Railway car hitch for a trailer

Claim 1

A hitch mechanism for attachment to a freight car to selectively secure a locking element of a trailer to said freight car comprising: (a) a main member; (b) a fixed jaw member secured to said main member; (c) a movable jaw member movably secured to said main member and spaced from said fixed jaw member to provide an opening therebetween to receive said locking element of said trailer when it is lowered into position; (d) a manually movable lever arm pivotally connected at one end to said main member and disposed to be manually actuated at its other end and having a working portion intermediate said ends; (e) a link element pivotally connected between said working portion of said lever arm intermediate said ends and said movable jaw member; (f) said manually movable lever member pivoted on said main member being disposed to selectively drive said link element to move said movable jaw member to a closed position towards said fixed jaw member and to an open position away from said fixed jaw member to secure and release said locking element of said trailer; (g) a manually movable latch mechanism pivotally mounted to said main member to automatically lock said lever member in said closed position and which manual operation of said latch mechanism is required to permit said lever member to be unlocked, (h) said latch mechanism inlcuding a pivotable latch arm attached to said main member, said latch arm including a recess and an angular portion at one end thereof, and spring means normally biasing said latch arm in a direction to receive said lever member in said recess; and (i) means providing an opening between said fixed and movable jaw members to receive and secure the locking element of said trailer when said hitch mechanism is closed.