Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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RAIL ROAD FREIGHT CAR
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of rail road freight cars.
Background
In North American rail road history one of the more common types of freight
car rolling stock
has been the gondola car. Gondola cars have been used to transport many
different kinds of freight, from
bulk commodities to scrap steel. Traditionally, gondola cars have tended to
have two relatively deep side
beams. Typically, the side beams, the floor, and the end walls of the body of
a gondola car define an
open topped container, or receptacle, into which lading may be placed. Gondola
cars may sometimes
have a center sill of relatively modest size. The side beams may often be the
dominant vertical load
bearing members, and may tend, at their ends, to be mated to a laterally
extending main bolster and shear
plate. The side beams themselves have tended to be deep beams having a top
chord, a side sill, and a
vertical web extending between the top chord and side sill.
The top chord is, typically, a continuous chord member running substantially
the full length of
the car. The top chord defines the upper edge or upper margin of the side beam
of the car. It performs
the function of the upper flange of the side beam. Most typically the top
chord may be a hollow section.
While top chords in the form of I-beams and C-channels can, and have, been
used, top chords are
frequently formed of closed hollow sections, such as rectangular (or square)
steel tubes. Most often,
vertical lading in the gondola car may tend to cause the top chord to be
placed in compression.
Similarly, a side sill may be, or may include, a bottom chord of the deep side
beam. That is, the
side sill may include a lengthwise running member that defines the lower
bounding member of the side
beam of the car. The lengthwise running member may run substantially the
entire length of the side
beam, and may function to define the lower flange of the side beam. That
lengthwise member is
sometimes called a side sill, and sometimes called a bottom chord, but in
either case may tend to function
as the lower flange of the side beam. The side sill terminology may be more
commonly used where the
longitudinally extending member links the ends of cross-bearers and cross-ties
at the edge of a deck or
floor. In use, under vertical load the bottom chord or side sill, as it may be
called, is most typically in
tension. A side sill or bottom chord member may typically tend to be of quite
substantial cross-sectional
area. It may have a cross-sectional area of a comparable order of magnitude to
that of the top chord. It
may not necessarily be of closed hollow section, but may, for example, have
the form of a large angle
iron. Under vertical loading, the top chord and bottom chord may tend to work
in opposition to carry
bending moments from the center of the car to the end sections, with the
vertical side sheets of the car
carrying shear between the top chord and the bottom chord.
There has long been a desire in the rail road freight carrying industry
generally to reduce the
weight of freight cars, and to increase the ratio of allowable lading weight
to car weight. All other factors
being equal, a lighter freight car may tend to permit a greater amount of
lading to be carried without
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exceeding a maximum gross weight on rail, and may tend to reduce the amount of
fuel consumed while
backhauling empty cars. In as much as bottom chords and side sills may tend to
be quite heavy, a very
substantial reduction in the size and weight of a side sill, or the
substantially total elimination of a side sill
may therefore hold out the prospect of a significant reduction in weight.
There may also be significant
gains in simplicity of manufacture.
It may also be desirable, from time to time, to be able to clean out a gondola
car, as when it may
be desired to carry a different type of lading.
Summary of the Invention
In an aspect of the invention there is a rail road gondola car. it has a
gondola car body carried by
railroad car trucks for rolling motion along rail road tracks. The gondola car
body has a longitudinal
centerline. The gondola car body has a floor and a wall structure standing
upwardly of the floor, the floor
and the wall structure defining a lading receptacle. The gondola car body
includes a pair of lengthwise
running side beams, the side beams defining portions of the wall structure.
The side beams each have an
upper margin, and a longitudinally running shear web member extending
predominantly downwardly of
the upper margin. The floor includes at least one floor panel. The floor panel
and the shear web member
are directly mated together.
In another feature of that aspect of the invention, the shear web member
extends at least one
quarter of the way from the floor panel to the upper margin. In another
feature the web member includes
an upper portion and a lower portion, the upper portion having a lower margin,
the lower portion being
attached along the lower margin to the upper portion, and the lower portion is
mated directly to the floor
panel. In still another feature, the lower portion lies outboard of the upper
portion. In an additional
feature, the lower portion lies inboard of the upper portion. In still another
feature, the shear web member
is a monolithic member extending from the floor panel to the upper margin. In
yet still another feature,
the side beam includes a top chord member distant from the floor panel, and
the shear web member is a
monolithic member extending from the floor panel to the top chord. In again
another feature, the shear
web member is predominantly planar. In a still further feature, the shear web
member stands normal to
the floor panel. In yet another feature the floor panel extends laterally away
from the longitudinal
centerline past the shear web. In a still further feature, the floor panel is
the only floor panel of the rail
road car. In another feature, a majority of the floor is made from the floor
panel. In a further feature the
car is free of side sills. In still yet another feature the side beam includes
an upwardly standing post that
extends upwardly from the floor panel, outboard of the shear web; and the
floor panel extends past the
shear web and underlies at least a portion of the post. In still yet another
feature, the gondola car includes
a center sill, the center sill has a pair of spaced apart webs extending
downwardly from the floor panel,
and the webs each have an upper margin mated to the floor panel. In again
another feature, the gondola
car includes cross-bearers, and the cross-bearers have webs, the webs having
upper margins mated
directly to the floor panel.
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In another feature, the gondola car includes a center sill. The center sill
has a pair of spaced apart
webs extending downwardly from the floor panel, the webs each have an upper
margin mated to the floor
panel. The gondola car includes at least one cross-bearer, the cross-bearer
has at least one web, and the
web of the cross-bearer has an upper margin mated directly to the floor panel.
The floor panel defines an
upper flange of the centersill and the cross-bearers, and a bottom flange of
the side beam. In a further
feature, the rail road car is free of any other member defining a center sill
top flange. In again another
feature the rail road car is free of any other member defining cross-bearer
top flanges. In still another
feature the rail road car is free of any other member defining a bottom flange
of the side beam. In yeat
another feature, the car has a cross-bearer, the cross-bearer having at least
one web extending
downwardly of the floor panel. The car has a side beam post standing upwardly
of the floor panel, the
side beam post having at least a first portion standing laterally distant from
the shear web of the side
beam, and a second portion providing a shear transfer web between the first
portion and the web of the
side beam. The cross-bearer has a bottom flange distant from the floor panel.
The cross-bearer and the
post meeting at a structural knee. The knee has web continuity of the shear
web of the side beam above
and below the floor sheet between. The knee has flange continuity of the
bottom flange inboard and
outboard of the shear web of the side beam. The knee has flange continuity of
the first portion of the side
beam post above and below the floor panel. In yet another feature, the rail
road car includes at least one
clean out port mounted in one of the side beams, the clean out port including
a movable access member.
In another aspect of the invention there is a railroad gondola car having a
gondola car body
carried by railroad car trucks for rolling motion along rail road tracks. The
gondola car body has a
longitudinal centerline. The gondola car body has a floor and a wall structure
standing upwardly of the
floor. The floor and the wall structure define a lading receptacle. The
gondola car body including a pair
of lengthwise running side beams, the side beams defining portions of the wall
structure. The side beams
each have an upper margin, and a shear web member. One of the side beams
having at least one
upstanding sidepost. The floor includes at least one floor panel. The gondola
car body includes at least
one cross-wise extending floor supporting cross member. The cross member and
the side post is linked
by a structural knee. The gondola car body includes members defining a top
flange, a bottom flange and
a web of the cross member. The gondola car body having structure defining a
first flange of the side post,
a second flange of the sidepost, and a shear web linking the flanges of the
sidepost, one of the first and
second flanges being spaced outboard of the other. The lcnee having a shear
member connected to receive
a moment couple from the sidepost, and the shear member also being connected
to transmit that moment
couple to the flanges of the cross member.
In still another aspect of the invention there is a rail road gondola car
having a gondola car body
carried on rail road car trucks for rolling motion along rail road tracks. The
gondola car body includes a
floor and sidewalls standing upwardly from the floor. A cross member extends
sideways beneath the
floor. The cross member has a laterally outboard end. One of the sidewalls
includes a predominantly
upwardly extending stiffener. The upwardly extending stiffener has a base end.
The base end of the
upwardly extending stiffener being connected to the laterally outboard end of
the cross-member at a
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structural knee. The structural knee includes a first pair of first spaced
apart members connected to carry
a bending moment from the stiffener; a second pair of spaced apart members
connected to carry that
bending moment to the cross-bearer; and at least one shear member connected to
both the first and second
pairs of spaced apart members.
In another feature, the shear member has a substantially quadrilateral shape
in profile view, the
quadrilateral shape having four vertices, the first pair of spaced apart
members extending along two non-
adjacent sides of the quadrilateral shape, and the first pair of members
extending along the other two sides
of the quadrilateral shape. In still another feature the quadrilateral is a
trapezoid. In a further feature the
quadrilateral is a parallelogram. In a still further feature, the
parallelogram is a rectangle. In a yet further
feature, one of the sidewalls includes a shear web, the upwardly extending
stiffener is mounted to the
shear web, the upwardly extending stiffener has a flange spaced laterally
outwardly from the web of the
sidewall, the web of the sidewall includes a region opposed to the flange of
the stiffener, and the flange
and the region are co-operable to carry a bending moment to the knee. In
another feature the floor
includes a floor sheet, the cross member includes a web extending away from
the floor sheet and a flange
mounted to the web, the flange being spaced from the floor sheet, and the
floor sheet having a region
opposed to the flange of the cross member, the region and the flange being co-
operable to transmit a
bending moment, and the flange and the region being connected to the knee.
In still another aspect of the invention, there is a railroad gondola car
having a gondola car body
mounted on railroad car trucks for rolling motion along rail road tracks. The
gondola car body includes
flooring and a peripheral sidewall standing upwardly of the flooring. The
sidewall has at least one
opening defined therein adjacent the flooring, and a member mounted to co-
operate with the opening.
The member is movable between a first position obstructing the opening and a
second position in which
the member obstructs the opening less than in the first position.
In another feature of that aspect of the invention, the member is a gate, the
first position is a
closed position of the gate, and the second position is an open position. In a
further feature the opening
has a sill flush with the flooring. In another feature, the gondola car has
one the opening at each corner
thereof. In a still further feature, the member is a gate, and the gate is
operable from trackside.
In a further aspect of the invention, there is a gondola car body mounted on
railroad car trucks for
rolling motion along railroad car tracks. The car body includes a floor
structure and sidewalls standing
upwardly of the floor structure. The sidewalls have predominantly upstanding
stiffeners spaced
therealong. The floor structure has cross members extending predominantly
cross-wise thereunder. At
least one of the cross members has an outboard end terminating at a
longitudinal location along the car
body that is free of any corresponding one of the upstanding sidewall
stiffeners.
In a feature of that aspect of the invention, at least one of the
predominantly upstanding stiffeners
is mounted at a longitudinal location of the car body that is free of any
corresponding cross member. In
another feature, at least one of the cross-members is a cross-tie and the
cross-tie terminates at a location
along one of the sidewalls that is free of corresponding predominantly
upstanding stiffeners. In a further
feature, the cross-members include cross-bearers and cross-ties, and at least
one of the predominantly
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upstanding stiffeners is located at a location that is free of any
corresponding one of the cross-bearers and
free of any corresponding one of the cross-ties. In still another feature, the
cross members include cross-
bearers and cross-ties, and in at least one location there are two cross-ties
mounted in a single cross-
bearer pitch.
In a still further feature, the cross members include cross-bearers and cross-
ties, two of the cross-
bearers having a spacing therebetween that is free of any other cross-bearer.
At least one of the cross-ties
is mounted in the spacing between the two cross-bearers. A first of the
predominantly upwardly
extending stiffeners is mounted at a location abreast of one of the two cross-
bearers. A second of the
predominantly upwardly extending stiffeners is mounted abreast of the other of
the two cross-bearers. At
least a third of the predominantly upwardly extending stiffeners is mounted at
a location between the first
and second predominantly upwardly extending stiffeners. There is a different
number of cross-ties
mounted between the two cross-bearers than there is of predominantly upwardly
extending stiffeners
mounted between the first and second predominantly upwardly extending
stiffeners. In a further feature
the car body has an overall length, and over that length there is a different
number of the stiffeners than of
the cross members.
In still another aspect of the invention, there is a railroad gondola car
having a gondola car body
mounted on railroad car trucks for rolling motion along rail road tracks. The
gondola car body includes
flooring and a peripheral sidewall standing upwardly of the flooring. The
sidewall has a web and a
predominantly upright stiffener mounted to, and outboard of, the web. The
stiffener having a lower end
and an upper end distant from the lower end. The web meets the floor panel at
a juncture. The floor
panel extends outboard of the web past the juncture under a portion of, but
less than all of, the base end of
the stiffener. A gusset lies under another portion of the base end of the
stiffener. The gusset is joined to
the floor panel under the base end of the stiffener at a second junction. The
second junction lies outboard
of the first junction.
In a feature of that aspect of the invention, the stiffener has a depth
measured outwardly from the
web of the sidewall, and the second juncture is located at least one third of
the depth outboard of the first
juncture. In another feature, the floor panel has a laterally outboard
protruding portion, the protruding
portion being underlying the base end of the stiffener, and the protruding
portion has shoulder radii, the
second juncture lies outboard of the shoulder radii, in still another feature,
the stiffener stands upwardly
of a structural knee, and the floor panel and the gusset are parts of one of a
pair of moment couple
transmitting members of the structural knee.
In still yet another aspect of the invention there is a railroad gondola car
having a gondola car
body carried by railroad car trucks for rolling motion along rail road car
tracks. The gondola body
includes a pair of side walls. One of the side walls has at least one
predominantly upright stiffener
mounted thereto, the stiffener being mounted inboard of that sidewall. In a
further feature, a plurality of
the predominantly upright stiffeners is mounted to the side walls and is
located inboard thereof. In
another feature the car body includes a floor structure and at least one cross-
member supporting the floor
structure, the stiffener and the cross member being connected at a structural
knee. In a still further
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feature, the side wall includes a web mounted directly to the floor. In
another further feature, the web
includes a side sheet, the side sheet has a lower margin, a flat bar is
mounted along the lower margin of
the side sheet, the bar being of greater thickness than the sheet; and a
juncture is formed between the flat
bar and the floor.
In a still further aspect of the invention there is a railroad gondola car
having a gondola car body
carried by railroad car trucks for rolling motion along rail road car tracks.
The gondola body includes a
pair of side walls. The side walls have a plurality of predominantly upright
stiffeners mounted thereto.
The body has end portions and a mid-span portion between the end portions.
There is a plurality of cross-
members to which the stiffeners are connected at structural knees. The cross-
members and the stiffeners
having structural knee connections thereto are more densely spaced near the
mid-span portion than near
the end portions.
In a feature of that aspect, the mid span portion has at least two side-by-
side cross-members
having structural knee connections to respective ones of the side wall
stiffeners. In another feature, the
mid-span portion includes more than two side-by-side cross-members having
structural knee connections
to respective ones of the side wall stiffeners. In another feature, the car
body has a mid-span width
between the walls, W, a midspan gondola inside depth H, and a ratio of H:W
greater than 1Ø In another
feature, the car body has a mid-span inside gondola depth H, a gondola inside
length L, and a ratio of
H:L is in the range of greater than 1:12. In yet another further feature, the
car body has a gondola inside
length L, and a width between side walls W, and a ratio of L:W is in the range
of greater than 10:1.
In yet another aspect of the invention, there is a rail road gondola car top
chord arrangement.
That arrangement has a side sheet having an upper margin, and a top chord
mounted along, and inboard
of, the upper margin. The arrangement including a lead-in member chosen from
the set of members
consisting of (a) a portion of the top chord; and (b) a part separate from the
top chord. The lead-in
member is positioned inboard of the side sheet and facing downwardly. The lead-
in member is operable
to fend objects moving upwardly adjacent the side sheet inboard, and to
encourage those objects to pass
by the top chord.
In a feature of that aspect, the lead-in member is a portion of the top chord,
the portion is a wall
of the top chord, and the wall of the top chord is angled downwardly and
outboard toward the side sheet.
