Railroad flat car for transporting containers and highway trailers

Claim 1

In a railroad car having a flat deck for transPorting containers and highway trailers: first and second sets of container brackets disposed on said deck to support two containers of certain relatively long overall length in longitudinally spaced end-to-end relation; each set including bracket members relatively transversely and longitudinally spaced and supported on said deck to engage the lower four corners of each container; first and second pairs of intermediate container bracket members on said deck, a pair being located between the longitudinally spaced bracket members of each set, each intermediate bracket member including two longitudinally spaced container-engaging seats, the seats of each pair being adapted to support the adjacent four corners of two end-to-end positioned containers of lesser overall length which are supported on the other two bracket members of each set; an arrangement for mounting trailers on said car comprising: a stationary hitch fixed at one end of the deck for supporting one end of a trailer of any length; a collapsible hitch fixed on the deck inwardly from the other end thereof for supporting the front end of a trailer of relatively short length; a movable hitch mounted on the deck intermediate said stationary and collapsible hitches for movement longitudinally of the deck between an inoperative position between adjacent container brackets of the first and second sets and a first operative position nearer to the stationary hitch for supporting the front end of another trailer of relatively short length and a second operative position nearer to the collapsible hitch in collapsed condition for supporting a second relatively long trailer. CM,2Nvention in accordance with claim 1, in which said stationary hitch includes a top plate pivoted for movement between a horizontal operative position for receiving the kingpin of a trailer and a vertical inoperative position providing clearance for the end portion of a container.