According to particular embodiments, a valve operating assembly, such as for a tank car bottom outlet valve, comprises a slide rotationally coupled to and transversely slidable relative to a valve stem. The slide comprises a shape that facilitates rotational coupling with a handle and the slide further comprises a connector for engaging a protective plate to limit rotation of the slide about a valve rotational axis when in a first position and free to rotate about the valve rotational axis when in a second position.

A railroad tank car may have external fittings, such as a bottom opening valve, that protrude from the bottom of the tank car tank. In a derailment the tank car tank may meet the ground. A tank skid plate assembly has an accommodation in which to shelter such fittings. The skid plate assembly has a shell with tapered ramps at either end. It mounts to tank reinforcement structure, such as reinforcing bars. Reinforcements may be mounted in the lee of the shell. Those reinforcements may be mounted to the shell only, without welding connection to the tank car tank. The reinforcements may be, or combine with the shell to define either a bridge or a truss that spans the space between the reinforcement bars. The assembly may have an access passageway, such as for admitting a heating pipe. The assembly may include lateral and longitudinal internal webs for providing crush resistance.

A new method of manufacturing a railroad car tank head having the steps of providing a circular blank of steel plate material, cold-forming the circular blank to form an intermediate ellipsoidal dish, cold-forming a peripheral flange region of the intermediate ellipsoidal dish to form a flanged ellipsoidal dish, and heat treating the flanged ellipsoidal dish. The heat treatment may be either a thermal stress relieving heat treatment or a normalizing heat treatment. The two cold-forming steps may be carried out at room temperature. The present invention provides a method of making a railroad car tank head that is more efficient than prior methods, avoids the challenges of hot-forming and single-stage cold-forming, is easily adaptable to different tank head diameters using the same forming equipment, and yields a railroad car tank head that meets safety standards.

A hopper railroad car top hatch cover assembly including a hatch cover and a hatch cover securer configured to secure the hatch cover in a closed position engaging a coaming of the hopper railroad car.

A surge suppression apparatus configured to be installed inside a railroad tank car and diffuse (or suppress) pressure surges caused by sloshing waves (liquid) within the railroad tank car is described herein. The surge suppression apparatus may comprise a main body defining a fluid path extending between a first end and a second end of the apparatus and having louver openings in sides of the main body that are formed by louver portions that are bent and extend inwardly away from the sides of the main body. These openings may include sets of openings on opposite sides of the main body. The apparatus may be mounted inside the railroad tank car such that the sides of the apparatus having openings are perpendicular to a direction of travel for the railroad tank car (i.e., such that the openings face the direction of the sloshing liquid).

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to a multifunctional fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite jacket system configured to improve the safety of a container at least partially enclosed within the FRP composite jacket system. This can be accomplished by increasing the container's overall puncture resistance and thermal resistance which, in part, corresponds to a performance increase in terms of strength, energy absorption, and other efficiencies compared to traditional protective jacketing methods and materials. In a further aspect, this system can be applied to in-service tank cars as an in situ retrofit. Alternatively, it can be applied to newly manufactured tank cars as a design improvement over traditional approaches to existing outer jackets of tank cars. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the art and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure.

A tanker rail car socket tool includes a drive cylinder including a bore sized to receive at least a portion of a threaded bolt configured to secure a tanker car lid to a tanker rail car; a drive opening formed in a first end of the drive cylinder and sized to receive a portion of a tool configured to transmit torque to the drive cylinder when engaged with the drive opening; and a socket head coupled to a second end of the drive cylinder opposite the first end. The socket head includes a nut opening defined by a plurality of torque-transferring surfaces. The torque-transferring surfaces are configured to transfer the torque transmitted to the drive cylinder by the tool to a nut threaded over the threaded bolt to secure the tanker car lid to the tanker rail car.

According to some embodiments, a fittings plate for attaching railcar fittings to a railcar comprises: a plate consisting of a non-metallic, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite material. The plate comprises: a first set of one or more openings for attaching railcar fittings to the plate and a second set of one or more openings for attaching the plate to a railcar.

A gasket placed on a railroad tank car manway nozzle to extend the gasket's sealing integrity, durability and life. The gasket comprises an external gasket extension, a sealing surface contact portion, an internal gasket extension and a plurality of tabs on the external gasket extension. The sealing surface contact portion includes an enlarged mass portion which gets flattened under compression and extends linearly to provide an additional sealing force along the interior wall of the manway nozzle. The internal gasket extension includes a ring portion which serves as an internal splash guard. In use, the existing manway cover plate assembly is unbolted, the existing nozzle gasket removed and replaced by a new gasket as disclosed herein, and then the cover plate is bolted and torqued down to the nozzle.

A vacuum relief valve for a railroad tank car and methods for using the same to test the vacuum relief valve for leaks without requiring removal of the valve from the railroad tank car are described herein. According to one aspect of the invention, a vacuum relief valve described herein may be inspected for leaks without removing the vacuum relief valve from the railroad tank car by using two or more access openings located on the body of the vacuum relief valve. According to another aspect of the invention, a vacuum relief valve described herein may be inspected for leaks without removing the vacuum relief valve from the railroad tank car by using an opening to an interior cavity of the valve body that is revealed by rotating a cover from a closed position to an open position.