In another feature, the lead-in member is a part separate from the top chord,
the part being a fender, the
fender being mounted below the top chord and extending upwardly and inwardly.
These and other aspects and features of the invention may be understood with
reference to the
description which follows, and with the aid of the illustrations of a number
of examples.
Brief Description of the Figures
The description is accompanied by a set of illustrative Figures in which:
Figure 1 is an isometric, general arrangement view of a railroad freight car,
in the nature of a
gondola car;
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Figure 2a shows a side, or elevation, view of the gondola car of Figure 1;
Figure 2b shows an end view of the gondola car of Figure 1;
Figure 3a is cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section '3a ¨ 3a' of the
gondola car of Figure
1 looking toward the main bolster with the truck removed;
Figure 3b is a right hand half cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section
`3b- 3b' of the
gondola car of Figure 2a looking toward a cross-bearer;
Figure 3c is a left hand half cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section
'3c- 3c' of the gondola
car of Figure 2a looking toward a cross-tie;
Figure 4a is a plan view of a floor sheet of the gondola car of Figure 1;
Figure 4b is an enlarged detail of a cross-section of a cross-bearer to side
post knee of the
gondola car of Figure 3b;
Figure 4c is an enlarged detail facing toward a cross-tie to side post
junction of the gondola car
of Figure 3c;
Figure 4d is a view looking outboard on arrow 4d of Figure 4b from inside the
gondola;
Figure 4e is a view looking inboard on arrow 4e of Figure 4b from outside the
gondola;
Figure 4f is a scab view looking upward on arrow 4f of Figure 4b;
Figure 4g is a view looking inboard on arrow 4g of Figure 4c;
Figure 4h is a view looking upward on arrow 4h of Figure 4c;
Figure 41 shows an alternate embodiment to that of Figure 4f, on a section
immediately below
floor level;
Figure 5a is a view corresponding to the view of Figure 4d, or an alternate
embodiment of side
post to cross-bearer connection;
Figure 5b corresponds to the view of Figure 4e of the alternate embodiment of
Figure 5a;
Figure 5c is a view corresponding to that of Figure 4f of the alternate
embodiment of Figure 5a,
but is taken through a mid-level section of the cross-bearer webs looking
upward toward
the floor panel of the gondola car;
Figure 5d is an isometric detail of a main bolster end connection of the rail
road car of Figure 1;
Figure 6a is a detail of a side of the car of Figure 2a showing a side port in
a frontal view;
Figure 6b is a sectional view detail of the side of the gondola car of Figure
5a showing a side
view of the port of Figure 5a in a closed condition; and
Figure 6c is a sectional view detail of the side of the gondola car of Figure
5a showing the port
of Figure 5a in an open position.
Figure 7a is an isometric, general arrangement view of an alternate embodiment
of railroad
freight car to that of Figure 1;
Figure 7b shows a side, or elevation, view of the railroad freight car of
Figure 7a;
Figure 7c shows an end view of the railroad freight car of Figure 7a;
Figure 8a is cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section '8a ¨ 8a' of the
railroad freight car of
Figure 7b looking toward the main bolster with the truck removed;
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Figure 8b is a right hand half cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section
'fib- 8b' of the
railroad freight car of Figure 8b looking toward a cross-bearer;
Figure 8c is a left hand half cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section
8c' of the railroad
freight car of Figure 8b looking toward a cross-tie;
Figure 8d is an enlarged detail of a cross-section of a cross-bearer to side
post knee of the
railroad freight car of Figure 7a;
Figure 8e is an enlarged detail facing toward a cross-tie to side post
junction of the railroad
freight car of Figure 8c;
Figure 8f is a view looking outboard on arrow 8f of Figure 8b;
Figure 8g is a view looking inboard on arrow 8g of Figure 8b;
Figure 8h is a scab view looking upward on arrow 8h of Figure 8b;
Figure 8i is a view looking inboard on arrow 8i of Figure Sc;
Figure 8j is a view looking upward on arrow 8j of Figure 8c;
Figure 8k is an isometric detail of a main bolster end connection of the rail
road car of Figure 7a;
Figure 81 shows an alternate arrangement of structural elements to that of
Figure 8d;
Figure 8m shows an alternate arrangement of structural elements to that of
Figure 8e;
Figure 9a is an isometric, general arrangement view of another alternate
embodiment of railroad
freight car to that of Figure 1;
Figure 9b shows a side, or elevation, view of the railroad freight car of
Figure 9a;
Figure 9c shows an end view of the railroad freight car of Figure 9a;
Figure 10a is cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section `10a ¨ 10a' of
the railroad freight car
of Figure 9b looking toward the main bolster with the truck removed;
Figure 10b is a right hand half cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section
`10b- lOb' of the
railroad freight car of Figure 2a looking toward a cross-bearer;
Figure 10c is a left hand half cross-sectional view, in elevation, on section
'10c- 10c' of the
railroad freight car of Figure 2a looking toward a cross-tie;
Figure 10d is an enlarged detail of a cross-section of a cross-bearer to side
post knee of the
railroad freight car of Figure 10b;
Figure 10e is an enlarged detail facing toward a cross-tie to side post
junction of the railroad
freight car of Figure 10c;
Figure 10f is a view looking outboard on arrow 10f of Figure 10d;
Figure lOg is a view looking inboard on arrow lOg of Figure 10d;
Figure 10h is a scab view looking outboard on arrow 10h of Figure 10d;
Figure 101 is a view looking upward on arrow 10i of Figure 10e;
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Figure 10j is an enlarged detail of two different embodiments of the top chord
of the railroad
freight car of Figure 10a; and
Figure 10k is an isometric detail of a bolster end connection of the car of
Figure 9a; and
Figure 101 is a view from below of the bolster of Figure 10k.
Detailed Description
The description that follows, and the embodiments described therein, are
provided by way of
illustration of an example, or examples, of particular embodiments of the
principles of aspects of the
present invention. These examples are provided for the purposes of
explanation, and not of limitation, of
those principles and of the invention. In the description, like parts are
marked throughout the
specification and the drawings with the same respective reference numerals.
The drawings are not
necessarily to scale and in some instances proportions may have been
exaggerated in order more clearly
to depict certain features of the invention.
In terms of general orientation and directional nomenclature, for the rail
road car described
herein, the longitudinal direction is defined as being coincident with the
rolling direction of the rail road
car, or rail road car unit, when located on tangent (that is, straight) track.
In the case of a rail road car
having a center sill, the longitudinal direction is parallel to the center
sill, and parallel to the top chords.
Unless otherwise noted, vertical, or upward and downward, are terms that use
top of rail, TOR, as a
datum. In the context of the car as a whole, the terms lateral, or laterally
outboard, or transverse, or
transversely outboard refer to a distance or orientation relative to the
longitudinal centerline of the
railroad car, or car unit, or of the centerline of the centerplate. The term
"longitudinally inboard", or
"longitudinally outboard" is a distance taken relative to a mid-span lateral
section of the car, or car unit.
Pitching motion is angular motion of a railcar unit about a horizontal axis
perpendicular to the
longitudinal direction. Yawing is angular motion about a vertical axis. Roll
is angular motion about the
longitudinal axis. Given that the rail road car described herein may tend to
have both longitudinal and
transverse axes of symmetry, a description of one half of the car may
generally also be intended to
describe the other half as well, allowing for differences between right hand
and left hand parts.
Figure 1 shows an isometric view from above and to one corner of an example of
a rail road car
20 that is intended to be generically representative of a wide range of rail
road cars, and in particular
railroad freight cars in which the present invention may be incorporated.
While car 20 may be suitable
for many different uses, it may in one embodiment be a gondola car, which may
be used for the carriage
of bulk commodities. With the exception of brake fittings, safety appliances
and other secondary fittings,
car 20 is substantially symmetrical about both its longitudinal and
transverse, or lateral, centreline axes.
Consequently, where reference is made to a first or left hand side beam, or
first or left hand bolster, it will
be understood that the car has first and second, left and right hand side
beams, bolsters and so on.
Rail road-car 20 has a pair of first and second trucks 22,24, and a rail car
body 26 that is carried
upon, and supported by, trucks 22, 24 for rolling motion along railroad tracks
in the manner of rail road
cars generally. Rail car body 26 may include a wall structure 28 defining a
lading containment receptacle
30. Wall structure 28 may include a base wall, which may be in the nature of a
floor or flooring 32, and a
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generally upstanding peripheral wall 34 which may include a pair of first and
second side walls 36,38,
and first and second end walls 40, 42. Flooring 32, sidewalls 36,38 and first
and second end walls 40,42
may tend to define an open topped box, namely receptacle 30, into which lading
may be introduced.
Generally speaking, car 20 may be of all steel, or predominantly steel
construction, although in some
embodiments other materials such as aluminum or engineered polymers or
composites may be used for
some or a predominant portion of the containment receptacle structure.
Flooring 32 may include a floor panel 44, which may be made of a plurality of
floor sheets joined
together, in an abutting fashion such as may yield a continuous lading
containing surface, or, in one
embodiment, may be made from a single, monolithic steel sheet 46. Steel sheet
46 may be a single sheet
having its profile cut from a monolithic sheet of stock by a plasma arc
cutting device, or cut at the steel
mill. Use of a single sheet may simplify manufacture. Alternatively, floor
panel 44 may not be entirely
of one sheet, but may be predominantly of one sheet, such that, by area, more
than half of floor panel 44
is cut from a single monolithic piece of stock. In another embodiment more
than 1/4 of floor panel 44 is
cut from a single piece of monolithic stock. In another embodiment more than
3/4 of floor panel 44 may
be cut from a single monolithic piece of stock, such as rolled sheet or plate.
Floor panel 44 may be
between 1/4 and 3/4 inch thick steel plate, and may, in one embodiment be
between 5/16 and 1/2 inches
thick, and, one embodiment may be about 7/16" thick, and may provide a uniform
common flange
thickness above the center sill, cross-bearings, cross-ties and underneath the
side beam web.
Body 26 of car 20 may include an underframe member such as a longitudinally
running center sill
50. Center sill 50 may have draft sills, or draft sill portions 48 at either
end, into which draft gear fittings
52 and releasable couplers 54 may be mounted. Center sill 50 may be fabricated
by welding a pair of
spaced apart webs 56, 58 to the underside of floor panel 44. Center sill 50
may have a bottom flange
member 60, such as may be in the nature of a bottom or lower cover plate 62,
welded across the bottom
edges of webs 56, 58. Center sill 50 may also include internal web separators,
as discussed below.
Generally speaking, a center sill may tend to have a distinct top flange, a
bottom flange, and two
(or more) webs extending between, and carrying vertical shear between, the top
and bottom flanges.
Gondola cars have tended to have had underframes that included a center sill,
side sills, and cross-bearers
and cross-ties extending between the center sill and side sills. Not
infrequently, the cars have also had
longitudinally running stringers at spaced intervals between the side sills
and the center sill, carried by the
cross-bearers and cross-ties. Some gondola cars had floors of wooden timbers,
or planks, laid side by
side over the stringers and over the center sill. In such a car, analysis of
the resistance to vertical bending
of the car might well have tended not to have attributed any strength to the
wooden floor members.
In rail road freight car 20, center sill 50 has a distinct bottom flange 60,
and vertical webs 56, 58.
Center sill 50 also has a top flange, that top flange being a central region
64 of floor panel 44 that is
influenced by the presence of webs 56,58. That region of influence may extend
between webs 56,58 and
a distance laterally outboard from each of them to yield an "effective width".
That effective width may
be equivalent to roughly 40 to 60 times the thickness of panel 44 plus the
distance between the webs. The
effective width distance may sometimes be estimated as being about 44 - 48
times the thickness. In one
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embodiment, panel 44 may be abnormally thick for a floor sheet. That is, floor
panel 44 may be more
than 5/16 inches thick, and may be more than 3/8 inches thick. In one
embodiment floor panel 44 may be
about 7/16 inches thick, such that the effective width of top flange region 64
may extend roughly 8¨ 12
inches (e.g., about 10 1/2 inches) outboard of webs 56, 58. Inasmuch as webs
56, 58 are welded directly to
the underside of floor panel 44, there is a direct path for shear flow to pass
between them, in contrast to
arrangements in which the center sill has a top flange, and the floor sheets
are then mounted above, and in
addition to, that top flange such that shear flow from the webs cannot pass
directly into the floor sheet but
most flow via the intermediate medium of the center sill top flange. By
contrast, in one embodiment of
car 20, in vertical bending a predominant portion of the shear flow from webs
56, 58, (indeed, all of it),
flows directly to and from floor panel 44 across the weld interface between
the upper marginal edges of
webs 56,58 and the underside of floor panel 44. In this embodiment there is no
other flange or cap plate,
or doubler plate exchanging shear flow with webs 56, 58.
Rail road car 20 may also include an array 70 of cross-bearers 72 and may
include an array 74 of
cross-ties 76. Car 20 may include longitudinally extending first and second
side beams 78, 80. Those
side beams may define part or all of side walls 36,38, and may be the dominant
structural assemblies of
car 20 in terms of resistance to vertical bending and may be aided in that
resistance by the co-operative
adjoining effective flange width region of the floor panel. Each cross-bearer
72 extends between center
sill 50 and a respective one of side beams 78 or 80. Each cross-bearer has a
moment connection at both
ends (i.e., at center sill 50, and at the side beam, be it 78 or 80. Cross-
ties 76 alternate with cross-bearers
72. Each cross-tie 76 extends between center sill 50 and one or other of side
beams 78,80. The junctions
of the cross-ties with the center sill and the side beams may, conservatively,
be analysed as pin-jointed
connections. That is, analytical reliance on the junction approximating the
performance of a built in
connection may not be assumed. Expressed somewhat differently, the ability of
the connection at the
junction cross-tie and the sidewall stiffener to carry a moment may be smaller
than, if not much smaller
than, the ability of the junction between a cross-bearer and the corresponding
sidewall stiffener to carry a
moment. The difference may be greater than an order of magnitude, such that,
for the purposes of this
description the cross-tie junction may be considered not to pass, and not to
be relied upon to pass, a
moment from the side beam stiffener to the cross-tie. Car 20 may also have
main bolsters 82 that extend
laterally from center sill 50 to side beams 78, 80, at the locations of the
truck centers (CL Truck).
In the embodiment of Figures 4d, 4e and 4f, each cross-bearer 72 may include a
web 85, and a
bottom flange member 88. Bottom flange member 88 may include a flared or
broadened laterally
outboard end portion 87, and a narrower more laterally inboard portion 91
extending to mate with center
sill bottom flange cover plate 62 in flange continuity. Alternatively, as
shown in the embodiment of
Figures 5a, 5b, and 5c, each cross-bearer 72 may include a pair of first and
second, spaced apart
upstanding webs 84, 86, and may include a bottom flange member 89. In either
case, web 85, or webs 84
and 86 may abut floor panel 44 directly, and be connected directly thereto by
such means as welding.
That is, in one embodiment, cross-bearer 72 does not have a distinct top or
upper flange apart from floor
panel 44. Put differently, there is a direct shear flow connection between the
upper margins of webs 85,
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84, 86 (as may be) that is exchanged directly with floor panel 44, rather
than, for example, passing into or
through an intermediate member. Center sill 50 may have web separators 90 that
may be located in line
with (i.e., are substantially co-planar with) webs 85,84 and 86 (as may be) of
the respective cross-bearers
72 such that there is web continuity between left and right hand cross-bearer
pairs across center sill 50.
Inasmuch as webs 56 and 58, and cover plate 62 of center sill 50 may be pre-
fabricated and pre-
assembled before being mated to floor panel 44, web separators 90 may
terminate shy of the upper
margins of webs 56, 58, and may terminate with a T-shaped head, the cross-bar
of the T lying parallel to,
but marginally spaced from, floor panel 44.
Each cross-tie 76 may have a single web 92, or more than one web 92. Each web
92 extends
downwardly from floor panel 44. A bottom flange 96 is welded across, and
along, the bottom margins of
the web, or webs 92 as may be. As with cross-bearers 72, the web or webs 92 of
cross-ties 76 may abut
floor panel 44 directly, without the intervention, or addition, of a top
flange or cover plate, other than
floor panel 44. As such, any shear flow may tend to flow directly from one to
the other.
