Side wall particularly for railroad freight cars

Claim 1

In a side wall, particularly for railroad freight cars, including a side wall frame having a lower chord and an upper chord interconnected at their ends by corner posts, and several sliding wall sections arranged in a common plane when closed and which are displaceable one over the other by rollers running in rails, the central sliding wall section having, at its bottom and close to each of its ends, lower runners moving on a runway rail and, at its top, perpendicularly above its lower runners, upper runners running in a guide rail, each outer sliding wall section having, at its bottom, a lower roller between its center and its outer end running on a runway rail and a lower runner at its outer end bearing under the runway rail and, at its top, upper guide rollers moving in a guide rail, with common runway and guide rails for the outer sliding wall sections having, at those points which the runners and rollers engage therewith assumed in the closing position of the associated outer sliding wall section, bends toward the longitudinal center line of the car, the runners of the central sliding wall section being mounted thereon through bell crank rocking levers pivotal about a horizontal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the car, and the central sliding wall section being swingable out of the common plane and moved over an outer sliding wall section to open the side wall: the improvement comprising, in combination, the runway rails for said central and outer sliding wall sections being constituted by a single rail section mounted in only two longitudinally spaced brackets on said lower chord and secured fixedly to one bracket while being longitudinally slidable in the other bracket; guide fingers at the top of each outer sliding wall section; respective catch hooks on said upper chord cooperable with said guide fingers to guide said outer sliding wall sections into the closed position in said common plane; respective support means on said lower chord for each sliding wall section, engaging the latter in the closed position thereof to relieve the load on the supporting runners and the associated runway rails; and respective clamping means on each sliding wall section operable to clamp the same to said upper and lower chords; each outer sliding wall section, with the central sliding wall section swung out and displaced over the other sliding wall section, being displaceable longitudinally to a position laterally between said central and said other outer sliding wall sections.