European Railroad Discussion > European Train Bumpers Vs American Non Train Bumpers

i don't know what the technical term for these apparatuses are but at Amtrak we called them bumpers ... Amtrak as well as other American RRs purchased MW work equipment from Plasser Corp a European Co based out of Austria that uses mainly European designs ... their equipement has European style bumpers at coupler height on either side of the coupler just as do ALL European trains whether freight or passenger ... from watching movies i noticed this design was applied in the steam era ... soooooooo

my questions are ...

where did the bumper design come from ???

what are they designed to do ???

why only European trains ???

thankX

Posted from Android

Do you mean buffers as in the picture of 60085?

Buffers are like a horizontal shock absorber, modern ones are pneumatic. They work with a screw coupling, which you can see in the centre of the locomotive. Properly applied a screw coupling with buffers just touching helps eliminate slack when starting a train. Knuckle and automatic couplers have eliminated their use in some parts of the world and on some types of trains but for many Western European freight operations, which are generally light and relatively fast they are still used.

Buffers are not only used in Western Europe but elsewhere as well - India for instance and in parts of South America too.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/15 01:10 by 86235.

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Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i don't know what the technical term for these
> apparatuses are but at Amtrak we called them
> bumpers ... Amtrak as well as other American RRs
> purchased MW work equipment from Plasser Corp a
> European Co based out of Austria that uses mainly
> European designs ... their equipement has European
> style bumpers at coupler height on either side of
> the coupler just as do ALL European trains whether
> freight or passenger ... from watching movies i
> noticed this design was applied in the steam era
> ... soooooooo

The technical term in English is "Buffer"
>
> my questions are ...
>
> where did the bumper design come from ???
>
> what are they designed to do ???

They transmit the Buffing force to the frame or body of the adjacent vehicle, either locomotive or other rolling stock. Buffing forces are compressing forces, as opposed to pulling force which is applied to the turnbuckle like link assembly between the Buffers.

>
> why only European trains ???

You will find buffers on railroads that use link type couplers because the link type couplers have no way to transmit buffing forces, unlike North American Knuckle couplers or Russian Willison couplers.
>
> thankX
>
> Posted from Android

Some of the newer high speed trains in Great Britain use a tight lock type of coupler.