As shown in Figure 3b and 3c floor panel 44 may tend to define the upper
flanges of both cross-
bearers 72 and cross-ties 76. As discussed above in the context of the top
flange of center sill 44, the
effective cross-bearer upper flange region 102 of cross-bearer 72 and upper
flange region 104 of cross-tie
76 may have an effective width of the order of 40 - 60 times the thickness of
the floor panel sheet, and
may for convenience sometimes be taken as being 44 - 48 times that thickness
where there is a single
web, and that much plus the web spacing where there are two webs.
As shown in Figure 3a, floor panel 44 may also overlie main bolsters 82. Each
main bolster 82
may have an upper flange, web, and lower flange, side bearing fittings and so
on. The main bolster meets
center sill 50 at the truck centers. A center plate 55 may be mounted to
center sill 50 at this junction.
Side Beam Construction
Side beams 78 and 80 are substantially identical in structure. Hence a
description of side beam
80 may also be taken as a description of side beam 78. Side beam 80 may
include a top chord member
110, and may have a generally upstanding web 114. Web 114 may have an inbound
face or inwardly
facing surface oriented toward receptacle 30, and an outbound face, or
outwardly facing surface oriented
away from receptacle 30. An array of vertical stiffeners 116 may be mounted to
web 114 at
longitudinally spaced locations along side beam 80. Vertical stiffeners 116
may be mounted outbound of
web 114. Vertical stiffeners 116 may include a first array, or sub array, of
stiffeners 118 mounted at
locations for structural co-operation with (and typically abreast of) the
cross-bearers, and another array, or
sub-array, of stiffeners 120 for structural co-operation with (and typically
abreast of) the cross-ties 76.
There may also be vertical stiffeners 122 abreast of, and for co-operation
with, the main bolsters 82.
Top chord member 110 may tend to function as the top flange of the side beam
80 (or 78, as may
be), and may have a formed cross-section. The cross-section may be that of a
structural angle, or it may
be that of an I-beam or wide flange beam, or it may be a specialty formed
section, such as a bulb angle, or
it may be a channel, or it may be a closed hollow section, such as a
rectangular or square steel tube 124.
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Top chord member 110 may include one or more doublers along part or all of the
upper portions thereof,
such as a central, or mid-span portion corresponding to the location of
greatest bending moment due to
vertical lading loads in the gondola.
In one embodiment, web 114 may be a monolithic steel sheet cut from a single
piece of stock and
which may run substantially the entire length of car 20 from truck center to
truck center or from end
bulkhead to end bulkhead. That monolithic steel sheet may have an upper margin
112 mated with top
chord member 110, typically at a welded lap joint; and a lower margin 128
mated directly with the
decking of the car, namely floor panel 44. The junction at floor panel 44 may
be such that floor panel 44
extends somewhat beyond web 114 in the laterally outboard direction by some
marginal distance. That is
to say, the lower margin of web 114 may abut the floor panel 44. This abutment
may occur at a T-joint in
which floor panel 44 has a laterally outboard margin 45 that may extend
laterally proud of web 114, or of
the junction of web 114 with floor panel 44. This laterally outboard margin 45
may run substantially
continuously along the length of car 20 and may vary in width. In one
embodiment the minimum width
of margin 45 beyond web 114 may be at least as great as the thickness of floor
panel 44 and may, in one
embodiment, be at least twice as great as the floor thickness, or may be 11/2
inches or more. That
marginal distance may be more than 1/2 inch, and may be in the range of 1/2 to
4 inches. In another
embodiment that distance may be 1 to 20 times the thickness of floor panel 44,
and in another
embodiment 3 to 10 times the thickness of floor panel 44, and in another
embodiment may be about 5
times the thickness of floor panel 44. In one embodiment, that marginal
overlap may exist all along the
junction, between any two adjacent web stiffeners, be they stiffeners 118 or
120. Expressed differently,
web 114, or a major portion of web 114, may lie in a plane, or on a two
dimensional surface (such as a
continuous cylindrical surface). That plane or surface may intersect the plane
of floor panel 44 along a
line of intersection. The laterally outboard edge of floor panel 44 may lie at
least as far outboard as the
line of intersection, and may extend further outboard to define margin 45.
Web 114 may not necessarily be a monolithic member, but could be made of two
or more pieces
joined together side-by-side, as by welding. Alternatively, web 114 might be
connected to supporting
members or to longitudinal stiffeners by mechanical fasteners such as HuckTM
bolts. In any case, web
114 may be substantially planar, or may have a major portion thereof lying in
a plane. That plane may be
a vertical-longitudinal plane (i.e., an x-z plane) or may be an inclined
plane, or an arcuate curve
ascending from the decking toward the top chord. The lower portion of web 114
may be indicated as
126, and may include lower margin 128. Whether web 114 is monolithic or not,
it may be that lower
portion 126 of web 114 immediately next to, and adjoining floor panel 44 may
be monolithic (i.e., formed
from a single sheet of stock without intermediate joints). A monolithic piece
may run substantially the
full length of floor panel 44. Portion 126 may be of substantial width, such
as to extend from floor panel
44 a substantial distance up stiffeners 116 toward top chord member 110. That
width, which may be as
little as about 3 inches, may be greater than 18 inches, and may be as great
or greater than 1/5 of the total
width of web 114 from floor panel 44 to top chord member 110.
Lower margin 128 may be formed to abut floor panel 44, and may be joined
directly thereto as by
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welding, such as by fillet welds running both on the inboard and outboard
fillets, along the joint from one
end of the gondola receptacle to the other. Such welds may be made with
automatic welding machines.
In this embodiment, the shear flow associated with the vertical lading in the
receptacle may pass directly
from the lower margin of web 114 to the adjoining floor panel 44. As discussed
elsewhere, floor panel 44
may be of abnormally great thickness. A region of floor panel 44 running
alongside lower margin 128
may be influenced by web 114, and may tend to act as a bottom flange on side
beam 80 (or 78 as may
be). The effective width of that bottom flange region may be in the range of
20 to 30 times the thickness
of the floor panel plate to the inside, and the width of margin 45 to the
outside, and, in one embodiment
may be about 22 - 24 times the plate thickness to the inside. In such an
embodiment, the rail road car is
free of any separate and distinct longitudinally running member, such as a
dedicated side sill, and the
lower flange function of side sill may be performed by the co-operative
interaction of web 114 and floor
panel 44. In an alternate or optional feature shown in Figure 4c, the
connection between lower margin
128 of web 114 may be overlain by a longitudinally running protective shroud
member 130, which may
be a chamfered flat bar lying at an angle such as might run a portion or
substantially all of the length of
the side beam. Shroud member 130 may be joined to floor panel 44 and web 114
by welding, and may
serve to protect the welded joint between web 114 and floor panel 44. In
operation, the shear flow
through shroud member 130 may tend to be smaller than that flowing directly
through the joint of floor
panel 44 to web 114. Similarly, the cross-sectional area of shroud member 130
may be smaller, if not
much smaller, than the effective cross-sectional area of the floor panel (that
area being in the range of 40
¨ 60 times the thickness multiplied by the thickness, or, in one embodiment,
about 44 - 48 times the
square of the thickness). In either case, the dominant structural member is
the effective horizontal flange
defined by the floor sheet, floor panel 44, and the predominant portion of the
shear flow may be carried
directly between the shear web 114 and floor panel 44 without an intervening
intermediate member such
as a dedicated side sill. In one embodiment, this predominance may be greater
than 2/3 of total shear
flow, in another it may be more than 80 % of total shear flow at the bottom
margin of the web. In an
embodiment where there is no shroud member, it may be substantially 100%.
It may be that web member 114 is a continuous sheet. It may also be that in
some embodiments
the greater portion of web 114 may be relatively thin, being perhaps less than
3/16 inches thick, and on
some embodiments 1/8 inch thick or less. In one embodiment the web thickness
may be about 1/10 inch.
It may be a challenge to form a continuous weld to floor panel 44 along the
lower margin of such a web.
It may also be that such a weld may be susceptible to rough treatment. It may
also be a challenge to
maintain a span tolerance on the web in the upward direction between the top
chord and the floor. To the
extent that any of these things may be so, it may be desirable to thicken the
bottom margin of web 114.
In one embodiment, this may be done by mounting a doubler, or base margin
plate, along the bottom edge
of the web, either on the inside, or on the outside. The doubler or base
margin plate may have a
depending margin that is not overlapped by the main portion of the web, and
the doubler or base margin
plate itself may be thicker than the main portion of the web, and may have a
thickness comparable to (i.e.,
within +/- 40 % of) the thickness of floor sheet 44. The base margin plate may
have a depending edge
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extending lower than the lower margin of the thinner main web sheet. The two
parts may be joined at a
lap joint. The lower edge of the base margin plate may be bevelled on one or
both sides, and may be
joined to floor plate 44 at a full penetration weld, which may be formed by an
automatic welding
machine. Examples of reinforced or thickened bottom margin assemblies are
shown in Figures 8d, 8e, 81
and 8m, and described below.
Each of the predominantly vertically upstanding stiffeners 118 may be located
at the same
longitudinal stations as the various cross-bearers. There may be a moment
connection formed between
each such stiffener 118 and the associated cross-bearer 72, and that moment
couple connection may have
the form of a structural knee, as explained below.
Stiffeners
Vertical stiffener 118 may have a cross-section in a variety of forms, be it
and I-beam, a
structural section of arbitrary shape, an H.S.S. tube, and so on. In one
embodiment, it may include a back
132 and a pair of legs 134, 136 mounted to cooperate with an adjacent opposed
region 138 of web 114.
Back 132 and legs 134, 136 may be an integrally formed pressing, or a pre-
fabricated sub-assembly
which is then joined to web 114. Back 132 may stand spaced from web 114, and
may be in a parallel
plane, to that of web 114, which plane may be an x-z plane, with the width of
stiffener 118 being in the
longitudinal, or x-direction, and the length being in the vertical or z-
direction, or generally upward
direction toward top chord 112. Legs 134, 136 may connect back 132 to web 114,
the distal ends of legs
134 and 136 being connected thereto by suitable means, such as welding. A
closed hollow section may
be developed, such as may define an upwardly running beam for resisting
lateral deflection of web 114
and top chord member 110 of beam 80 generally. Stiffener 118 may be of
constant section from bottom
to top, or may have a tapering section. A tapering section may be broad at its
base, near floor panel 44,
and narrower at its tip, where it may be connected to top chord member 110.
Put somewhat differently,
stiffener 118 may be such that, in the context of resisting lateral deflection
of top chord member 110 and
web 114, the effective second moment of area at the base (including the co-
operative effect of the
adjoining region 138 of side sheet web 114) of stiffener 118 may be greater
than at the tip, and may
diminish progressively along the length thereof. The effective width of
cooperative adjoining region 138
may be the distance between legs 134, 136 plus an effective distance to either
side thereof that is, in total,
in the range of 20-30 times the thickness of web 114. In one embodiment, this
effective distance may be
about 24 times that thickness plus the distance once between the webs.
Depending on the type of lading it
may be intended to retain, web 114 may be in the range of about 1/8 or 1/4 to
about 5/8 inches thick.
Floor panel 44 may include floor panel extensions 140 that underlie the
respective bases of
stiffeners 118. Extensions 140 may be formed by trimming the floor panel
stock, such that extensions
140 are integral parts of floor panel 44, rather than being joined after-the-
fact as gussets welded in place.
Extensions 140 may have a generally trapezoidal plan form, with a generally
rectangular central portion
141 that may tend generally to underly the substantially rectangular footprint
of stiffener 118 and
triangular webs or gussets 143 that remain proud of legs 134, 136, running
from the outboard back of
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stiffeners 118 toward the side sheet web 114 more generally, the gussets being
smoothly radiused both
near web 114 and near back 132. To the extent that the side panels or beams
(80 or 78) may be
prefabricated as a sub-assembly, including stiffeners 116 and then mated to
floor panel 44, the outer
flange member, back 132, of stiffener 118 (or 120, as described below) may
have a cut-out formed at the
base margin thereof to permit the assemblies to be welded together fully along
the outboard fillet of web
114 with floor panel 44. A welding opening cover plate 142 may be used to
close this opening and be
welded in place itself to provide a measure of flange continuity of back 132
to floor panel 44.
It may be that a side web extension 146 may be mounted beneath floor panel 44,
and a stiffener
extension assembly 144 may be mounted outboard of side web extension member
146. Side web
extension member 146 may be a substantially planar sheet, which may be of
substantially the same
thickness as side web 114, or may be formed of a thicker bar. Side web
extension member 146 may be
mounted to the underside of floor panel 44, and may be mounted such that the
mating of the upper margin
of extension member 146 lies in general alignment with, and may lie directly
opposite to, the mating of
side web member 114 with floor panel 44, such that a tensile load in side web
114 may, in whole or in
part, be carried into web extension 146 substantially without transverse
travel through floor panel 44 such
as might otherwise tend to give rise to a bending moment in floor panel 44
between the line of action of
web 114 pulling up on floor panel 44 and the line of action of web extension
146 pulling down on floor
panel 44. Expressed alternately, it may be that web 114 and extension 146 are
mated to plate 44 in a
manner tending to discourage unduly eccentric transmission of stress from one
to the other. In that regard,
extension member 146 may be substantially co-planar with side web member 114.
Extension member
146 may include a first or central portion 148 corresponding in width to the
width between, and being
mounted between, webs of stiffener extension assembly 144. In one embodiment,
central portion 148
may extend more than 3 inches below floor panel 44. In another embodiment,
central portion 148 may
extend more than half the depth of web 85, or 84, 86 (as may be) from floor
panel 44. In a further
embodiment, central portion 148 may extend to substantially the full depth of
webs 85, or 84,86, (as may
be) such that the upward-and downward length or depth corresponds to the
distance between floor panel
44 and cross-bearer bottom flange member 88.
Extension member 146 may also include adjacent wing portions 150, 152 which
may be co-
planar with central portion 148, all of which may be co-planar with web member
118. Wing portions
150, 152 may each have a substantially triangular or somewhat trapezoidal
form, and may function as
gussets having one vertex mated to an outside face of cross-bearer web 85, or
84, 86, (as may be), most
typically as by welding, and a second vertex mated to the underside of floor
panel 44 directly opposite
web 114. Wing portions 150, 152 may be smoothly and generously radiused at the
lowest corner, and
smoothly and generously radiused at the distant feathered termination along
the vertex adjoining floor
panel 44. To the extent that there may be a tensile (or compressive) stress
field in the up-and-down
direction in web 114 in the neighbourhood of the post (namely stiffener 118),
gussets 150, and 152 and
central portion 148 may tend to collect or distribute that stress, as it
passes through floor panel 44, along a
line, and may tend to transmit or receive that stress as distributed shear
flow along a line of shear in a
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distributed manner, such as may tend (a) to reduce local bending moments in
the junction with floor panel
44, and (b) to reduce peak stresses, and to even out the distribution of
stress, at least to some extent, along
the line of shear force transfer described below.
A stiffener extension assembly 144 may be mounted beneath each of stiffeners
118 generally in
line with each of cross-bearers 72. Stiffener extension assembly 144 may
include a first wall or member
154, a second wall or member 156, and a third wall or member 158. The first,
second, and third members
may be substantially planar, and may be formed as a single, integrally formed
part, such as a section of
channel 160, which may be a forged, pressed, roll formed or other structural
section cut to length as a stub
section. That length may be 6 inches or more. That length may be as great as,
or greater than half the
depth of webs 85, or 84, 86 of cross-bearer 72 at their intersection with the
plane of web 114. In another
embodiment, that length may correspond, more or less, to the depth of webs 85,
or 84, 86 in full. First
wall member 154 may be the back of the stub channel 160, and second and third
wall members 156, 158
may be the legs of the stub channel 160. Stiffener extension assembly 144 may
also include a fourth
wall, such as may be identified as a cross-bearer bottom flange extension
member 162, which may be
welded in place to mate with extension 146 opposite cross-bearer bottom flange
member 88, and which
may be co-planar with bottom flange member 88. Cross-bearer bottom flange
extension member 162
may be welded across the lower end of the stub section of channel 160, to
provide a shear flow transfer
connection along a line between the lower margins of second and third wall
members 156 and 158 and
bottom flange extension member 162. The most laterally outboard distal end of
bottom flange extension
member 162 may adjoin, and be connected to, the lowermost distal margin of
first wall member 154.
