Fluid self-steering railway vehicle truck

Claim 1

In a railway vehicle truck having a longitudinal axis in its direction of travel and comprising a rigid truck frame, multiple wheel set assemblies including a leading wheel set assembly and a trailing wheel set assembly disposed aft of said leading wheel set assembly along said longitudinal truck axis, said wheel set assemblies each comprising an axle, a pair of flanged wheels having wheel tread conicity and mounted on said axle, and two journal boxes mounted adjacent opposite ends of said axle and operatively disposed in said truck frame so that each corresponding wheel set assembly is operatively positioned in said truck, each of said journal boxes including: a bearing mounted about a section of said axle, said bearing supporting said axle and providing a means of rotation of said axle relative to said journal box, longitudinal load bearing surfaces disposed in planes substantially perpendicular to said longitudinal axis, said planes being disposed forward and aft of said axle along a line parallel to said longitudinal axis, and lateral load bearing surfaces disposed substantially orthogonal to said longitudinal load bearing surfaces, the improvement comprising: means for repositioning said journal boxes of said leading and trailing wheel set assemblies with respect to said truck frame, said means including a plurality of fluid containing force transmitting means each positioned on said truck frame adjacent and movable relative to at least one of said longitudinal load bearing surfaces of at least one of said journal boxes of said leading and trailing wheel set assemblies, each of said force transmitting means including a rub plate portion adjacent and engageable with one of said longitudinal load bearing surfaces, with at least two of said force transmitting means defining a set; and conduits interconnecting said force transmitting means in each of said sets in flow communication.