Did You Know...
...that power steering was invented by independent inventor Francis W. Davis? As chief engineer in the 1920s of the truck division of the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company, he saw how hard it was to steer heavy vehicles. So that he would be able to keep the profits from his future invention, Davis left his job, rented a small engineering shop in Waltham, Mass., and developed a hydraulic power steering system that led to power steering.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7389731 | Non-metallic insert for rail car bolster wedge Split wedges biased against sloped upper surfaces and the side walls of pockets in the ends of the bolster of a rail car truck are provided with non-metallic wear plates which interface with pocket side walls to reduce or eliminate pocket side wall wear. The wear pl... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7328659 | Rail road freight car with resilient suspension An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has a relatively soft suspension and an empty vertical bounce natural frequency of less than 2.0 Hz. The car also has additional ballas... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7004079 | Rail road car and truck therefor An autorack rail road car is provided with a truck that includes a pair of sideframes supported on wheel sets with bearing adapters positioned therebetween. The bearing adapters and the sideframes have associated parts or surfaces with curvatures configured to permi... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6971319 | Friction wedge with mechanical bonding matrix augmented composition liner material A friction wedge assembly for use in a suspension system of railroad car trucks. The friction wedge assembly comprises a cast metal wedge having a bolster engaging surface, a truck side frame engaging surface and a surface disposed between the bolster engaging surfa... | 12/06/2005 |
| 6895866 | Rail road freight car with damped suspension An auto rack rail road freight car is provided for carrying low density, relatively high value, relatively fragile lading. The car has trucks that have multiple dampers in a four corner arrangement in the sideframes. The spring groups in the side frames are relative... | 05/24/2005 |
| 6701850 | Friction wedge liner with backing plate A friction wedge assembly for use in a suspension system of railroad car trucks. The friction wedge assembly comprises a cast metal wedge having a bottom face, a vertical face that is substantially perpendicular to the bottom face and a sloped face for co... | 03/09/2004 |
| 6425334 | Friction shoe for freight car truck A friction shoe is provided for use in a railway freight car truck. A freight car truck comprises two laterally spaced sideframes with a bolster extending transversely between said sideframes. The bolster has two ends each of which extends into an opening... | 07/30/2002 |
| 6374749 | Friction wedge for a railroad car truck having a replaceable wear member A friction wedge for a railroad car truck including a body and a wear member. The body includes a front face having a pocket adapted to removably receive the wear member. The pocket includes a bottom wall and a peripheral side wall extending outwardly fro... | 04/23/2002 |
| 5943961 | Split wedge bolster pocket insert In a freight car truck assembly, an insert for converting a substantially flat, inclined, bolster pocket back wall into a pair of inclined surfaces for biasing a pair of split wedges laterally outwardly against side walls of the bolster pocket to create a... | 08/31/1999 |
| 5875721 | Railway car truck and method and apparatus for velocity-dependent friction damping Viscous damping such as provided by hydraulic dampers is employed to load frictional energy dissipating elements, such as friction wedges used to damp relative movements between the bolster and the side frames in a conventional railway car truck, such tha... | 03/02/1999 |
| 5524551 | Spring-pack assembly for a railway truck bolster assembly A variable spring group for a railcar wheel truck assembly, which spring group has independent variable rate control springs for biasing snubber assemblies of a bolster in the wheel truck assembly, with the spring group having a first linear spring rate a... | 06/11/1996 |
| 5095823 | Friction shoe for railcar truck The present invention provides a friction shoe for use in a railway freight car truck. The friction shoe is disposed to dampen movements between the truck bolster and the side frames, and consists of a unitarily cast metal body having a generally planar v... | 03/17/1992 |
| 4825776 | Railway truck friction shoe with resilient pads The present invention provides a friction shoe for use in a railway freight car truck. The friction shoe consists of a cast metal body having a generally flat vertical surface adapted to abut a column on the truck side frame and sloped surfaces adapted to... | 05/02/1989 |
| 4825775 | Railcar truck bolster with preassembled friction shoes Friction shoes are preassembled in each end of a railcar truck bolster by providing openings in the bolster and in the shoes and passing a restraining member through the openings at each bolster end and tensioning and securing the restraining members so a... | 05/02/1989 |
| 4562775 | Railway vehicle with end and intermediate trucks A railway vehicle, in particular a locomotive, has three or more trucks with the bolsters of each swivelly supported on the respective truck frames and having means for transmitting longitudinal traction and braking forces to the body underframe. The truc... | 01/07/1986 |
| 4370933 | Railway car truck bolster assembly A railroad car truck includes a pair of spaced side frames carrying therebetween a transversely positioned bolster. Ends of the bolster are positioned within a window formed in each side frame. A connection between the side frame and bolster includes an i... | 02/01/1983 |
| 4316417 | Welded side frame column wear plate A railway car truck having side frames with an opening for receiving the ends of a bolster, and spaced columns with removable wear resistant wear plates, secured thereto and retained by L-shaped retainers at the corners.... | 02/23/1982 |
| 4276833 | Railway truck friction stabilizing assembly A friction member for use in the bolster pocket of a stabilized railroad car truck having a bolster positioned within a side frame window has a slanted friction surface adapted to bear against a slanted wear surface within the bolster pocket and a vertica... | 07/07/1981 |
| 4274340 | Railway car truck frictional snubbing arrangement A friction shoe particularly adapted for providing improved regulation of movement between a bolster and a side frame of a railroad car truck includes a central body portion and triangular-shaped wings formed on each side thereof. Pairs of these friction ... | 06/23/1981 |
| 4254712 | Railway truck side frame wear plate mounting A wearplate for a column of a railway freight car side frame is attached by fastener means to a column web and additionally is welded to top and bottom lugs of the column web by weld metal in recesses of said lugs and in recesses of the web which communic... | 03/10/1981 |