Stiffeners 120 may be mounted along web 114 in an alternating manner with
stiffeners 118. Each
stiffener 120 may include a web member 164 running predominantly up-and-down
on web 114, and
standing predominantly outwardly therefrom, and a flange member 166 running
with, and having a shear
flow connection with web member 164, the flange member being spaced from web
114, and typically
standing laterally outboard thereof. In one embodiment, stiffener 120 may have
the form of a formed
section such as an angle, a hollow tube, which may be rectangular or square, a
roll formed, forged, or U-
pressing channel 168 in which flange member 164 may be the back 170 of the
channel, and web member
164 may be either of two legs 172 of channel 168 whose toes are welded to web
114.
As with stiffener 118 described above, the co-operation of channe1168 with web
114 may tend to
yield a hollow structural section that stiffens web 114 in the up-and-down
direction. perpendicular to top
chord member 110, and that may tend to discourage buckling of web 114. That
structural section may
tend to have an effective inner flange width equal to the width of the channel
between the legs, plus an
effective flange width to either side of 40 to 60 (i.e., 20 to 30 times to
each side, for a total of 40 to 60
times the thickness of web 114 (and which may in some embodiments be taken as
roughly 44 - 48 times
that thickness).
The upper end of stiffener 120 may be welded to top chord member 110. Floor
panel 44 may
include floor panel extensions 174 to which the lower end of stiffener 120 may
be connected, as by
welding. Floor panel extensions 174 may have a generally trapezoidal shape,
having a central, generally
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rectangular region 176 that underlies the hollow section defined by stiffener
120, and a pair of wing
portions 178 that define gussets extending to either side of legs 172. In one
embodiment, extensions 174
may be formed as monolithic, or integral, parts of floor panel 44 when floor
panel 44 is cut from a sheet
of stock, rather than, for example, being gussets that are cut separately and
welded in place after the fact.
In each case, the profile cut corners may be smoothly radiused to merge
smoothly into the profile of the
adjacent plate.
Web member 114 may also have web extensions 180. Web extensions 180 may be in
the form of
gussets welded to the underside of floor panel 44 in a position opposite to
the locus of mating of side
sheet web 114 and floor panel 44 centered on the center line of cross-tie 76
and stiffener 120. Web
extensions 180 may have a generally trapezoidal form that may include a
rectangular central portion 182
that extends across the distal end of one of cross-ties 76, and is welded to
web 92 and bottom flange 96
thereof, as well as to the underside of floor panel 44. Web extensions 180 may
also include generally
triangular shaped wing portions 184, analogous to wing portions 150 of web
extensions 146, that spread
the effect of the junction into the adjoining web regions. In contrast to the
junction between stiffener 118
and cross-bearer 72, the junction between side stiffener 120 and cross-tie 76
may not include a post
extension assembly such as assembly 144, and may not include a structural knee
connection, such as
described above, and discussed below. (Although such a post extension
structural knee assembly could be
used in an alternate embodiment).
A structural knee 186 is also formed at the distal ends of main bolsters 82.
Stiffeners 122 may be
of substantially the same construction as stiffeners 118. Floor panel 44 may
have floor panel extensions
188 upon which the posts (namely, stiffeners 122) sit, and with which they are
mated in substantially the
same manner as extensions 140 of floor panel 44 described in connection with
stiffeners 118. Side sheet
extensions 190 may differ from web extensions 146 in that they may be
positioned with their upper
margins welded to floor panel 44 opposite the locus of mating of web 114 with
floor panel 44, yet extend
at an inwardly and downwardly sloping angle, rather than being co-planar with
web 114. Knee 186 may
include a post extension assembly 192 that is substantially similar in
structure to assembly 144 described
above in the context of stiffeners 116. Post extension assembly 192 may
include an outer wall member
194 having an eye 195, which may also be termed a lifting lug, to permit the
car body to be lifted. In
addition, post extension assemblies 192 may include a thick doubler plate 196
mounted to the underside
of the lower flange portion of assemblies 192, plate 196 having an eye 197
such as may accommodate a
lifting lug. Plate 196 may also provide a reinforced jacking point by which
the end of the car body may
be lifted. The all welded connection may include backing members 198.
The Structural Knees
The railroad freight car 20 may have structural knees, as noted above. For the
purpose of the
following discussion, those knees may be identified as 200 at the junction of
the cross-bearers and their
associated sideposts, as well as at the junction of the main bolsters and
their associated vertical sideposts.
The foregoing description of the connection of side posts (i.e., stiffener
118) to cross-bearer 72 is a
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description of a structural knee 200.
Conceptually, it may be desired for the side posts at the cross-bearer ends to
act as springs that
may tend to resist lateral deflection of the top chord, and perhaps of the
sidebeam generally, due to the
lading, and such other forces as may tend to wish to flex the top chords
laterally. In this regard, the
lading may be considered as a distributed lateral pressure load, P
¨ Lading working against the sidebeams 78,
80, and, more particularly, working against the containment membranes. The
containment membranes
may, in this context, be the webs, or web sheets, of the sidebeams namely web
114 as well as floor panel
44, and the end wall bulkheads. To this end, it may be desirable for the
structural connection between the
upstanding sideposts and their associated cross-bearers to be able to transmit
a bending moment.
In as much as the loads may be large and cyclic, it may be desirable to avoid
sharp stress field
discontinuities. The general object then is to transmit a moment couple
carried by the sidepost flanges
(e.g., 132 and 138) around a corner and into the flanges of the cross-bearer
(e.g., 88 and 102 or 89 and
103) while trying to avoid unduly sharp variations in the stress fields in the
flanges and webs, and while
trying to keep the stress fields relatively evenly spread out such that the
peak stresses may be closer to the
mean stresses than they might perhaps otherwise be.
As this is a multi-dimensional stress field problem, understanding may be
aided by considering
the illustration of Figure 4b. In Figure 4b, a sidepost such as stiffener 118
is to be considered in the
generic sense as representing any sidepost. This conceptual explanation may be
understood in the context
of an embodiment in which the side post has a single web, or in the context
where it is understood that
side post has a hollow section, such as a roll formed section having a back or
flange, and a pair of spaced
apart legs. There is an associated cross-bearer 72. It may be that cross-
bearer 72 has the same number of
webs as the side post or it may not. Referring to figures 4b, 4c, 4d and 4e
for the purposes of this
discussion, a Cartesian co-ordinate system is defined in which the x-axis is
perpendicular to the page (i.e.,
parallel to the longitudinal centerline axis of the car more generally). The z-
axis is the vertical axis, and
the y-axis is the lateral axis, with the positive y direction being oriented
away from the longitudinal
centerline axis of the car (i.e., y increases in the laterally outboard
direction).
There is structure identified in association with the sidepost that performs
the function of a first
flange member (region 138); that performs the function of a second flange
member (back 132); and also
structure that performs the function of a shear transfer web member (leg 134
or 136) joined to and
working between the flanges. In the illustration of Figure 4b, region 138 is
shown as running vertically
and extending (i.e., having a width perpendicular to the paper) in the
longitudinal direction. That is, it
may be substantially planar in the z-x plane. This need not necessarily be so.
The plane could be inclined
with respect to the vertical, or might not necessarily be a plane at all, but
could be a curve. However,
considering a flange member such as region 138 to be planar may tend to
facilitate conceptual
understanding of the analysis. Similarly, the other spaced away flange member
(back 132) may tend to
be planar, and may lie in a parallel x-z plane but, generically, it need not
necessarily be planar, and need
not be parallel, but could in one embodiment be at an inclined angle. The
second flange member may
also tend to have a width perpendicular to the page, and may tend to run, and
carry tensile or compressive
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stresses, in the generally up-and-down direction of the flange generally. The
web members' legs (134,
136) are also intended to define a generic shear coupling between the flange
members, and need not be
planar. However, the web member, or members, may be generally planar, and may
lie in a plane that is
perpendicular to the flange members, such as a laterally outboard extending,
vertically running, y-z plane.
As with beam theory generally, it is assumed that web member(s) carry the
lateral load due to the
the lading working against the sidewall, and the flange members carry the
accumulated bending moment
associated with lateral load. Since the lateral loadP-ading is a distributed
load working in the positive y-
direction (i.e., laterally outboard) it is assumed that the inboard flange
carries a tensile stress field, and the
outboard flange carries a compressive stress field, the two stress fields,
identified as at_post andfr
-C-post,
being such that, when integrated and taken over their moment arms, define a
moment couple, M
¨Lading
having a generally clockwise sense when viewed looking into the page. Ideally,
these stress fields would
have a roughly uniform stress distributed across the flanges and the moment
couple would be roughly the
product of that stress multiplied by the areas of the flanges, multiplied by
the square of the moment arm,
it being conservatively assumed that the share of the moment carried by the
webs can be ignored as small.
In this explanation, the inboard flange may be a flange of a formed post, or
may be a portion of the side
sheet web (e.g. web 114) of the side beam of the rail road car more generally,
where the effective width
of the flange relative to the intersecting web is a function of side beam web
sheet thickness, for example.
Similarly, there is structure identified in association with cross-bearer 72
that performs the
function of a first flange member, which may be an upper flange member such as
region 102; structure
that performs the function of a second flange member, which may be a bottom or
lower flange member
such as member 88; and also structure that performs the function of a shear
transfer web member (web
85, or webs 84, 86) joined to and working between the flange members. In the
illustration, the upper
flange member (region 102) is shown as extending horizontally and running in
the longitudinal direction.
That is, it may be substantially planar in the x-y plane, with a width
perpendicular to the page, and a
major dimension, or length, along which tensile at_no, or compressive ac.F1õ,
stresses due to the moment
couple M
¨Reaction may be carried, that major dimension being substantially parallel to
they axis. This need
not necessarily be so. The plane might be slightly inclined, or might not
necessarily be a plane at all, but
could be a curve, or have a slight camber. However, considering the upper
flange member to be planar,
as a floor sheet underlying cross-bearer flange might be in general, may tend
to facilitate conceptual
understanding of the analysis. Similarly, the lowest flange member 88 may tend
to be planar, and may lie
in a parallel x-y plane to that of the upper flange member, but, generically,
it need not necessarily be
planar, and need not be parallel. Some embodiments of cross-bearer 72 may tend
to taper from a wide
root at the center sill, to a shallower outboard tip. Web 85 (or webs 84 and
86 as may be) is also intended
to define a generic shear coupling between the flange members, and need not be
planar. However, the
web member or members may be generally planar, and may lie in a plane that is
perpendicular to the
flange members, such as a vertically extending, laterally outboard running, y-
z plane.
As above, it may be assumed that each web member provides a shear connection
between the
flange members and that those flange members carry the bending moment reaction
MReaction to moment
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MLading= Since MLading works clockwise in the example, the reactive moment
MReaction must be counter-
clockwise, such that it is assumed that the first, or upper flange member
carries a tensile stress field at.
Floor, and the second or lower flange member carries a compressive stress
field, ac-Floor, the two stress
fields, when integrated and taken over their moment arms, defining the
reactive moment couple. MReaciion
clearing, for static determinacy the sum of M
¨Lading+ MReaction = 0, i.e., they are equal and opposite.
Although not necessarily generically essential, and not always possible, it
may often be desirable
for the various flanges and associated webs to be substantially planar and
mutually perpendicular. This
may tend to minimize, or to avoid giving rise to, secondary or tertiary out of
plane forces (and hence also
to avoid the need for provision of reaction load paths for those secondary or
tertiary out-of-plane loads).
These secondary and tertiary out-of-plane forces may not necessarily be
considered benign. Where out of
plane members are employed, they may sometimes be employed in opposed pairs in
which the out-of-
plane effects may be equal and opposite, and so may tend to have a balancing
effect.
Web portion 202 may be considered part of, or an extension of, web 85, 84 or
86 of cross-bearer
72, or may be considered part of, or an extension of the web (i.e., leg 134 or
136) of the post (stiffener
118). This web portion may be part of either, or an extension of either, or
may be a separate member that
is not formed as an integral part of either, but is attached to both by
fabrication, such as welding.
Similarly, web portion 202 may be bounded by stress field transfer members
such as an inboard post
flange continuity member (e.g. 146), an outboard post flange continuity member
(e.g. 154), an upper
cross-bearer flange continuity member (e.g. 140), and a lower cross-bearer
flange continuity member (e.g.
162). Each of these members may have the form of a substantially planar
gusset, or may have another
form, such that one edge abuts, or is substantially aligned with, and
connected to communicate
compressive or tensile forces with, the flange member with which it is
associated, and another portion
thereof runs along, and is connected to transmit shear forces to, an
associated edge of web portion 202.
For its part, one edge of web portion 202, such as a first edge 204 may be
located opposite lower edge
206 of the post web namely member 134, 136 and a second edge, 208 may lie
opposite the laterally
outboard edge 210 of web 85, 84 (or 86 as may be) of cross-bearer 72. Put
differently, the junction of
web 84 or 86 with upper cross-bearer flange continuity member (140) may lie in
substantially the same
plane as web portion 202 and the junction of the cross-bearer web, be it 85,
84 (or 86) with the side post
inboard flange extension member (e.g. 146) may also tend to lie in
substantially the same plane as web
portion 202. A third edge 212 of shear web portions 202 may lie along, and
form a shear transfer
connection with, the post outboard flange extension, of which back 154 is an
example. A fourth edge 214
of shear web portion 202 may lie along, and form a shear force transfer
connection with, the cross-bearer
bottom flange extension member, of which member 162 is an example.
Generally speaking, it may be that the various flange members (e.g., 88, 102,
132 and 138) and
their respective associated flange extension members (e.g., 162, 140, 154,
146) to have the same through
thickness, and, whether that is so, or not, for the respective pairs of
members to lie within one thickness
of alignment with each other, or to overlap each other in thickness. That is,
it may generally be desirable
for the flange members and their respective flange extension members to be
lined up such that the central
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plane of the flange member sits opposite, or in line with, the central plane
of the corresponding extension
member. le., generally speaking, they are not offset very far from one
another, if at all, such that forces
associated with the in-plane tensile and compressive stress fields passed
between them may tend not to be
passed eccentrically. It may be that this overlap, or alignment, is such that
in one embodiment, there is at
least some overlap. In another embodiment, at least half the thickness of each
member overlaps the
opposed member. In another embodiment, the opposed members are less than %
inch offset from each
other. In another embodiment, they are substantially directly aligned.
Although it may be convenient, it is not necessary that legs 172 be aligned
with any of web 85 (or
webs 84 and 86 as may be), or that web portion (or portions) 202 be aligned
with any of them. A knee
may include a pair of input flanges, a pair of output flanges, and a shear
force transfer member that is
connected to both pairs of flanges. The flanges of the knee have flange
continuity at the locations at
which the members of the pairs of flanges intersect. The shear force transfer
members may tend to have
flanges running along substantially their entire edges to discourage local out-
of-plane deflection.
The tensile stress field carried by the inboard flange (138) at its junction
with the cross-bearer top
flange (102) is then carried into the inbound flange extension member (146)
and transferred, from
member 146 in shear into web portion 202 along a substantial portion of, and
possibly the full length of,
edge 208. Similarly, the outboard flange extension member 154 communicates a
compressive stress field
introduced along its upper vertex into a shear stress field transmitted along
much, and possibly all, of
edge 212 of web portion 202. The reaction shear stress fields are transmitted
by cross-bearer top flange
extension 140 into a shear stress field along edge 204, and by bottom flange
extension member 162 into a
shear stress field along edge 214. For static determinacy, the moment couples
are in balance. Extensions
162, 140, 154 and 146 may also tend to discourage out-of-plane deflection of
web portion 202.
