Abstract:
A railway house car side has an elongated opening closed by four doors disposed in end-to-end relation lengthwise of the car with respect to each other, two of the doors, which may be designated end doors, being movable solely lengthwise of the car to uncover the end portions of the opening, the other two doors, which may be designated center doors, being movable transversely, to disalign them transversely of the car side from the end doors and lengthwise of the side alongside of the end doors to uncover the center portion of the opening. The edges of the end doors nearest the respective ends of the car side have beveled flanges engageable with outwardly diverging door stops on the car side to wedge the end doors against the car side when closed and the opposite edges of the end doors have flanges overlaid by the adjacent center door edges to hold the end doors against the car side, and the edge of one center door overlies that of the other to afford a seal between them. Each end door is provided with a manually actuable device for unwedging the door and initiating its opening movement. As a safety feature the side plate of the car mounts a common top retainer rail for both sets of doors comprising a generally S-section elongated member having an upwardly open inner channel forming the top retainer for the center door cranks and a downwardly open outer channel forming the top retainer for the end doors.