by me this 1st day of August, 1888.

JAMES 'IIIORN GOODFELLOW.

\Vitnesses:

Gno. T. PINCKNEY, 'WILLIAM G. Mom.

Images