Railway car brake beam lever mounting

A brake beam lever extends through an inclined slot in a brake beam strut at a greater inclination to vertical than the slot, and wedge shape members fill the wedge shape spaces formed between the lever and the side walls of the slot. A pivot pin extends through said strut and wedge members and lever, and the ends of the lever are provided with openings for clevis pins.

A typical railway car brake beam has a slotted central strut in which the 
central portion of a brake lever is pivotally mounted. One end of the 
lever is connected to a top or bottom rod extending across the truck 
bolster to the lever of the opposing brake beam. The opposite end of one 
of the levers is connected by a rod to an anchor point on the car, while 
the corresponding end of the other lever is connected by a rod to the 
brake actuating mechanism. Such brake levers are inclined lengthwise of 
the brake beams a certain number of degrees, usually about 40.degree., 
from the vertical. One thing that this inclination does is to lower the 
upper end of the lever relative to the position it would occupy if the 
lever were vertical. Nevertheless, with modern freight cars, the typical 
inclination of a brake lever often is not enough to prevent the movements 
of the upper end of the lever from being interfered with by the bottom of 
the car body, especially when the car body is mounted on springs that 
permit several inches of vertical movement of the body. Therefore, to 
provide the necessary clearance, the major portion of the lever above the 
strut has been inclined to a greater extent than its intermediate portion 
that extends through the strut. This lowers the upper end of the lever so 
that its movements will not be obstructed. However, another problem is 
created by such a lever. Due to the lever not being straight from end to 
end, the brake rods connected to its opposite ends pull on it in such a 
way as to tend to cause it to twist and thereby bind in the strut, which 
is a very undesirable condition. 
It is an object of this invention to provide a brake lever that has 
sufficient operating clearance and yet will not bind in a brake beam strut 
during operation, which is thinner than those now in use, and which is 
straight.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, a railway car truck is provided 
with a pair of brake beams 1 of conventional construction, each of which 
includes a central strut 2 extending lengthwise of the car and provided 
with a laterally inclined slot 3 theretrhough as shown in FIG. 2. The slot 
has parallel side walls. In practice, the angle of the slot generally is 
about 40.degree. from vertical. Extending through the strut slot is a 
brake lever 4. The lever is held in place by a pivot pin 5 extending 
through the strut and an opening 6 in the lever. 
The upper end of the lever is provided with an opening 7, through which 
extends a pivot pin 8 that attaches to the lever the clevis of a 
connecting rod, such as a top rod 9 extending through the bolster 10 of 
the truck. There likewise is an opening 11 through the lower end of the 
lever for receiving a pivot pin 12 that connects the clevis of a brake rod 
to the lever. If the lever being considered is the dead lever, the rod 13 
extends from it to an anchor point on the car. If it is the live lever, 
the rod 14 connects it with the mechanism for applying the brakes. 
It is a feature of this invention that, although the lever is straight from 
end to end, it is inclined from the vertical more than the slot through 
the strut, whereby to lower its upper end as much as possible. To permit 
this to be done, the lever is considerably thinner than the width of the 
slot. Preferably, the thickness of the lever is equal to about half the 
width of the slot. Since the lever is inclined relative to the slot, wedge 
shape spaces are formed between the lever and the side walls of the slot. 
The widest part of the space above the lever is at the top of the strut, 
while the widest part of the space below the lever is at the bottom of the 
strut. These two spaces are substantially filled by a pair of wedge shape 
members 16 and 17 through which the pivot pin also extends. The ends of 
these members project a short distance beyond the opposite edges of the 
lever, and the ends of one wedge are connected to the adjacent ends of the 
other wedge by cross pieces 18 spaced from said lever and located along a 
minor length of said ends midway between the upper and lower edges of said 
side walls. These cross pieces may be formed integrally with one wedge and 
then bent at right angles and welded to the other wedge. The spacing of 
the two wedges is such that their outer faces will substantially engage 
the side walls of the strut, but their inner faces will be spaced apart a 
distance slightly greater than the thickness of the lever in order to 
provide the desired clearance for movement of the lever around the pivot 
pin. 
To help hold the wedges in place so that they will not tend to turn with 
the lever, the upper wedge 17 may be provided at its top with laterally 
projecting lugs 19 that overlie and engage the top of the upper wall of 
the strut slot. Since the pivot pin extends through the strut at right 
angles to it, the lever will be inclined relative to the pin and therefore 
the opening through the lever will be inclined to the longitudinal plane 
of the lever. However, the pin openings in the opposite ends of the lever 
will generally be perpendicular to the lever. 
It will be seen that with this construction the upper end of the lever will 
be at a lower level than the upper end of a conventional straight lever 
that is inclined at the same angle as the strut slot. Yet, the lever can 
be perfectly straight. Also, it can have a simple form with flat sides and 
uniform thickness from end to end. 
According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the 
principle of my invention and have illustrated and described what I now 
consider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have it 
understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention 
may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.