The foregoing is intended as a generic description of the structural knee. In
one embodiment,
upper cross-bearer flange extension 140 may merely be part of the upper cross-
bearer flange. That is,
they may have been formed integrally as part of a rolled beam in the first
place, or may have been parts of
the same as-rolled plate, cut into a flat bar or panel, and joined by
fabrication to web members such as
web 84, 86 and web portion 202. Alternatively still, flange extension 140 may
be formed as part of the
same monolithic stock as floor panel 44 more generally, with the profile of
flange extension 140 being
formed by a cutting process, such as a plasma arc cutting process.
For the purpose of this explanation with respect to laterally outwardly
working forces tending to
bend the upstanding posts outboard, the reaction to the vertical lading load
is not discussed. The vertical
lading load is reacted, primarily, in the side beam, which carries the
vertical shear and the associated
bending moment to the end sections of the car. It may also be noted that the
contribution of the web
members of the side post (e.g. 134, 136) and the web members 85 or 84 and 86
of cross-bearer 72 to
carrying the bending moments are taken as being small compared to the
contribution of the various
flanges, such that they may be considered to be zero. In such an analysis,
mean stresses in the flange
pairs may be made roughly equal by equating the second moments of area of the
sections leading to the
knee. To the extent that the second moment of area may be calculated according
to the formula E
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(1/12)bili13+ E Aid?, in this analysis it is assumed that the Aieterms
predominate and the (1/12)131k3 terms
are small. To the extent that the spacing between the cross-bearer flanges hn
may be significantly greater
than the spacing between the sidepost flanges h118; and to the extent that the
wall thickness of web 114
and the members of stiffener 118 may be thinner than either floor panel 44 or
lower flange 88, bottom
flange 88 may be narrower than back 132, as indicated by the diminution in
section from the flared and
radiused end portion 87 and the narrower extending part in 91 of bottom flange
88.
There are a number of ways in which a knee structure such as that discussed
above may be
fabricated. One embodiment has been described above which employs a post
extension assembly 144. In
another embodiment, webs 85 or 84, 86 of cross-bearers 72 could be continuous,
and could extend
outboard of the plane of web 114 to the full extent of floor panel 44. The
embodiment may share the
common feature of flange continuity, and transfer of longitudinal stress
fields in the flanges on one side
of the knee by shear flow into shear stress fields in one or more webs at the
corner of the knee, which are
then again transferred into longitudinal stresses in the flanges on the other
side of the knee. In these
embodiments, the shear flow is encouraged to occur over a line interface, and
out-of-plane deflection of
the various flanges is discouraged.
Clean Out
As noted above, car 20 has a car body 22 having a peripheral wall structure.
End walls 40, 42,
are bulkheads having laterally extending stiffeners, which may be channels of
steel tubes, to which an end
sheet may be mounted, along with customary features such as a handbrake,
ladders at the points of the
car, and so on. Inside receptacle 32, car body may include inclined lower end
sheets, 220, which extend
across the width of the well at the foot of the end wall.
From time to time, it may be desirable to clean out receptacle 30, as, for
example, when it is
desired to lade car 20 with a different kind of lading than that with which
car 20 may previously have
been laded. To that end, car 20 may have porting, such as may include an array
of one or more clean outs
224. In one embodiment, there may be four such cleanouts (or more). Each of
four cleanouts may be
located in a corner region of car body 26. In one embodiment, clean out 224
may be formed in a shear
bay web portion 226 of web 114 more generally. Clean out 224 may be located in
a bay that is
longitudinally outboard of main bolster 82. Cleanout 224 may include an
opening 228 formed in a lower
region of web portion 226. The lower sill of opening 228 being flush with
floor panel 44. Cleanout 224
may also include a gate 230, such as may be moved between an open position, as
shown in Figure 6a, and
a closed position, as shown in Figure 6b. When in the open position, water and
other materials may tend
to be permitted to be flushed out of, or drain out of receptacle 32. When gate
230 is in the closed
position, lading may be retained within car body 26, and discouraged from
exiting receptacle 32.
Opening 228 may be relatively small, and may be an opening in a small lower
region of the surrounding
web. Opening 228 may be less than 2 ft., (and may be less than 18" or 1 ft.,)
high, and may be about 3 ft
or 30 inches wide, or may be less wide, such as about 24" or 27" or perhaps as
little as 18".
Gate 230 may include a framing member 232, extending beside and across the top
of opening 228
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such as may perform the function of a doubler plate, or reinforcement about
opening 228, opening 228
being formed by making a first opening 234 in web 114 and a second, aligned
opening 236 in framing
member 232. All of these openings may have a generally linear lower edge,
which may be flush with,
and possibly defined by, floor panel 44. All of these openings may have a
generally square or rectangular
shape. Gate 230 may also include a pair of spaced apart wall members 238, 240
which may extend
laterally outboard from framing member 232 on either side of opening 228. The
bottom edge of the
opening may be supported by a bottom framing member 235 welded to the
underside of floor panel 44.
Framing member 235 may be in a generally co-planar position relative to web
114.
Gate 230 may also include a moving closure member 242. Moving closure member
242 may
have a hinge 244, which may have hinge rod ends 246 that extend to either
side, and protrude through
apertures 248 in wall members 238, 240. Apertures 248 may be in the form of
vertically extending slots
249 that permit a rotational degree of freedom of rod ends 246, and a
translational degree of freedom in
the up and down direction (i.e., along the z-axis). Gate 230 may also include
a pair of catches, or stops
250, 252 which may be mounted on local extensions 251 of the laterally
outboard overhang 45 of floor
panel 44 immediately outboard of web 114. Stops 250,252 may be aligned with
(i.e., may lie in the same
respective vertical planes as) the corresponding wall members 238, 240. Stops
250 may include an
inclined lead-in, or wedge, or ramp, 251, followed by a relief or detent, such
as indicated at 253.
Gate 230 may include a handle 254, having a bail 256. Bail 256 may be
generally U-shaped, and
may include a pair of bail standoffs 258, 260, which are mounted to a main
panel 262. Main panel 262 is
of greater planar extent than opening 228, such that, in the closed position,
main panel 262 obstructs
opening 228 and prevents outflow of lading therethrough. The proximal, or
staff, margin of main panel
262 is mounted to hinge 244, and standoffs 258 and 260 are mounted adjacent to
the distal, or distaff
margin of main panel 262. A pair of indexing members, or catches, or dogs 264,
266 extend sideways
from main panel 262. The lading facing side of the distal portion of main
panel 262 carries a doubler, or
wear plate 268 that may be of greater thickness than, for example web 114.
Plate 268 may be of a
thickness corresponding to that of web 114 plus framing member 228. When being
swung closed the
swinging and falling motion of gate 230, perhaps aided by the urging of an
operator at trackside, may
tend to cause dogs 264,266 to ride up the ascending profile of ramps 251,
forcing hinge 244 also to move
upwardly. After passing the crest of ramps 251, dogs 264, 266 may descend to
seat in notches 272, 274
of stops 250 and 252 respectively. In this position, the edge face of plate
268 may seat against floor panel
44, and the shape of notches 272, 274 may be such as to have a sloped contact
that may tend to urge plate
268 into opening 228 more or less flush with the inside face of web 114. The
subsequent urging of lading
against plate 268 may tend to by resisted by dogs 264, 266 backing on notches
272, 274.
Gate 230 may be opened in a two step manner. First, by lifting handle 254 more
or less straight
upward, and forcing hinge rod ends 246 linearly upward in slots 249, dogs 264
and 266 are released from
notches 272, 274. This may be termed an unlatching step. Second, by then
rotating handle 254 about the
axis of rod ends 246 (counter-clockwise from the closed position shown in
Figure 6b to the open position
shown in Figure 6c), opening 228 may be uncovered such that cleanout materials
may exit receptacle 32.
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Outstanding wall members 238, 240 include inset radiused portions defining
detents 280 into which dogs
264, 266 may seat, or latch, when gate 230 is in the open position of Figure
6c. Closing is the reverse
operation of unlatching the dogs from the upper detents, and relatching them
by forcing them up the
inclined slopes and into the lower detents. Both position thus latch due to
gravity, and may tend to
discourage accidental dislodgement.
Embodiment of Figure 7a
Figure 7a shows an isometric view from above and to one corner of an example
of a rail road
freight car 320 that is intended to be generically representative of a wide
range of rail road cars, and
.which may be a mill gondola car such as may be used for transporting scrap.
With the exception of
brake fittings, safety appliances and other secondary fittings, car 320 is
substantially symmetrical about
both its longitudinal and transverse, or lateral, centreline axes.
Consequently, where reference is made to
a first or left hand side beam, or first or left hand bolster, it will be
understood that the car has first and
second, left and right hand side beams, bolsters and so on.
Rail road-car 320 has a pair of first and second trucks 322, 324, and a rail
car body 326 that is
carried upon, and supported by, trucks 322,324 for rolling motion along
railroad tracks in the manner of
rail road cars generally. Rail car body 326 may include a wall structure 328
defining a lading
containment receptacle 330. Wall structure 328 may include a base wall, which
may be in the nature of a
floor or flooring 332, and a generally upstanding peripheral wall 334 which
may include a pair of first
and second side walls 336, 338, and first and second end walls 340, 342.
Flooring 332, sidewalls 336,
338 and first and second end walls 340, 342 may tend to define an open topped
box, namely receptacle
330, into which lading may be introduced. Generally speaking, car 320 may be
of all steel, or
predominantly steel construction, although in some embodiments other materials
may be used.
Flooring 332 may include a floor panel 344. Floor panel 344 may be made of a
plurality of floor
sheets joined together, in an abutting fashion such as may yield a continuous
lading containing surface,
or, in one embodiment, may be made from a single, monolithic steel sheet 346.
Steel sheet 346 may be a
single sheet having its profile cut from a monolithic sheet of stock by a
cutting device, such as a plasma
arc cutter. In general, the commentary made above with respect to floor panel
44 applies to floor panel
344 as well. The floor of a mill gondola may tend to be thicker than that of
an aggregate gondola. The
thickness may be in the range 3/8 to 5/8 of an inch, and may be about V2 inch.
Body 326 of car 320 may
include an underframe member such as a longitudinally running center sill 350.
Center sill 350 may be
substantially the same as center sill 50 described above and may be
manufactured in substantially the
same way. The co-operative effect of the center sill and floor sheets may be
the same, or substantially the
same, as described above.
Rail road car 320 may include an array 370 of cross-bearers 372 and an array
374 of cross-ties
376. Car 20 may have first and second side beams 378, 380, defining part or
all of side walls 336, 338,
and may be the dominant structural assemblies of car 320 in terms of
resistance to vertical bending and
may be aided in that resistance by the co-operative adjoining effective flange
width region of the floor
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panel. Each cross-bearer 372 extends between center sill 350 and a respective
one of side beams 378 or
380. Each cross-bearer has a moment connection at both ends (i.e., at center
sill 350, and at the side
beam, be it 378 or 380. Cross-ties 376 may be placed in pairs or singly
between cross-bearers 372. Each
cross-tie 376 extends between center sill 350 and one or other of side beams
378, 380. The junctions of
the cross-ties with the center sill and the side beams may, conservatively, be
analysed as pin joints as
noted above. Car 320 may also have main bolsters 382 that extend laterally
from center sill 350 to side
beams 378, 380, at the locations of the truck centers (CL Truck).
Each cross-bearer 372 may include a web 385, and a bottom flange member 388.
Bottom flange
member 388 may include a flared or broadened laterally outboard end portion
387, and a narrower more
laterally inboard portion 386 extending to mate with center sill bottom flange
cover plate 362 in flange
continuity. Alternatively, each cross-bearer 372 may include a pair of first
and second, spaced apart
upstanding webs as described above and may include a bottom flange member. Web
385 may abut floor
panel 344 directly, and be connected directly thereto by such means as welding
to yield the sheer flow
performance as described above.
Each cross-tie 376 may have a single web 392, or more than one web 392. Each
web 392 extends
downwardly from floor panel 344. A bottom flange 396 is welded across, and
along, the bottom margin
of web 392. Cross-tie 376 may include a channel having toes attached to floor
panel 344. As with cross-
bearers 372, the web or webs 392 of cross-ties 376 may abut floor panel 344
directly, without the
intervention, or addition, of a top flange or cover plate, other than floor
panel 344. As such, any shear
flow may tend to flow directly from one to the other.
Floor panel 344 may tend to define the upper flanges of both cross-bearers 372
and cross-ties
376. As discussed above, the effective cross-bearer upper flange region of
cross-bearer 372 and the upper
flange region of cross-tie 376 may have an effective width of the order of 40 -
60 times the thickness of
the floor panel sheet, and may for convenience sometimes be taken as being 44 -
48 times that thickness
where there is a single web, and that much plus the web spacing where there
are two webs. Floor panel
344 may also overlie main bolsters 382. Each main bolster 382 may have an
upper flange, web, and
lower flange, side bearing fittings and so on. The main bolster meets center
sill 350 at the truck centers.
A center plate may be mounted to center sill 350 at this junction.
Side Beam Construction
Side beams 378 and 380 are substantially identical in structure. Hence a
description of side beam
380 may also be taken as a description of side beam 378. Side beam 380 may
include a top chord
member 410, and may have a generally upstanding web 414. An array of vertical
stiffeners 416 may be
mounted to web 414 at longitudinally spaced locations along side beam 380.
Vertical stiffeners 416 may
include a first array, or sub array, of stiffeners 418 mounted at locations
for structural co-operation with
(and typically abreast of) the cross-bearers, and another array, or sub-array,
of stiffeners 420. There may
also be vertical stiffeners 422 abreast of, and for co-operation with, the
main bolsters 382. Stiffeners 420
need not necessarily be located at longitudinal stations corresponding to the
longitudinal status of the
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cross-ties. To the extent that no reliance is placed on the ability to
transfer a mount couple, this may
permit the spacing at the cross-ties and intermediate posts to differ. For
example, where the floor of the
car may be subject to large point loads or possible abuse in service, a closer
spacing of cross-ties may be
appropriate. Where the height of the side beam is not overly tall, and the car
is not unduly long, the
spacing of the side posts may perhaps be greater than otherwise. For example,
it may be that the side
beam only needs two shear panel pitches (and hence one intermediate stiffener)
of over the same span for
which the floor may be better served with three pitches (and hence two cross-
ties) between cross-bearers.
In one embodiment, web 414 may include a monolithic steel sheet 402 cut from a
single piece of
stock and which may run substantially the entire length of car 320 from truck
center to truck center or
from end bulkhead to end bulkhead. That sheet may have an upper margin 412
mated with top chord
member 410, typically at a welded lap joint; and a lower margin 428 more
proximate to the decking of the
car, namely floor panel 344. Web 414 may also include a second member 404.
Member 404 may be a
longitudinally running plate in the nature of a skirt or wear plate, (which
may be a doubler), and may be
of greater thickness than sheet 402. Second number 404 may overlap the lower
margin of sheet 402 and
may be connected thereto by a lap joint. In one embodiment, member 404 may lie
inboard of member
402. In another embodiment it may lie outboard. The lower margin of member 404
may abut, and be
welded to, floor panel 344 in the same manner as web 114 and floor panel 44.
Plate 402 may then co-
operate with the adjacent region of influence of floor panel 344 to perform
the function of a side sill.
Top chord member 410 may tend to function as the top flange of side beam 380
(or 378), and
may have a formed cross-section, which may be a structural angle, an I-beam or
wide flange beam, or
may be a specialty formed section, such as a bulb angle, or it may be a
channel, or it may be a closed
hollow section, such as a rectangular or square steel tube 424. Top chord
member 410 may include one
or more doublers along part or all of the upper portions thereof, such as a
central, or mid-span portion
corresponding to the location of greatest bending moment due to vertical
lading loads in the gondola.
