A railway freight car bogie includes a side frame, a bolster and a friction damper. The friction damper includes a wedge, a constant friction damping spring, a variable friction damping spring and an ejector rod. The variable friction damping spring in the middle and below the wedge is deviated at a distance in a direction away from a center of the bolster with respect to damping springs at two sides of the variable friction damping spring. An axis of each of the constant friction damping spring and the ejector rod is coincident with an axis of the variable friction damping spring in the middle and below the wedge. The bogie not only has an ideal relative friction coefficient in both an unloaded condition and a loaded condition, a large diamond resistant rigidity, a better vertical dynamics performance and a better transverse dynamics performance.

A friction wedge with improved bond characteristics may include a friction wedge body and a friction wedge liner. The friction wedge body may include a pattern formed by a ridge or elevation disposed on a connecting face of the friction wedge body. The friction wedge liner may include a complementary pattern formed by a channel disposed on a bonding surface of the friction wedge liner.

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 railway truck includes two parallel side frames, a suspension spring assembly supported by the side frames, and a bolster transversely mounted between the side frames and supported by the suspension spring assembly. Each side frame has at least one vertical support face, and the bolster has at least one sloped support face. A friction shoe includes a bottom base engaging and supported by a support spring, and a sloped wall engaging the sloped support face of the bolster. The friction shoe prevents bolster side wall wear.

A friction shoe includes a bottom base engaging and supported by a pair of support springs, and a sloped wall engaging the sloped support face of a bolster. The bottom base includes a cylindrical spring lug that has a center opening that extends through the spring lug. The bottom surface of the spring lug is flat and smooth and is configured to engage an additional concentrically nested support spring. The additional spring increases the force between the vertical support face of the wedge and the vertical wear plate of the side frame.

A friction shoe is provided for use in a railway truck. The friction shoe is placed such that it frictionally engages both a wear plate on the side frame vertical column and wear plates on the slope surfaces of the bolster to dampen the oscillating motion of the bolster when supported by spring groups in the side frame. The shoe is provided with sloped surfaces that engage complementary slope surfaces on the bolster. Wear plates are fitted and held on the sloped surfaces of the bolster and on the vertical columns of the side frames.

There is a damper wedge for a railroad car truck. It has a removable and replaceable friction element that reciprocates 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 inclined damper wedge surface has a curvature. The curvature has a working point. The working point is located in a central region of a contact patch, or working surface patch. The nonmetallic wear surface material is mounted to a carrier that mounts removably to the damper wedge body. The carrier has fingers that span the wedge and that transfer shear and resist torsion, the fingers preventing the non-metallic member from migrating out of position.

A friction assist side bearing assembly for a truck assembly of a rail vehicle includes a first friction member, a second friction member that opposes the first friction member, and a cap coupled to the first friction member and the second friction member. The cap is configured to contact a portion of a car body coupled to the truck assembly.

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.

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.