Manual railroad hopper car door actuating mechanism

Abstract

An actuating system for manually operating the doors of a railroad hopper car. An operating shaft having a handle is rigidly coupled to an actuating lever. A door opening lever, which is rotatably coupled to said actuating lever, is rotatably coupled to the door for a hopper chute. To operate the system, an operator rotates the handle of said operating shaft, rotating said actuating lever and said door opening lever, shifting said door from the closed to the open position.

1 ) A manual operating mechanism for actuating doors of a hopper car including a body having an underside, at least one discharge chute along the underside of the body, and at least one door coupled for rotation to the body to open and close each discharge chute, said mechanism comprising: 
 a door opening lever for shifting said at least one door between a first chute closed position and a second chute open position;    an actuating lever, rotatably coupled at one end to said door opening lever and at its other end rotatably coupled to said door;    and an operating shaft, coupled for rotation to said car, rigidly affixed at a first end to said actuating lever and having a first handle rigidly affixed at a second end on a first lateral side of said car,    whereby when said first handle is manually rotated by an operator, said operating shaft rotates said actuating lever to cause said door opening lever to shift said at least one door from said first chute closed position to said second chute open position.    
   
   
       2 ) The mechanism of  claim 1 , wherein said handle consists of a pair of bosses  
   
   
       3 ) The mechanism of  claim 1 , wherein said mechanism forms an overcenter latch.  
   
   
       4 ) The mechanism of  claim 1 , wherein said handle contains a first end having a first boss with a bore for rigidly affixing said operating shaft to said handle, and a second end having a second boss extending essentially parallel to said first boss.  
   
   
       5 ) The mechanism of  claim 1 , wherein said first and second bosses are positioned on said first handle such that a pry bar can be located between said first and second bosses to rotate said operating shaft.