The junction of member 404 at floor panel 44 may be such that floor panel 44
extends somewhat
beyond member 404 and sheet 402 in the laterally outboard direction by some
marginal distance. That is
to say, the lower margin of member 402 may abut the floor panel 344. This
abutment may occur at a T-
joint in which floor panel 344 has a laterally outboard margin 345 that may
extend laterally proud of
member 404 (and sheet 402, for that matter) or of the junction of member 402
with floor panel 344. This
laterally outboard margin 345 may run substantially continuously along the
length of car 320 and may
vary in width. That width may lie in the ranges discussed above in the context
of margin 45. That
marginal distance may be more than one inch, and may be in the range of 1 to 6
inches. In one
embodiment, that marginal overlap may exist all along the junction, between
any two adjacent web
stiffeners, be they stiffeners 418 or 420. Expressed differently, web 414, or
a major portion of web 414,
may lie in a plane, or on a two dimensional surface (such as a continuous
cylindrical surface). That plane
or surface may intersect the plane of floor panel 344 along a line of
intersection. The laterally outboard
edge of floor panel 344 may lie at least as far outboard as the line of
intersection, and may extend further
outboard to define margin 345.
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Web 414 may not necessarily monolithic, but could be made of two or more
pieces joined
together side-by-side, as by welding, such as sheet 402 and plate 404, or as a
series of plates mounted
side-by-side with vertical welds. Alternatively, web 414 might be connected to
supporting members or to
longitudinal stiffeners by mechanical fasteners such as HuckTM bolts. In any
case, web 414 may be
substantially planar, or may have a major portion thereof lying in a plane.
That plane may be a vertical-
longitudinal plane (i.e., an x-z plane) or may be an inclined plane, or an
arcuate curve ascending from the
decking toward the top chord. The lower portion of web 414 may be indicated as
404, and may include
lower margin 428. Whether web 414 is monolithic or not, it may be that lower
portion 404 of web 414
immediately next to, and adjoining floor panel 344 may be monolithic (i.e.,
formed from a single sheet of
stock without intermediate joints). A monolithic piece may run substantially
the full length of floor panel
344. Portion 404 may be of substantial width, such as to extend from floor
panel 344 a substantial
distance up stiffeners 416 toward top chord member 410. That width may be
greater than 6 inches, and
may be as great or greater than 1/12 of the total width of web 414 from floor
panel 344 to top chord
member 410. In one embodiment, portion 404 may be made from 4 inch wide bar
stock.
Lower margin 428 may be formed to abut floor panel 344, and may be joined
directly thereto as
by welding, such as by fillet welds running both on the inboard and outboard
fillets, along the joint from
one end of the gondola receptacle to the other. Such welds may be made with
automatic welding
machines. Alternatively, lower margin 428 may be bevelled on the side away
from the stiffeners, and a
full penetration weld may be made along the bevel. The shear flow associated
with the vertical lading in
the receptacle may pass directly from the lower margin of web 414 to the
adjoining floor panel 344. As
discussed elsewhere, floor panel 344 may be of abnormally great thickness. A
region of floor panel 344
running alongside lower margin 428 may be influenced by plate 404, and may
tend to act as a bottom
flange on side beam 380 (or 378 as may be). The effective width of that bottom
flange region may be in
the range of 40 to 60 times the thickness of the floor panel plate, and, in
one embodiment may be about
44 - 48 times the plate thickness. The lower flange function of side sill may
be performed by the co-
operative interaction of plate 404 and floor panel 344.
Each of the predominantly vertically upstanding stiffeners 418 may be located
at the same
longitudinal stations as the various cross-bearers. There may be a moment
connection formed between
each such stiffener 418 and the associated cross-bearer 372, and that moment
couple connection may
have the form of a structural knee, as explained below.
Stiffeners
Vertical stiffener 418 may have any of the sections of stiffener 118, and may
include a back 432
and a pair of legs 434, 436 mounted to cooperate with an adjacent opposed
region 438 of web 414. Back
432 and legs 434, 436 may be an integrally formed pressing, or a pre-
fabricated sub-assembly which is
then joined to web 414. Back 432 may stand spaced from web 414, and may be in
a parallel plane, to that
of web 414, which plane may be an x-z plane, with the width of stiffener 418
being in the longitudinal, or
x-direction, and the length being in the vertical or z-direction, or generally
upward direction toward top
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chord 410. Legs 434, 436 may connect back 432 to web 414, the distal ends of
legs 434 and 436 being
connected thereto by suitable means, such as welding. The distal ends of legs
434, 436 may be cut to
match the combined profile of sheet 402 and member 404. A closed hollow
section may be developed,
such as may define an upwardly running beam for resisting lateral deflection
of web 414 and top chord
member 410 of beam 380 generally. Stiffener 418 may be of constant section
from bottom to top, or may
have a tapering section. A tapering section may be broad at its base, near
floor panel 344, and narrower
at its tip, where it may be connected to top chord member 410. Put somewhat
differently, stiffener 418
may be such that, in the context of resisting lateral deflection of top chord
member 410 and web 414, the
effective second moment of area at the base (including the co-operative effect
of the adjoining region 438
of side sheet web 414) of stiffener 418 may be greater than at the tip, and
may diminish progressively
along the length thereof. Stiffener 418 may taper either in depth or in width,
or both. The effective width
of cooperative adjoining region 438 may be the distance between legs 434,436
plus an effective distance
to either side thereof that is, in total, in the range of 40-60 times the
thickness of web 414. In one
embodiment, this effective distance may be about 44 - 48 times that thickness
plus the distance between
the webs. Web 414 may be about 1/8" to 5/8" thick. In one embodiment it may be
about 3/16" thick.
Floor panel 344 may include floor panel extensions 440 that underlie the
respective bases of
stiffeners 418. Extensions 440 may be formed by trimming the floor panel
stock, such that extensions
440 are integral parts of floor panel 344, rather than being joined after-the-
fact as gussets welded in place.
Extensions 440 may have a trapezoidal plan form, with a generally rectangular
central portion 441 that
may tend generally to underly the substantially rectangular footprint of
stiffener 418 and triangular webs
or gussets 443 that remain proud of legs 434, 436, running from the outboard
back of stiffeners 418
toward the side sheet web 414 more generally, the gussets being smoothly
radiused both near web 414
and near back 432. To the extent that the side panels or beams (380 or 378)
may be prefabricated as a
sub-assembly, including stiffeners 416 and then mated to floor panel 344, the
outer flange member, back
432, of stiffener 418 (or 420, below) may have a cut-out formed at the base
margin thereof to permit the
assemblies to be welded together fully along the outboard fillet of web 414
with floor panel 344.
It may be that a side beam web extension 446 may be mounted beneath floor
panel 344, and a
stiffener extension assembly 444 may be mounted outboard of side web extension
member 446. Side
beam web extension member 446 may be a substantially planar sheet, which may
be of substantially the
same thickness as plate 404. Side beam web extension member 446 may be mounted
to the underside of
floor panel 344, and may be mounted such that the mating of the upper margin
of extension member 446
lies in general alignment with, and may lie directly opposite to, the mating
edge of plate 404 with floor
panel 344, such that a tensile load in side web 414 may, in whole or in part,
be carried into web extension
446 substantially without transverse travel through floor panel 344. As
explained above in the context of
extension member 46, while the two parts may not be in perfect alignment, they
may tend to be relatively
close, such that the offset is small. As may be generally true throughout this
explanation of the various
embodiments, the offset, or eccentricity, between the centerline of the
section of the extension at the locus
of attachment (typically a weld) and the centerline of the section of the
opposed web or flange at the line
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of attachment (again, typically a weld) may be less than one inch. The offset
may be less than the full
thickness of the thicker member, and in some embodiments less than half that.
There may be some
overlap of sections, and, in some embodiments, the overlap of sections may be
greater than half the
thickness of the thinner member. In some embodiments the offset may be less
than 3/8", and in some
embodiments the two members may be substantially directly aligned. Expressed
differently, the offset
may tend to be less than three times, and preferably less than two times, the
thickness of the intervening
plate. In this case the intervening plate is the floor panel, be it 44 or 344,
(or 544 as described below).
Extension member 446 may include a first or central portion 448 corresponding
in width to the width
between, and being mounted between, webs of stiffener extension assembly 444.
In one embodiment,
central portion 448 may extend more than 3 inches below floor panel 344. In
another embodiment,
central portion 448 may extend more than half the depth of web 385 from floor
panel 344. In a further
embodiment, central portion 448 may extend to substantially the full depth of
web 385, such that the
upward-and downward length or depth corresponds to the distance between floor
panel 344 and cross-
bearer bottom flange member 388.
Extension member 446 may also include adjacent wing portions 450, 452 which
may be co-
planar with central portion 448. Wing portions 450, 452 may each have a
substantially triangular or
somewhat trapezoidal form, and may function as gussets having one vertex mated
to an outside face of
cross-bearer web 385, and a second vertex mated to the underside of floor
panel 344 directly opposite
web 404. Wing portions 450, 452 may be smoothly and generously radiused at the
lowest corner, and
smoothly and generously radiused at the distant feathered termination along
the vertex adjoining floor
panel 344. To the extent that there may be a tensile (or compressive) stress
field in the up-and-down
direction in web 414 in the neighbourhood of the post (i.e., stiffener 418),
gussets 450, and 452 and
central portion 448 may tend to collect or distribute that stress, as it
passes through floor panel 344, along
a line, and may tend to transmit or receive that stress as distributed shear
flow along a line of shear in a
distributed manner.
A stiffener extension assembly 444 may be mounted beneath each of stiffeners
418 generally in
line with each, or centered on of cross-bearers 372. Stiffener extension
assembly 444 may include a first
wall or member 454, a second wall or member 456, and a third wall or member
458. The first, second,
and third members may be substantially planar, and may be formed as a single,
integrally formed part,
such as a section of channel 460, which may be a pressed or roll formed
section cut to length as a stub
section. That length may be 6 inches or more. In one embodiment that length
may be as great as, or
greater than half the depth of web 385, of cross-bearer 372 at their
intersection with web extension
member 446. In another embodiment, that length may correspond, more or less,
to the depth of web 385
in full. First wall member 454 may be the back of the stub channel 460, and
second and third wall
members 456, 458 may be the legs of the stub channel 460. Stiffener extension
assembly 444 may also
include a fourth wall, such as may be identified as a cross-bearer bottom
flange extension member 462,
which may be welded in place to mate with extension 446 opposite cross-bearer
bottom flange member
388, and which may be co-planar with bottom flange member 388. Cross-bearer
bottom flange extension
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member 462 may be welded across the lower end of the stub section of channel
460, to provide a shear
flow transfer connection along a line between the lower margins of second and
third wall members 456
and 458 and bottom flange extension member 462. The most laterally outboard
distal end of bottom
flange extension member 462 may adjoin, and be connected to, the lowermost
distal margin of first wall
member 454.
As may be noted, stiffener extension assembly 444 may be angled inward,
possibly to conform to
the AAR underframe clearance envelope. In an angled embodiment, in side view,
web extension 446
may be angled with respect to plate 404, rather than being co-planar or lying
in a parallel plane.
Similarly, the back member, first wall 454, may angle inwardly and downwardly
away from the plane of
back 432 of stiffener 418, rather than being co-planar therewith or lying in a
parallel plane thereto. It
may be that the orientation of first wall 454 may be parallel to extension
446. Further, it may be that first
wall 454 and extension 446 constitute a first pair of co-operating flange
extensions that carry the moment
couple from web region 438 and back 432 into the shear panels defined by
members 456 and 458; and
floor panel extension 440 and cross-bearer bottom flange extension member 462
constitute a second pair
of flange extensions that are co-operable to carry the balancing reaction
moment from the flanges of the
cross-bearer into members 456 and 458. The resulting structure may have the
physical form of
parallelogram, rather than a rectangle.
Stiffeners 420 may be mounted along web 414 in an alternating manner with
stiffeners 418. Each
stiffener 420 may include a web member 464 running predominantly up-and-down
on web 414, and
standing predominantly outwardly therefrom, and a flange member 466 running
with, and having a shear
flow connection with web member 464, the flange member being spaced from web
414, and typically
standing laterally outboard thereof. In one embodiment, stiffener may have the
form of a formed section
such as a an angle, a hollow tube, which may be rectangular or square, a roll
formed, forged, or U-
pressing channel 468 in which flange member 464 may be the back 470 of the
channel, and web member
464 may be either of two legs 472 of channel 468 whose toes are welded to web
414.
As with stiffener 120 described above, the co-operation of channel 468 with
the opposed adjacent
region of web 414 may tend to yield a hollow structural section that stiffens
web 414 in the up-and-down
direction perpendicular to top chord member 410, and that may tend to
discourage buckling of web 414.
That structural section may tend to have an effective inner flange width equal
to the width of the channel
between the legs, plus an effective flange width to either side of 40 to 60
(i.e., 20 to 30 times to each side,
and which may in some embodiments be taken as roughly 44 - 48 times that
thickness).
The upper end of stiffener 420 may be welded to top chord member 410. Floor
panel 344 may
include floor panel extensions 474 to which the lower end of stiffener 420 may
be connected, as by
welding. Floor panel extensions 474 may have a generally trapezoidal shape,
having a central, generally
rectangular region 476 that underlies the hollow section defined by stiffener
420, and a pair of wing
portions 478 that define gussets extending to either side of legs 472. In one
embodiment, extensions 474
may be formed as monolithic, or integral, parts of floor panel 344 when floor
panel 344 is cut from a
sheet of stock, rather than, for example, being gussets that are cut
separately and welded in place after the
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fact. In each case, the profile cut corners may be smoothly radiused to merge
smoothly into the profile of
the adjacent plate.
Web member 414 may also have web extensions 480. Web extensions 480 may be in
the form of
gussets welded to the underside of floor panel 344 in a position generally or
substantially opposite the
locus of mating of side sheet web 414 and floor panel 344. Web extensions 480
are centered on, and
welded across the end of, cross-tie 476. Web extensions 480 may have a
generally trapezoidal form and
may be of substantially the same nature and description as web extensions 180.
A structural knee 486 may also formed at the distal ends of main bolsters 382.
Upright stiffeners
422 may be of substantially the same construction as stiffeners 418, although
the depth of the legs may be
greater. That is, the distance between the back flange and the side beam web
at the main post at the
longitudinal station of the main bolster may be greater than the corresponding
flange spacing of the posts
associated with the mid-span cross-bearers. For example, in a car having a
truck center spacing in excess
of 46'-3", the allowable overall width at the truck centers may be 128"
whereas the maximum mid-span
overall width may be less than 128" to allow for wing-out on curves. Floor
panel 344 may have floor
panel extensions 484 that underlie stiffeners 422 and that may be of the same
nature as extensions 188
described above, being integral parts of a larger sheet, cut to the desired
size. Alternatively, extensions
484 may be fabricated piecemeal, as stub plates, and welded in planar abutment
to the laterally outboard
margin of floor sheet 346. In Figure 8k a butt weld backing bar for this
alternate method of fabrication is
indicated as 481. Bolster 382 may be a hollow beam having an internal web, or
reinforcement 489 such
as may be positioned with its upper edge opposite the lower edge of lower
portion 404 of side beam web
414. Internal reinforcement 489 may be a plate that is oriented perpendicular
to the long axis of bolster
382, or that may be oriented to stand in a plane substantially parallel to the
plane of the bolster end wall,
which may have a lifting lug 494. The underside of the bottom flange 496 of
main bolster 382 may also
have a lifting lug 495 and indexing, or locating bar 498 as shown.
In one embodiment, floor panel 344 may have floor panel extensions
substantially the same as
extensions 140, 174, 188, 440 or 474 described above. Alternatively it may be
that cutting floor panel
344 (as floor panel 44) from a single sheet of stock may involve significant
scrap corresponding to those
pieces cut out between the floor panel extensions, such as they may be. It may
be that the amount of
scrap may be reduced by cutting a partial, or truncated, floor extension 486,
and using an auxiliary plate
488 such as may abut partial floor extension 486, with the welded joint 487
lying outboard of the locus of
the junction of the side beam with the floor plate. Similarly, the back
member, first wall 454, may angle
inwardly and downwardly away from the plane of back 432 of stiffener 418,
rather than being co-planar
therewith or lying in a parallel plane thereto. It may be that the orientation
of first wall 454 may be
parallel to extension 446. Side sheet extensions 492 may be positioned with
their upper margins welded
to floor panel 344 generally opposite the locus of mating of web 414 with
floor panel 344, yet extend at
an inwardly and downwardly sloping angle, rather than being co-planar with web
414. While the locus of
connection may be substantially directly opposite, there may be some lateral
offset distance, that distance
being relatively minor.
