Sliding wall arrangement for covered railroad freight cars and containers

Claim 1

In a sliding wall arrangement, for covered freight containers, such as covered railroad freight cars, having a floor, in which the sliding wall sections, which are co-planar in the closed state and are movable, transversely of the container, out of the closing plane and into a wall section shifting plane by operation of a respective hand lever and actuating linkage connected to the hand lever, are displaceable longitudinally of the container, for opening of the sliding wall, on rolls engaging fixed wall parts and intermediate posts of a side wall frame having an upper stringer, a lower outer beam and corner posts, with sealing of the vertical edges of the sliding wall sections to each other and to the corner and intermediate posts of the side wall frame being effected by labyrinth packings: the improvement comprising, in combination, at least two guide elements, respective to each sliding wall section, on the free ends of respective levers secured to a respective upper shaft extending longitudinally in said upper stringer for oscillation transversely of said container responsive to oscillation of the respective upper shaft by the associated actuating linkage; brackets, respective to each sliding wall section, adjacent said lower outer beam; respective parallel linkages pivotally connecting said brackets to said floor for horizontal displacement transversely of said container, each parallel linkage including levers coupled with the respective actuating linkage for each sliding wall section through the medium of a respective lower shaft extending longitudinally of said container; each bracket including a vertically oriented web plate conformingly seated in a mating cutout in a vertical depending leg of said lower outer beam responsive to movement of the bracket to its outermost position; respective upper supporting arms on said sliding wall sections supporting runner rolls, for rotation about horizontal axes, and having supporting cams cooperating with said guide elements; respective lower supporting arms on said sliding wall sections supporting, at their free ends, second rolls, for rotation about vertical axes, and having guide clamps embracing tHe web plate of the associated bracket and operable to embrace said vertical leg of said lower outer beam; said sliding wall sections being guided, in moving from said closing plane into said shifting plane, at their upper edges by the associated guide elements and, at their lower edges, by the associated brackets; each sliding wall section, when in said shifting plane, being displaceable longitudinally of said container by engagement of its runner rolls with an uninterrupted continuous runner rail extending longitudinally of said upper stringer and by engagement of its second rolls with the outer surface of said vertically dependent leg of said lower outer beam; interengageable sealing means on the vertical ends of said sliding wall sections, each sealing means including a series of sealing sections arranged along the associated vertical end; each sealing section having an outer sealing surface extending at an angle to the longitudinal center line of the container and the sealing surfaces of vertically adjacent sealing sections slanting in respective opposite angular directions; the sealing sections on each vertical end of a sliding section being arranged so that their slanting sealing surfaces are parallel to the slanting sealing surfaces of the sealing sections on the adjacent vertical end of an adjacent sliding wall section; and means operable, during at least the last phase of meovement of each sliding wall section from said shifting plane into said closing plane, to guide the sliding wall section obliquely toward the longitudinal center line of said container to effect tight sealing engagement of said sealing surfaces thereof with the mating sealing surfaces of an adjacent sliding section in said closing plane.