Railroad Car with Reinforced End Doors

Abstract

A railroad freight car adapted for carrying automobiles and having a pair of doors enclosing and end of the car body. The pair of doors is hinged to the sides of the car body and meets each other at a central vertical plane, with each door including latches at top and bottom that engage an end sill and a roof the car body. The doors include panels of composite construction and have stiffening structures along vertically extending closure mating sides of the doors, whose margins confront each other. Door engagement members on each door extend toward and are engaged with the stiffening structures on the margin of the opposite one of the pair of doors.

I/We claim: 
     
         1 . A door for an end of a railroad freight car, comprising:
 (a) a vertically-extending hinge side;   (b) an oppositely located vertically-extending closure mating side;   (c) a top end;   (d) a bottom end, the door having a height between the top end and the bottom end;   (e) a first door securing mechanism located at the top end;   (f) a second door securing mechanism located at the bottom end;   (g) a door stiffening structure mounted on the door closure mating side of the door and including:
 (i) an outer reinforcing plate extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an exterior face of the door; 
 (ii) an inner reinforcing member extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an interior face of the door; and 
   (h) a door engagement member carried on the inner reinforcing member at an intermediate height between the top end and the bottom end and extending laterally beyond the margin of the closure mating side, in a direction away from the hinge side of the door.   
     
     
         2 . The door of  claim 1  including a door panel constructed of composite materials, wherein the outer reinforcing plate and the inner reinforcing member of the door stiffening structure are of metal and are interconnected with each other by a plurality of fasteners each extending through the door panel. 
     
     
         3 . The door of  claim 1  wherein the inner reinforcing member is a metal member having a hat section shape. 
     
     
         4 . The door of  claim 3  wherein said member having a hat shape section includes a channel portion protruding away from said interior face of the door. 
     
     
         5 . The door of  claim 1  including a pair of the door engagement members separated vertically along the closure mating side of the door by a distance of between about one-fifth and about one-third of the height of the door. 
     
     
         6 . The door of  claim 5  wherein an upper one of said pair of door engagement members is separated vertically from the top end of the door by a distance of between about 35% and about 40% of the height of the door. 
     
     
         7 . The door of  claim 5  wherein a lower one of the door engagement members is separated from the bottom end by a distance in the range of about 35% to about 45% of the height of the door. 
     
     
         8 . A pair of doors for an end of a railroad freight car, each one of the pair of doors comprising:
 (a) a vertically-extending hinge side;   (b) an oppositely located vertically-extending closure mating side;   (c) a top end;   (d) a bottom end, the door having a height between the top end and the bottom end;   (e) a first door securing mechanism located at the top end;   (f) a second door securing mechanism located at the bottom end;   (g) a door stiffening structure mounted on the door closure mating side of the door and including:
 (i) an outer reinforcing plate extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an exterior face of the door; 
 (ii) an inner reinforcing member extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an interior face of the door; and 
   (h) a respective door engagement member carried on the inner reinforcing member of each of said ones of said pair of doors, each of the door engagement members extending laterally beyond a margin of the vertically extending closure mating side of that door far enough to overlap a portion of the inner reinforcing member carried on the interior face of the other one of the pair of doors; and   (i) the respective door engagement member on one of the pair of doors being at a first height and the respective door engagement member on the other one of the pair of doors being at a second height and vertically adjacent to the first height, whereby the door engagement members respectively located on the ones of the pair of doors are vertically adjacent each other.   
     
     
         9 . The pair of doors of  claim 8 , each door including a door panel constructed of composite materials, wherein the outer reinforcing plate and the inner reinforcing member of the door stiffening structure are of metal and are interconnected with each other by a plurality of fasteners each extending through the door panel. 
     
     
         10 . The pair of doors of  claim 8  wherein the inner reinforcing member of each door is a metal member having a hat section shape. 
     
     
         11 . The pair of doors of  claim 10  wherein each said member having a hat section shape includes a channel portion protruding away from said interior face of the respective door. 
     
     
         12 . The pair of doors of  claim 8  wherein each one of the pair of doors has a pair of the door engagement members separated vertically along the closure mating side of the respective door by a distance of between about one-fifth and about one-third of the height of the respective door. 
     
     
         13 . The pair if doors of  claim 12  wherein an upper one of said pair of door engagement members of each door is separated vertically from the top end of the respective door by a distance of between about 35% and about 40% of the height of the door. 
     
     
         14 . The pair of doors of  claim 12  wherein a lower one of the door engagement members on each door is separated from the bottom end of the respective door by a distance of between about 35% and about 45% of the height of the respective door. 
     
     
         15 . A railroad freight car, comprising:
 (a) a car body having a pair of opposite ends and a doorway at one of the opposite ends of the car body, the doorway being defined by an end sill at a bottom of the doorway and a car body roof at a top of the doorway;   (b) a pair of doors enclosing the end of the car body and closing the doorway, each one of the pair of doors having:
 (i) a vertically-extending hinge side; 
 (ii) an oppositely located vertically-extending closure mating side; 
 (iii) a top end; 
 (iv) a bottom end, the door having a height between the top end and the bottom end; 
 (v) a first door securing mechanism located at the top end and connecting the top end to the roof; 
 (vi) a second door securing mechanism located at the bottom end and connecting the bottom end to the end sill; 
 (vii) a door stiffening structure mounted on the closure mating side of the door and including:
 (1) an outer reinforcing plate extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an exterior face of the door; 
 (2) an inner reinforcing member extending along a margin of the closure mating side on an interior face of the door; 
 
   (c) the car further including a respective door engagement member carried on the respective inner reinforcing member of each one of said pair of doors, each of the door engagement members extending laterally beyond a margin of the vertically extending closure mating side of that door far enough to overlap a portion of the inner reinforcing member carried on the interior face of the other one of the pair of doors; and   (d) the respective door engagement member on one of the pair of doors being at a first height and the respective door engagement member on the other one of the pair of doors being at a second height and vertically adjacent to the first height, whereby the door engagement members respectively located on the ones of the pair of doors are vertically adjacent each other.   
     
     
         16 . The freight car of  claim 15 , each one of the doors including a door panel constructed of composite materials, wherein the outer reinforcing plate and the inner reinforcing member of the door stiffening structure are of metal and are interconnected with each other by a plurality of fasteners each extending through the door panel. 
     
     
         17 . The freight car of  claim 15  wherein the inner reinforcing member of each door is a metal member having a hat section shape and including a channel portion protruding away from said interior face of the respective door. 
     
     
         18 . The freight car of  claim 13  wherein each one of the pair of doors has a pair of the door engagement members separated vertically along the closure mating side of the respective door by a distance of between about one-fifth and about one-third of the height of the respective door.