Are there any verifications of a locomotive (steam or diesel) ripping a coupler out of a rail car? I’m sure there must be an incident of this happening somewhere, as this is the weakest link in a train, any photos or information would be of interest. thanks
Broken coupler knuckles and pulled out coupler draft gear are much too common to be remarkable.
Broken knuckles and couplers are a common occurence…About a week ago, I was railfanning out around Cresson, Pa when I heard chatter on the scanner regarding an Eastbound coal train that had separated at the top of the grade near Gallitzin, Pa. I drove up to Gallitzin and via a road that parallels the trackage, saw the train where it had separated. Maintenance of Way personnel were doing repairs to the affected car. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown
Nothing rare about coupler or drawgear failure, more interesting when they tear a freight car apart.
Drawbar failures were so common in the steam era when you’d have to pull out the bunched up slack to get a train started we had a nickname for them - “pulling a lung”.
Mark
The knuckle is supposed to be the weakest link, since it’s the easiest to repair. Trains carry spare knuckle so they can be replace on line of road if need be. The draft gear is supposed to fail before the center sill so that it’ll rip out before you break a car in half.
However, it doesn’t always work out that way…
maintenance of way personnel were doing repairs ? I didnt know that they had the tools or the know how to repair cars. most of them cant even do the job they was hired for . If the car department would find out they would time slip them for sure.
I pulled a coupler out of a coal car on a 70 car coal train in “O” gauge. I was pulling with a single unit and hit a short dead spot at a switch and the little jerk pulled the screws holding the caddy coupler right out from a model hopper damaging it. Looked pretty real.
Coupler failures are not just a hi-horsepower phenomenon. The archaeologists have found broken pins and links at the Golden Spike NHS. It must have been terrifying to break a pin on a grade in pre-air brake days.
dd
I hope you had a camera handy before you repaired it.
I hope he disqualified the little jerk. [}:)]