International Railroad Discussion > European chain couplers

Just curious, are all the rail cars and locos we see with buffers and link couplers coupled by hand? Seems incredible that they would use the equivalent of the link pin coupler outlawed in the US almost 150 years ago?
George Andrassy

I also posted this to you thread on Nostalgia Board. This thread covers your question which has been asked previously here on TO several times.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3342108,3342179#msg-3342179

Although some countries like Germany and Switzerland still do loose car freight many trains are small unit trains that never have to be broke up. Also when shunting (switching) in the marshalling yard in Hamburg we noticed that the shunters had a special coupler device that must speed up the coupling process. See picture nine on this thread.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,4060174,4060174#msg-4060174

Another issue is cars going inbetween multiple countries.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/17 08:47 by tq-07fan.

Widow maker.

The problem in Europe is the sheer number of countries involved, plus the fact that at the time all the railways were government controlled and subsidized. In the early '80s there was an agreement to convert all freight wagons to an autocoupler similar to the one used in North America. At nearly the last minute SNCF backed out and the agreement collapsed. Rail freight in France has been falling steadily since the '50s and continues to today, and they couldn't afford their share of the cost. Some unit trains do use autocouplers, and some of them also include include the air lines also.

You can go to you tube and search for "Extreme hitch wagons" and see whow the couple the cars.  I showed this to a railroader friend and couldn't believe it.  I guess they never hear of "three step protection."  It's sure not a job I would want to do.

John

wa4umr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You can go to you tube and search for "Extreme
> hitch wagons" and see whow the couple the cars.
>  I showed this to a railroader friend and
> couldn't believe it.  I guess they never hear of
> "three step protection."  It's sure not a job I
> would want to do.

Do you seriously think this is normal? That idiot is obviously not representative of normal safe working - nothing moves while anybody is near the couplers for starters.

on the 42 inch railways in australia the switchman would be able to couple the screw coupled cars by leaning his left or right side against the buffer  stem then grasp the coupling chain and swing it on to the draw hook  because there was not enough room to stand between the cars