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In the alternate embodiment of Figure 41, floor panel 344 may include a
partial extension, finger
or marginal protrusion 486 and an abutting complementary plate 488, whose
combined footprint may
corresponds to the footprint of extension 140, 174, 188,440 or 474, or such
other as may be, and such as
may underlie an outboard mounted side beam stiffener, be it stiffener 118,
120, 122, 418, 420, 422 or
such other tangency as may be. It may be that extension 486 has radiused
flanks, with the outboard
marginal edge being truncated at the points of tangency of the radii with the
profile of the linear flanks of
complementary plate 488. Joint 487 between extension 486 and plate 488 lies
outboard of the junction of
web 414 with floor panel 344. Welded joint 487 may, on average, be located
more than an inch outboard
of the locus of mating of web 414 with floor panel 344, or alternatively, more
than one inch outboard of
the locus of mating of such underfloor web extension of web 414 may by mounted
to the underside of
floor panel 344. Expressed alternatively, it may be that joint 487 is located
two floor panel thicknesses,
or more; outboard of the loci of connection of the relevant web 414 or web
extension, or of the nearer of
the two. In one embodiment that distance may be three thicknesses or more,
such as may be in the range
of 3 to 10 thicknesses, and such as may be in the range of 5 thicknesses.
Expressed differently yet again,
where the side stiffener, be it 118, 120, 122, 318, 320 or 322, has a depth at
the level of the juncture with
floor panel 344 from the central plane, or central fibre of, e.g., web 414 to
the central plane or central
fibre of the opposing back member, such as back 432 or first wall 454, joint
487 may be located more
than 1/5 of that distance from the relevant locus (or loci) of, e.g.,
connection of web 414 or member 446
to floor panel 344, in another embodiment it may lie between 1/5 and 4/5 of
that distance, and, in another
embodiment may lie about 1/3 or 1/2 of that distance outboard.
The alternate embodiment of Figures 41 and 4m contrasts with the embodiment of
Figures 4d and
4e, and is considered generally applicable to rail road car 20, 320, or 520
(described below). The side
web, be it 114 or 414, may include a lower marginal member, such as member 404
described above,
which is connected to the main body or immediately adjacent upper or superior
portion of the web at a lap
joint. It may be that member 404 may be located inboard of the main portion of
the web, as in Figures 8d
and 8e, or, alternatively, it may be located outboard as in Figures 41 and 4m.
An outboard location may
be chosen, for example, to avoid intruding upon an interior width envelope
dimension between opposed
webs 114, or where equipment used to fill or empty the car might tend to catch
on an inwardly protruding
shoulder. An inboard location may be chosen, for example, in a car having a
post depth constraint. E.g.,
a car having truck centers over 46' ¨ 3" may have a narrower than usual width
constraint due to swing
out. The outside of the posts may remain within the clearance envelope, be it
AAR Plate B, Plate C, or
some other. Similarly, the internal lading envelope width may be fixed, thus
limiting the post depth
available. For a stiffener such as 118 or 418 having a moment connection to a
cross-bearer, the maximum
bending moment may be at the junction with the floor panel, be it 44 or 344.
It may be desirable to have
a relatively greater depth of section at that location, rather than a
shallower depth of section, particularly
if the sum of the thickness of member 404 and member 402 is a non-trivial
proportion of the overall depth
of section of the stiffener.
The railroad freight car 320 may have structural knees, as noted above. For
the purpose of the
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following discussion, those knees may be identified as 500 at the junction of
the cross-bearers and their
associated sideposts. There may be structural knees of a similar nature at the
junctions of the main
bolsters and their associated vertical sideposts. The foregoing description of
the connection of side posts
(i.e., stiffener 418) to cross-bearer 372 is a description of a structural
knee 500. The conceptual
explanation given above in the context of knee 200 also applies to structural
knee 500.
Embodiment of Figure 9a
Figure 9a shows an isometric view from above and to one corner of an example
of a rail road car
520 that is intended to be generically representative of a wide range of rail
road cars, and in particular
railroad freight cars, in which the present invention may be incorporated.
While car 520 may be suitable
for many different uses, it may in one embodiment be a gondola car, which may
be used for the carriage
of scrap steel. With the exception of brake fittings, safety appliances and
other secondary fittings, car 520
is substantially symmetrical about both its longitudinal and transverse, or
lateral, centreline axes.
Consequently, where reference is made to a first or left hand side beam, or
first or left hand bolster, it will
be understood that the car has first and second, left and right hand side
beams, bolsters and so on.
Rail road car 520 has a pair of first and second trucks 522, 524, and a rail
car body 526 that is
carried upon, and supported by, trucks 522, 524 for rolling motion along
railroad tracks in the manner of
rail road cars generally. Rail car body 526 may include a wall structure 528
defining a lading
containment receptacle 530. Wall structure 528 may include a base wall, which
may be in the nature of a
floor or flooring 532, and a generally upstanding peripheral wall 534 which
may include a pair of first
and second side walls 536, 538, and first and second end walls 540, 542.
Flooring 532, sidewalls 536,
538 and first and second end walls 540, 542 may tend to define an open topped
box, namely receptacle
530, into which lading may be introduced. Generally speaking, car 520 may be
of all steel, or
predominantly steel construction, although in some embodiments other materials
such as aluminum or
engineered polymers or composites may be used for some or a predominant
portion of the containment
receptacle structure.
Flooring 532 may include a floor panel 544. Floor panel 544 may be made of a
plurality of floor
sheets joined together, in an abutting fashion such as may yield a continuous
lading containing surface,
or, in one embodiment, may be made from a single, monolithic steel sheet 546.
Steel sheet 546 may be a
single sheet having its profile cut from a monolithic sheet of stock by a
plasma arc cutting device. Body
526 of car 520 may include an underframe member such as a longitudinally
running center sill 550.
Center sill 550 may have draft sills, or draft sill portions at either end,
into which draft gear fittings 52
and releasable couplers 54 may be mounted. Center sill 550 may be fabricated
in the same manner as
center sill 50, above.
Rail road car 520 may also include an array 570 of cross-bearers 572 and may
include an array
574 of cross-ties 576. Car 520 may include longitudinally extending first and
second side beams 578,
580 analogous to side beams 78 and 80 described above. Each cross-bearer 572
extends between center
sill 544 and a respective one of side beams 578 or 580. Each cross-bearer has
a moment connection at
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both ends (i.e., at center sill 550, and at the side beam, be it 578 or 580.
Each cross-tie 76 extends
between center sill 550 and one or other of side beams 578, 580. The junctions
of the cross-ties with the
center sill and the side beams may, conservatively, be analysed as pin joints
as noted above. Car 520 may
also have main bolsters 582 that extend laterally from center sill 550 to side
beams 578, 580, at the
locations of the truck centers (CL Truck). Each cross-bearer 572 may include a
web 585, and a bottom
flange member 588. Bottom flange member 588 may include a flared or broadened
laterally outboard
end portion 587, and a narrower more laterally inboard portion 591 extending
to mate with center sill
bottom flange cover plate 562 in flange continuity. Web 585 may abut floor
panel 544 directly, and be
connected directly thereto by such means as welding. Each cross-tie 576 may
have a single web 592, or
more than one web 592. Each web 592 extends downwardly from floor panel 544. A
bottom flange 596
is welded across, and along, the bottom margins of the web, or webs, 592 as
may be. As with cross-
bearers 572, the web or webs 592 of cross-ties 576 may abut floor panel 544
directly, without the
intervention, or addition, of a top flange or cover plate, other than floor
panel 544. As such, any shear
flow may tend to flow directly from one to the other. Floor panel 544 may tend
to define the upper
flanges of both cross-bearers 572 and cross-ties 576. As discussed above in
the context of the top flange
of center sill 544, the effective cross-bearer upper flange region 590 of
cross-bearer 572 and upper flange
region 594 of cross-tie 576 may have an effective width of the order of 40 -
60 times the thickness of the
floor panel sheet, and may for convenience sometimes be taken as being 44 - 48
times that thickness
where there is a single web, and that much plus the web spacing where there
are two webs. As shown in
Figure 10k, floor panel 544 may also overlie main bolsters 582. Each main
bolster may have an upper
flange, webs, and lower flange, side bearing fittings and so on. The main
bolster intersects center sill 550
at the truck centers Main bolster 582 may have arms that have the form of
hollow rectangular or box-
beam sections. Alternatively, main bolster 582 may have a single central web
583. A center plate 55
may be mounted to center sill 550 at this junction.
It may be that, in one embodiment, cross-bearers 572 and cross-ties 576
alternate. Alternatively,
it may be that the cross-bearers 572 and cross-ties 576 do not alternate in a
one-for-one manner. It may
be that a greater volumetric capacity may be obtained by placing the vertical
stiffeners 616 inside web
614, rather than outside. It may also be that car 520 may have a greater than
usual length to width aspect
ratio. For example, the overall inside receptacle may be designated as length
L; the width at the mid-span
section as width W between the inner faces of webs 614 of beams 578 and 580;
and the height from the
floor plate to the top of the top chord as height H. The ratio of L:W may be
greater than 6:1, and in some
instances greater than 8:1. It may be that the ratio of H:W is greater than
0.8:1, and may exceed 1:1.
It may also be that rather than having one or more laterally extending
internal bulkheads or
partitions within the body of the wall structure defining receptacle 530 more
generally, it may be that a
clear space is obtained, free of, or substantially free of, internal lateral
partitions or other laterally
extending obstructions. For a high aspect ratio car, with relatively tall
sides, the resistance of the top
chord (and of the associated side beam web 414) to lateral deflection at the
mid-span station may not be
overly great, or may not be as great as might otherwise be desirable. To that
end, rather than employ
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laterally extending bulkhead to tie the top chords laterally, in some
embodiments car 520 may employ
springs. Those springs may be cantilever springs, such as may be defined by
the co-operative effort of
cross-bearers 572 and their associated vertical side-posts 618, in which the
side-posts are connected to the
outboard ends of the cross-bearers at moment connections in the nature of
structural knees as described
herein. Inasmuch as the location of greatest compliance to lateral deflection
may tend to be the mid-span
location, it may be that the additional spring stiffness may be more
concentrated near the central section
of the side beam than at the end sections. That is, either in terms of number
of springs, or in terms of
average spring rate per unit of length of side beam, the auxiliary resistance
to lateral resistance of the top
chord may be more densely concentrated at the mid-span location than toward
the ends of the car. In one
embodiment that may mean that two cross-bearers (and their associated moment
connected side posts) are
placed adjacent to each other without an intermediate cross-tie (with or
without an associated side-post).
It may mean that more than two cross-bearers (and their associated side-posts)
are located side-by-side
without intermediate cross-ties. In one embodiment there may be four such
cross-bearer and side post
sets arranged one beside the other without intervening cross-ties. Those
multiple side-by-side cross-
bearer and post sets may be located near to the mid-span cross-section of the
car, and may be located
symmetrically with respect to that cross-section.
Side Beam Construction
Side beams 578 and 580 are substantially identical in structure. Hence a
description of side beam
580 may also be taken as a description of side beam 578. Side beam 580 may
include a top chord
member 610, and may have a generally upstanding web 614. An array of vertical
stiffeners 616 may be
mounted to web 614 at longitudinally spaced locations along side beam 580.
Vertical stiffeners 616 may
include a first array, or sub array, of stiffeners 618 mounted at locations
for structural co-operation with
(and typically abreast of) the cross-bearers, and another array, or sub-array,
of stiffeners 620 for structural
co-operation with (and typically abreast of) the cross-ties 576. There may
also be vertical stiffeners 622
abreast of, and for co-operation with, the main bolsters 582.
Top chord member 610 may tend to function as the top flange of the side beam
580 (or 578, as
may be), and may have a formed cross-section. The cross-section may be that of
a structural angle, or it
may be that of an I-beam or wide flange beam, or it may be a specialty formed
section, such as a bulb
angle, or it may be a channel, or it may be a closed hollow section, such as a
rectangular or square steel
tube 624. Top chord member 610 may include one or more doublers along part or
all of the upper
portions thereof, such as a central, or mid-span portion corresponding to the
location of greatest bending
moment due to vertical lading loads in the gondola.
In some embodiments, car 520 may be employed to carry materials that may tend
to foul or
grapple the inside of the car. For example, steel scrap may have sharp edges
or protrusions. When the
scrap is extracted from the car using an electromagnet, the protrusions may
tend to wish to ride up the
inside walls of the car body, and may have a tendency to grapple, impact, or
tear at, the underside of the
top chord. This may not be desirable.
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In some embodiments the underside of the top chord may have, or may include, a
shedding
device which may serve to encourage the deflection of objects around the top
chord, or may serve as a
protective shield for the top chord. For example, in one embodiment, as
illustrated in the detail of Figure
10j, top chord member 610 may be connected to the upper margin 612 of web 614
at a lap joint. The lap
joint may be against the outboard side face of top chord member 610. In
addition, the top chord assembly
may include a protective shield member, or deflector member, such as may be in
the nature of a skirt or
fender 598. Fender 598 may be located generally underneath top chord member
610, and may provide a
progressively lead-in for objects moving in the vertically upward direction.
The lead-in may be sloped or
tapered. An example of such a skirt is shed plate 600. Shed plate 600 may be a
roll formed member with
a long dimension running generally parallel to top chord member 610. Shed
plate 600 may run along web
614 between vertical stiffeners 616. Alternatively, shed plate 600 may run
continuously, or substantially
continuously across the tops of the stiffeners. Those stiffeners 616 may be
trimmed or chamfered at their
upper ends 626 to conform to the profile of shed plate 600. The end of the
post may then be welded
circumferentially to shed plate 600.
In this arrangement shed plate 600 may have an upper flange portion that may
be formed to
conform to the inside face of top chord member 610, such that the upper margin
of shed plate 600 may
lap on the inside face of top chord member 610, and may be welded thereto. The
lower, or major, portion
604 of shed plate 600 may extend downwardly and in the outboard direction to
meet web 414. The lower
margin of shed plate 600 may be welded along its length to web 414. Major
portion 604 may be
substantially planar, and may extend along an angled, or inclined plane.
In the second, alternate, embodiment of Figure 10j, rather than employ a top
chord and a separate
shed plate which are subsequently joined together, the top chord member 611
may be an integrally
formed member in which the lower wall 613 may be angled and the outboard wall
member 615 may
extend further down the face of web 614. The integrally formed member may have
a closed section.
In one embodiment, web 614 may be a monolithic steel sheet cut from a single
piece of stock and
which may run substantially the entire length of car 520 from truck center to
truck center or from end
bulkhead to end bulkhead. That monolithic steel sheet may have an upper margin
612 mated with top
chord number 610, typically at a welded lap joint; and a lower margin 628
mated directly with the
decking of the car, namely floor panel 544 in the manner described above.
Alternatively, the side beam
web 614 may be an assembly of an upper portion, 602 and a lower portion 604.
Upper portion 602 may
be thinner than lower portion 604. Upper portion 602 and lower portion 604 may
be joined along a
longitudinally running lap joint. Lower portion 604 may lie outboard or
inboard of upper portion 602,
and the legs of the vertical stiffeners 616 may be trimmed accordingly. The
outboard lower margin of
lower portion 604 may be bevelled to permit a full penetration weld to be made
from the outside. As may
be noted, floor panel 544 extends under the posts (i.e., stiffeners 616) and
outboard of the welded
connection with the lower margin of lower portion 604. The junction at floor
panel 544 may be such that
floor panel 544 extends somewhat beyond web 614 in the laterally outboard
direction by some marginal
distance. That is to say, the lower margin of lower portion 604 of web 614 may
abut the floor panel 544.
