Does anyone know around what time your standard 4-4-0 American was outfitted with a front coupler? Most of the pictures and models I’ve found show them with just a large pilot. Along that line, I was wondering if they were ever used as a combination road/switch engine, or if there would have been dedicated switchers before the 1900s. Below is one of the pictures I found that indicates they did have front couplers at times, but I’m still not sure of the time frame. Thanks for any help you can give me.
They all had front couplers. The ones you think don’t have couplers had link and pin couplers that had a long bar that laid on top of the pilot so it wasn’t obvious.
I recall seeing a photo of an American Standard 4-4-0 fitted with an early Janney coupler. There was a long, square extension that didn’t quite reach the tip of the cowcatcher pilot, with the coupler in it. There was also a single connection between the coupler rig and the tip of the pilot, but no idea of which was supporting which.
4-4-0s which spent their time switching in urban environments frequently had footboards, which allowed a normal coupler mounting at the pilot beam.
Ahh, thank you. I didn’t notice the long link and pin coupler before, now I see them. Thanks for the bit of info about the foot boards, too. I was wondering about them as well, since I was thinking of replacing the pilot with running boards and a coupler like you see with a lot of logging/shay locomotives.
One thing to keep in mind is that the need for long “cowcatchers” that would actually sweep large animals to the side was decreasing around the time that the Janney coupler was adopted. Even though Janney patented his coupler in 1873, it was twenty years later before the Safety Appliance Act was passed, and it wasn’t completely implemented until 1900. Locomotives could be rebuilt with shorter pilots to accomodate a knuckle coupler, since more of the right-of-way was fenced, not to mention less free range cattle and large herds of buffalo to deal with. Here are some links to pictures of 4-4-0 locomotives with knuckle couplers, all Frisco engines:
The last locomotive, #140, was built in 1888, but is shown in 1945 with footboards being used as a switcher by the St. Louis Material and Sand Company. I don’t know if it was built with Link & Pin or knuckle couplers as original equipment; in that vintage it is very likely that it came w/ “Lincoln Pins”.
