Partitioned railway hopper car

Claim 1

A railway hopper car including a center sill and underframe arrangement, a car body supported on said underframe arrangement, the improvement comprising: longitudinally extending, laterally spaced raised side sills spaced substantially above said center sill and having upright side walls connected thereto, end wall structure on opposite ends of said car body including an end wall and end slope sheets extending downwardly and inwardly in sloping relation from said end wall, a pair of longitudinally extending hopper discharge slope sheets supported on said center sill and extending downwardly and outwardly of the center sill in sloping relation, the lower ends of said longitudinal slope sheet and said raised side sills providing therebetween a pair of enlarged, oppositely disposed hopper discharge openings extending from the side sills to the hopper discharge slope sheets, discharge doors pivotally supported on said side sills above said discharge openings and each having a vertically extending sidewall portion and terminating in an inwardly and downwardly sloping bottom portion, a pair of end bulkheads each extending transversely of the car and spaced from the end slope sheets to provide a bulkhead opening in a transverse plane, said end bulkheads being inwardly spaced from opposite end walls of the car body to provide a central compartment communicating with said discharge openings, an end compartment at each end of the central compartment of the car and being defined by the end bulkhead end slope sheet and end wall, said end compartment being capable of storing comminuted material and being emptied by communication between said end and central compartments to accommodate the discharge of materials from said end compartment through said hopper discharge openings, and divider wall means having a lower beam portion attached atop the center sill and extending longitudinally to interconnect said spaced end bulkheads, said divider wall means including a vertical portion extending from below the raised side sill to a point substantially above the raised side sill and cooperating with the vertically extending portions of said doors to provide narrow elongated hoppers suitable for receiving large elongated objects such as logs or the like.