RAIL ROAD CAR WITH REDUCED SLACK
A rail road car has a rail car body which includes a housing structure. The housing structure has a pair of sidewalls, a roof and at least one deck mounted to the sidewalls. An enclosed lading space is defined by the housing structure and there is at least one door for controlling access to the enclosed space. The rail road car is provided with short travel buff gear and a reduced slack, or slackless, coupler.
1 . A multi-unit articulated autorack railroad car that is free of end-of-car-cushioning units, and that is free of draft gear having more than 10 inches of travel.
2 . A rail road car having a plurality of interconnected body units supported for rolling motion along railroad tracks by a plurality of railroad car trucks, said body units including first and second end units, each of said first and second end units having a coupler end at which a coupler is mounted to permit said rail road car to be releasably connected to other rail road cars; said rail road car having a deck structure, and a housing structure mounted to overspan said deck structure, a door mounted to one of said end units, said door being movable between an open position and a closed position, said door having a first ladder portion mounted thereto, said deck structure having a second ladder portion mounted thereto, said first and second ladder portions being co-operable when said door is in said open position.
3 . The rail road car of claim 2 wherein said rail road car is an autorack railroad car and said door is a radial arm door.
4 . The rail road car of claim 3 wherein said radial arm door has a tangent portion, and said first ladder portion is mounted to said tangent portion.
5 . The rail road car of claim 4 wherein, when said door is in said open position, said first and second ladder portions lie in line.
6 . The rail road car of claim 2 wherein, when said door is in said open position, said first and second ladder portions lie in line.
7 . The rail road car of claim 3 wherein said rail road car has radial arm doors mounted at both coupler ends, and ladder portions mounted to said doors at both said coupler ends, and bellows mounted between said body units at said articulated connectors.
8 . The rail road car of claim 2 wherein said units of said rail road car include decks permitting lading to be moved between said interconnected body units.
9 . The rail road car of claim 2 wherein said rail road car has a plurality of decks mounted one above another.