Patent ID: 8132515

Claim:
A railroad hopper car for carrying particulate material, said hopper car comprising: a hopper; first and second end sections for carriage by respective first and second rail road car trucks for rolling motion along railroad tracks in a longitudinal direction; said hopper being suspended between said first and second end sections, said hopper having a discharge section through which to release lading, and first and second end slope sheets oriented toward said first and second end sections, said end slope sheets being inclined in the longitudinal direction to feed said discharge section; said first end section including a draft sill extending in the longitudinal direction, a main bolster extending cross-wise to said draft sill, and a shear plate mounted to said draft sill and to said main bolster, said shear plate extending lengthwise along said draft sill and cross-wise from side to side of said hopper car; said first end slope sheet of said hopper over hanging said shear plate of said first end section; and said hopper car being free of primary structure directly above said shear plate of said first end section under said overhang of said first end slope sheet of said hopper; one of: (a) said first end slope sheet has an upper margin and said hopper car includes an end post extending upwardly from said draft sill to said upper margin of said first end slope sheet; and (b) said first end slope sheet has an upper margin terminating at an end wall, and said hopper car includes an end post extending upwardly from draft stub sill to said end wall; said shear plate has a longitudinally outboard margin and said draft sill has a striker located outboard of said longitudinally outboard margin of said shear plate, and said end post is one of: (a) rooted to said draft sill adjacent to said striker; (b) rooted to said shear plate adjacent to said longitudinally outboard margin of said shear plate; said bolster has first and second laterally outboard distal ends, and said hopper car has corner posts extending upwardly from said distal ends of said bolster to said first end slope sheet; and said hopper car has a machinery space bounded by (a) said first end slope sheet; (b) said shear plate of said first end section; (c) said end post; and (d) said corner posts, and said machinery space is free of any other primary structure.