VEHICLE CARRYING RAIL ROAD CAR WITH BRIDGE PLATE ASSEMBLY

摘要

A rail road car has a deck for carrying wheeled vehicles. The vehicles can be circus loaded over sets of movable bridge plates extending between the rail road car and adjacently coupled rail road cars. A transition plate system is provided to span the space between the end of the deck and the bridge plate. The transition plate syste m includes a crank assembly that is operable to lift transition plates, permitting the bridge plates to be moved to a cross-wise position, or to an extended position. Raising the transition plates also facilitates coupling of cars by raising the transition plate out of the way of an incoming bridge plate toe of an adjacent car. The incoming toe is able to cause the opposite transition plate to be lowered.