A damper wedge for a railroad car truck includes a friction member that rides on the wear plate of the side frame column of the railroad car truck and a non-metallic wear surface; and a spring seat that, in use, engages a spring of the railroad car truck. The inclined damper wedge surface has a primary angle alpha, and a secondary angle beta. The spring seat has an axial centerline. The inclined damper wedge surface has a curvature. The curvature has a working point. The damper wedge has a datum plane that is normal to the non-metallic wear surface and that contains the axial centerline. The axial centerline meets the inclined damper wedge surface at an intersection point that is the center of a contact patch. The working point is located in a central region of the contact patch, or working surface patch, downslope of the intersection point.

Disclosed is structural low-alloy manganese cast steel having increased hardness and wear resistance, and an article made therefrom. In particular, after carrying out conventional bulk hardening followed by tempering, the disclosed steel has hardness of approximately 418 to 512 HB and is suitable for use in railway engineering, in particular for manufacturing parts of freight car trucks such as a friction wedge. Due to improved hardness and wear resistance of the parts made of the steel according to the present invention, an increase in inter-repair service life, in particular, of the friction wedge/friction plate friction pair is provided without a significant increase in cost for the parts.

A rail car truck bolster wear plate surface connects to a wear plate using two fasteners of different length. The first fastener passes through an upper opening and an upper channel into a first recess where it can be tightened against a first engaging surface. The second fastener is longer than the first fastener and passes through a lower opening and lower channel into a second recess adjacent to the first recess. The surfaces of the first and second recesses form a series of ribs in the upper end surface between the wear plate surface and the longitudinal centerline of the bolster.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, a side bearing is provided for supporting a body of a rail car. The side bearing includes a base for being mounted to a truck of the rail car, a support configured to contact the body of the rail car and move along a vertical axis relative to the base with movement of the body, and at least one resilient foam member configured to deform with movement of the support. The side bearing further includes at least one friction damping member configured to be urged in a direction transverse to the vertical axis against the base by the support and resist movement of the support relative to the base.

A railroad car articulated split friction wedge assembly including first and second articulated friction wedges, wherein the first friction wedge includes a first body, a first decoupling insert, a first pivot member pivotally moveable with respect to the first body and the first decoupling insert, and a first wear pad removably attached to the first pivot member, and wherein the second friction wedge includes a second body, a second decoupling insert, a second pivot member pivotally moveable with respect to the second body and the second decoupling insert, and independently of the first body and the first pivot member, and a second wear pad removably attached to the second pivot member, which in combination provide required damping, provide high warp restraint, reduce binding, and enable lateral decoupling.

There is a damper wedge for a railroad car truck. It has a friction member that rides on the wear plate of the side frame column of the railroad car truck. It has a non-metallic wear surface; a spring seat that, in use, engages a spring of the railroad car truck; and an inclined damper wedge surface having a primary angle, alpha, and a secondary angle, beta. The spring seat has an axial centerline. The inclined damper wedge surface has a curvature. The curvature has a working point. The damper wedge has a datum plane that is normal to said non-metallic wear surface and that contains said axial centerline. The axial centerline meets said inclined damper wedge surface at an intersection point that is the center of a contact patch. The working point is located in a central region of the contact patch, or working surface patch.

A damping system for a truck assembly of a rail vehicle includes a first friction shoe configured to engage a first portion of a side frame of the truck assembly, and a first lever pivotally coupled to the first friction shoe.

A rubbing plate of a side bearer of a railcar bogie is a rubbing plate of a side bearer provided at the railcar bogie so as to slidably contact a slide member arranged above or under the side bearer. The rubbing plate includes a recess-projection provided on an opposing surface of the rubbing plate, the opposing surface being opposed to a sliding surface of the slide member.

An novel railway car truck comprising side frames with vertical columns and bolster openings, a central swing suspension, a bolster, side bearers, and friction shock absorber friction wedges that has an improved dynamic performance facilitated by a novel central swing suspension set of springs and/or a novel design of the friction shock absorber friction wedges and/or a novel design of the side bearings.

A railroad car truck for a railroad freight car, such as an autorack car, has a bolster mounted cross-wise between two sideframes. The bolster ends are mounted on respective spring groups carried by the sideframes. The bolster can translate laterally relative to the sideframes. The side frames are mounted to swing laterally relative to the wheel sets, and hence relative to the rails. Resistance to lateral deflection is provided by the resistance of the sideframes to the pendulum swinging motion, and by shear in the spring groups. The truck has a doubled damper arrangement of dampers in a four-cornered layout at each end of the bolster, giving a flexing resistance to yaw between the sideframes and the bolster ends. The doubled damper arrangement works against large wear plates mounted on the sideframe columns. The large wear plates are mounted normal to the dampers and square to the sideframes.