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This abutment may occur at a T-joint in which floor panel 544 has a laterally
outboard margin 545 that
may extend laterally proud of web 614, or of the junction of web 614 (and
hence of lower portion 604)
with floor panel 544. This laterally outboard margin 545 may run substantially
continuously along the
length of car 520. In one embodiment, that marginal overlap may exist all
along the junction. Expressed
differently, web 614, or a major portion of web 614, may lie in a plane, or on
a two dimensional surface
(such as a continuous cylindrical surface). That plane or surface may
intersect the plane of floor panel
544 along a line of intersection. The laterally outboard edge of floor panel
544 may lie at least as far
outboard as the line of intersection, and may extend further outboard to
define margin 545.
Web 614 may not necessarily be a monolithic member, but could be made of two
or more pieces
joined together side-by-side, as by welding. Alternatively, web 614 might be
connected to supporting
members or to longitudinal stiffeners by mechanical fasteners such as HuckTM
bolts. In any case, web
614 may be substantially planar, or may have a major portion thereof lying in
a plane. That plane may be
a vertical-longitudinal plane (i.e., an x-z plane) or may be an inclined
plane, or an arcuate curve
ascending from the decking toward the top chord. Whether web 614 is monolithic
or not, it may be that
lower portion 604 of web 614 immediately next to, and adjoining floor panel
544 may be monolithic (i.e.,
formed from a single sheet of stock without intermediate joints). A monolithic
piece may run
substantially the full length of floor panel 544. Portion 604 may be of
substantial width, such as to extend
from floor panel 544 a substantial distance up stiffeners 616 toward top chord
member 610. That width
may be greater than 3 inches, and may be as great or greater than 1/5 of the
total width of web 614 from
floor panel 544 to top chord member 610.
In this embodiment, the shear flow associated with the vertical lading in the
receptacle may pass
directly from the lower margin of web 614 to the adjoining floor panel 544. As
discussed elsewhere,
floor panel 544 may be of abnormally great thickness. A region of floor panel
544 running alongside the
lower margin of lower portion 604 may tend to be influenced thereby and may
tend to act as a bottom
flange on side beam 580 (or 578 as may be). The effective width of that bottom
flange region may be in
the range of 20 to 30 times the thickness of the floor panel plate inboard of
lower portion 604, and the
width of margin 545 outboard. In one embodiment. the inboard region of
influence may be about 24
times the plate thickness. The lower flange function of side sill may be
performed by the co-operative
interaction of web 614 and floor panel 544.
Each of the predominantly vertically upstanding stiffeners 618 may be located
at the same
longitudinal stations as the various cross-bearers. There may be a moment
connection formed between
each such stiffener 618 and the associated cross-bearer 572, and that moment
couple connection may
have the form of a structural knee, as explained below.
Stiffeners
Vertical stiffener 618 may include a back 632 and a pair of legs 634, 636
mounted to cooperate
with an adjacent opposed region 638 of web 614. Back 632 and legs 634, 636 may
be an integrally
formed pressing, or a pre-fabricated sub-assembly which is then joined to web
614. Back 632 may stand
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spaced inboard from web 614, and may be in a parallel plane, to that of web
614, which plane may be an
x-z plane, with the width of stiffener 618 being in the longitudinal, or x-
direction, and the length being in
the vertical or z-direction, or generally upward direction toward top chord
512. Legs 634, 636 may
connect back 632 to web 618, the distal ends of legs 634 and 636 being
connected thereto by suitable
means, such as welding. A closed hollow section may be developed, such as may
define an upwardly
running beam for resisting lateral deflection of web 618 and top chord member
610 of beam 580
generally. Stiffener 618 may be of constant section from bottom to top, or may
have a tapering section.
A tapering section may be broad at its base or foot where it is underlain by
floor panel 544, and narrower
at its tip, where it may be connected to top chord member 610. The tapering
section may taper in both
width along web 614 and depth away from web 614. Put somewhat differently,
stiffener 618 may be such
that, in the context of resisting lateral deflection of top chord member 610
and web 614, the effective
second moment of area at the base (including the co-operative effect of the
adjoining region 638 of side
sheet web 614) of stiffener 618 may be greater than at the tip, and may
diminish progressively along the
length thereof The effective width of cooperative adjoining region 638 may be
the distance between legs
634, 636 plus an effective distance to either side thereof that is, in total,
in the range of 40-60 times the
thickness of web 614. In one embodiment, this effective distance may be about
44 - 48 times that
thickness plus the distance once between the webs.
A side beam web extension 646 may be mounted under floor panel 544, and a
stiffener extension
assembly 644 may be mounted outboard of side beam web extension member 646.
Side beam web
extension member 646 may be substantially planar, and may be of substantially
the same thickness as
lower portion 604 of side beam web 614. Side beam web extension member 646 may
be mounted to the
underside of floor panel 544, and may be mounted such that the mating of the
upper margin of extension
member 646 lies directly opposite the mating of side web member 614 with floor
panel 544. Extension
member 646 may include a first or central portion 648 corresponding in width
to the width between the
legs of stiffeners 616. In one embodiment, central portion 648 may extend more
than 3 inches below
floor panel 544. In another embodiment, central portion 648 may extend more
than half the depth of web
585, from floor panel 544. In a further embodiment, central portion 648 may
extend to substantially the
full depth of webs 585, such that the upward-and downward length or depth
corresponds to the distance
between floor panel 544 and cross-bearer bottom flange member 588.
Extension member 646 may also include adjacent wing portions 650, 652 which
may be co-
planar with central portion 648, all of which may be co-planar with web member
618. Wing portions
650, 652 may each have a substantially triangular or somewhat trapezoidal
form, and may function as
gussets having one vertex mated to an outside face of cross-bearer web 585,
most typically as by welding,
and a second vertex mated to the underside of floor panel 544 directly
opposite web 614. Wing portions
650, 652 may be smoothly and generously radiused at the lowest corner, and
smoothly and generously
radiused at the distant feathered termination along the vertex adjoining floor
panel 544. To the extent that
there may be a tensile (or compressive) stress field in the up-and-down
direction in web 614 in the
neighbourhood of the post (namely stiffener 618), gussets 650, and 652 and
central portion 648 may tend
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to collect or distribute that stress, as it passes through floor panel 544,
along a line, and may tend to
transmit or receive that stress as distributed shear flow along a line of
shear in a distributed manner, such
as may tend (a) to reduce local bending moments in the junction with floor
panel 544, and (b) to reduce
peak stresses, and to even out the distribution of stress, at least to some
extent, along the line of shear
force transfer described below.
A stiffener extension assembly 644 may be mounted beneath each of stiffeners
618 generally in
line with each of cross-bearers 572. Stiffener extension assembly 644 may
include a first wall or
member 654, a second wall or member 656, and a third wall or member 658. The
first, second, and third
members may be substantially planar, and may be formed as a single, integrally
formed part, such as a
section of channel 660, which may be a pressed or roll formed or other
structural section cut to length as a
stub section. That length may be 6 inches or more. In one embodiment that
length may be as great as, or
greater than half the depth of webs 585 of cross-bearer 572. In another
embodiment, that length may
correspond, more or less, to the depth of webs 585 in full. First wall member
654 may be the back of the
stub channel 660, and second and third wall members 656,658 may be the legs of
the stub channel 660.
Stiffener extension assembly 644 may nest between floor panel 544 and the end
portion of bottom flange
member 588, such as may be identified as a cross-bearer bottom flange
extension portion 662. Web 585
may be trimmed back to accommodate this nesting, and may be welded along a
vertical fillet to the
inboard face of first wall member 654. Cross-bearer bottom flange extension
portion 662 may be welded
to the lower end of the stub section of channel 660, to provide a shear flow
transfer connection along a
line between the lower margins of second and third wall members 656 and 658.
The most laterally
outboard distal end of bottom flange extension member 562 may adjoin, and be
connected to, the
lowermost margin of side beam web extension member 646. In one embodiment,
first wall member 654
may stand in a substantially vertical plane. Web extension member 646 is
welded across the toes of the
channel, namely the outboard margins of second wall member 656 and third wall
member 658, and those
toes may be trimmed to permit the opposed member, web extension 646, to lie
within the underframe
clearance diagram of AAR Plate B, C or F.
In this embodiment, extension 646 and first wall member 654 do not lie in
parallel planes, but
rather are in skewed planes. Nonetheless, they provide a pair of spaced apart
plates whose upper ends
align with the lower ends of web 614 and stiffener back 632. Being aligned in
this way, those spaced
plates provide a means by which a moment couple can be carried to and from the
spaced flanges defined
in this context by the web 614 and back 632. Similarly, extension 646 and
first wall member 654 are
joined along a line of attachment to vertices of second and third wall members
656 and 658, at which
interface shear flow may be transferred into the shear panels defined by wall
members 656 and 658. In
the other direction, bottom flange member 588 and floor panel 544 co-operate
to provide another pair of
spaced apart flanges for carrying the corresponding reaction moment couple,
those members being
connected in line attachment along the other vertices of members 656 and 658.
In this case, the shear
web panels are neither rectangles, nor parallograms, but merely
quadrilaterals, in this case trapezoids.
To the extent that it may be desired that the moment connection at the
junction of the foot of
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stiffener 618 with floor panel 544 be maintained, and to the extent that the
inside of car 520 may be
subject to duty in which it may be subject to sharp or hard impact either
vertically or laterally, it may be
that the junction between stiffener 618 and floor panel 544 may be protected
by a guard, shield, or
reinforcement. That reinforcement may include one or more angle irons welded
about the base of
stiffener 618, or may include a footing plate 639, or plates, such as may
either alone, or in combination
tend to surround that junction and make it less prone to impact or other
damage. For example, in one
embodiment, footing plate 639 may have the plan form of a horseshoe, or U-
shaped plate 640 whose
internal face or accommodation 642 conforms, generally speaking, to the
outside shape of the base of
stiffener 618, and may provide protection to the back and sides of the welded
joint. Plate 640 may be
welded to floor panel 544. The internal accommodation may have a bevel,
permitting the bottom end of
stiffener 618 to be welded not only to floor panel 544, but also to have a
deep weld to plate 640.
Stiffeners 620 may also be mounted along web 614. They may be mounted at
longitudinal
stations corresponding to the longitudinal stations of cross-ties 576.
Alternatively stiffeners 620 may be
mounted on different pitches from the cross-ties, as explained in the context
of the description of car 320,
above. Each stiffener 620 may include a web member 664 running predominantly
up-and-down on, and
extending inwardly away from web 614, and a flange member 666 running with,
and having a shear flow
connection with, web member 664, the flange member 666 being spaced from web
614, and typically
standing laterally inboard thereof. In one embodiment, stiffener 620 may have
a formed section such as a
an angle; a hollow tube which may be rectangular or square; a roll formed
section; an I-beam; a U-
pressing; or a channel, 668 in which flange member 664 may be the back 670 of
the channel, and web
member 664 may be either of two legs 672 of channel 668 whose toes are welded
to web 614.
As with stiffener 618 described above, the co-operation of channel 668 with
web 614 may tend to
yield a hollow structural section that stiffens web 614 in the up-and-down
direction, perpendicular to top
chord member 610, and that may tend to deter buckling of the web. That
structural section may tend to
have an effective inner flange width equal to the width of the channel between
the legs, plus an effective
flange width to either side of 20 to 30 times the thickness of web 614, as
noted above.
The upper end of stiffener 620 may be welded to top chord member 610, or to a
fender, such as
shed plate 600, the upper end being appropriately chamfered, as may be. Floor
panel 544 may underlie
the foot of stiffeners 620 and may be connected thereto, as by welding. While
a joint protector, such as a
horseshoe shaped plate or guard as described above in the context of stiffener
618. However, to the
extent that this junction may not be relied upon to pass a moment couple, but
may be analyzed as
approximating a pin joint, such a guard may, alternatively, not be employed.
Web member 614 may also have web extensions 680. Web extensions 680 may be in
the form of
gussets welded to the underside of floor panel 544 in a position opposite to
the locus of mating of side
sheet web 614 and floor panel 544 centered on the center line of cross-tie 576
and stiffener 620. Web
extensions 680 may have a generally trapezoidal form that may include a
rectangular central portion 682
that extends across the distal end of one of cross-ties 576, and is welded to
web 592 and bottom flange
596 thereof, as well as to the underside of floor panel 544. Web extensions
680 may also include
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generally triangular wing portions 684, analogous to wing portions 650 of web
extensions 646, that
spread the effect of the junction into the adjoining web regions. In contrast
to the junction between
stiffener 616 and cross-bearer 572, the junction between side stiffener 618
and cross-tie 576 may not
include a post extension assembly such as assembly 644, and may not include a
structural knee
connection, such as described above, and discussed below. (Although such a
post-extension structural
knee assembly could be used in an alternate embodiment).
A structural knee 686 is also formed at the distal ends of main bolsters 582.
Stiffeners 622 may
be of substantially the same construction as stiffeners 618, and floor panel
544 may underlie the bottom
ends of the main posts (namely, stiffeners 622), and with which they are mated
in substantially the same
manner as stiffeners 618. Side sheet extensions 690 may be positioned with
their upper margins welded
to floor panel 544 opposite the locus of mating of web 614 with floor panel
544, yet extend at an inwardly
and downwardly sloping angle, rather than being co-planar with web 614. Post
extension assembly 692
may have a back plate 688 lying between two side webs 687, and abutting the
truncated outboard end of
web 583. These may be welded between bottom floor panel 544 and bottom flange
694 of main bolster
582. Plate 688 may align with the back, or flange, of stiffener 622, and side
sheet extension 690 may be
welded across the end of main bolster 582, yielding, once again, a structural
knee into which two pairs of
moment couple carrying flanges are connected about a pair of spaced apart
shear transfer webs. Side
sheet extension 690 may include an eye 695, which may also be termed a lifting
lug, to permit the car
body to be lifted. In addition, post extension assemblies 692 may include a
thick bottom flange end
region 696 mounted to the underside of assemblies 692, plate 696 having an eye
697 such as may
accommodate a lifting lug. Plate 696 may also provide a reinforced jacking
point by which the end of the
car body may be lifted. The all welded connection may include backing bar
members 491 such as may lie
behind butt weld joints.
The Structural Knees
The railroad freight car 520 may have structural knees, as noted above. For
the purpose of the
following discussion, those knees may be identified as 686 at the junction of
the cross-bearers and their
associated sideposts, as well as at the junction of the main bolsters and
their associated vertical sideposts.
The foregoing description of the connection of side posts (i.e., stiffener
618) to cross-bearer 572 is a
description of a structural knee 686.
In the non-limiting examples of rail road cars 20, 220 and 520 described
above, in each case the
structural knee has a first moment connection to the sidepost, a second moment
connection to the cross-
bearer (or main bolster, as may be), and a shear member mounted between the
two moment connections.
To the extent that the moment couple is defined as a moment about an axis of
rotation, the shear web
tends to be radially extensive relative to that axis, and may most generally
extend in a plane to which that
axis of rotation is normal.
Although in each example discussed the pairs of spaced apart members defining
the flanges of
the moment couple connections have been planar, and have formed a
quadrilateral boundary about the
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shear web member, that need not necessarily have been so. For example, the
cross-bearer bottom flange
extension and the sidepost outboard flange extension (or, in the case of car
520, the side beam web
extension) could be formed a single member connected at a radiused corner, or
the member could be
formed on a continuous curve such as might conform to a round cyclindrical
surface or to an elliptical
surface, as may be. Similarly, while the shear member may be a quadrilateral
in which opposite pairs of
vertices accept one or other of the moment connecting flanges, this need not
be. The shear member could
be a polygon of a number of sides other than four. For example, the shear
member might be a pentagon if
chamfered at the outside bottom corner to keep within the AAR underframe
clearance envelope. As
noted, some of the corners, such as the outside bottom corner, may be
radiused, and may have a flange
member that corresponds either to a chamfer or a radius as may be. In each
case, although not strictly
speaking a quadrilateral, the mere radiusing or chamfering of corners should
not be understood to remove
such shear members, which may retain a substantially or predominantly four-
sided shape and moment
couple transmitting function, from being considered as, or from falling within
the meaning of,
quadrilaterals herein.
Various embodiments have been described in detail. Since changes in and or
additions to the above-
described examples may be made without departing from the nature, spirit or
scope of the invention, the
invention is not to be limited to those details but only by a purposive
construction of the claims as required by
law.
