A coil car has a pair of deep side sills and a trough structure mounted to, and
suspended between, the deep side sills for carrying coils. The side sills extend
between the rail car trucks and act as a pair of deep side beams for carrying vertical
loads. The deep side sills are arranged to extend above and below the center sill
of the coil car to give vertical stiffness to the coil car. The top chord members
of the side sills are outwardly splayed relative to the bottom chord members of
the side sills. Cross-bearers extend outwardly and away from the center sill to
attach to the side sills. The trough structure has three parallel, longitudinally
extending troughs-a central trough lying between two laterally outboard outer troughs.
Each trough is shaped to cradle steel coils, or other similar loads, between its
inwardly and downwardly sloping shoulder plates. The shoulder plates are lined
with cushioning to buffer coils during loading or travel. The outboard troughs
are mounted above longitudinally extending stringers and are carried at a greater
height relative to top of rail than the central trough. The car has coil stops
to discourage longitudinal shifting of loaded coils. The coil stops have rollers
to facilitate repositioning during loading, and a mid-span step and hand grabs
to facilitate climbing over the coil stop by personnel walking along the trough structure.
