Does the NYC Subway cars use standard railroad Couplers ? I now aknowelge that there are diffrent form of rapid transit systems. i.e lightrail/trolley monorail etc, but it’s now obvious that the the NYC Subway is a railroad type and in fact is a mass transit railroad system with railroad type cars/coaches i.e R44, but does not operate under the FRA, and has it’s own right of way, signals, and operate more frequently.
Few, if any, rapid transit operators use standard MCB railroad couplers on their passenger equipment. CTA uses Ohio Brass type 5 couplers, which are a scaled-down version of a tightlock coupler and include automatic MU connections under the coupler. Other operators may use different couplers, most include the MU connection. About the only place where standard couplers would be found on rapid transit equipment would be on some work motors which handle railroad cars delivering various supplies to the main shops.
I know that in Boston, all the rapid transit lines use Tomlinson couplers. The surface lines and trolleys use a smaller size and lower height than the larger rapid transit cars. I’ll see if I’ve got a photo somewhere.
I believe that New York may use its own unique design, but I’m not certain.
I think that most rapid transit and streetcar systems use a coupling that includes all the links for MU controls.
I’m pretty sure that the Toronto subway changed couplings between the first set of cars from the 1950s and the second set in the 1960s. I have an idea that the latest cars have a 3rd incompatible type. (note the progression of uncertainty!)
Just because a transit system has couplers that could couple with AAR stuff does not make it a railroad.
Ohio Brass, Tomlinson, Westinghouse (NYC equipment, a standard type) and Sharfenberg all are different and incompatable couplers. Some railroad mu cars (Metro North, LIRR) use non-MBC couplers as well.
Does handling interchange freight make a rapid transit system a railroad? CTA did and may do still. The New York City Transit Authority owned the South Brooklyn Railroad, with its own reporting marks and equipment, which probably still does some interchange freight busimess off New York and Atlantic and Cross Harbor.
And LIRR steam trains operated over a short section of the 5th Avenue Elevated in Brooklyn around 1905-1910. And LIRR electric trains operated over the Broadway (Brooklyn) elevated and the Williamsburg Bridge into the subway to Chambers Street Station
Northwestern Rapid Transit, Chicago Rapid Transit and later CTA handled carload freight on the North Side Main on behalf of the Milwaukee Road under a car-handling contract with MILW. This was the outgrowth of the lease of the North Side Main from MILW which allowed MILW to discontinue the suburban trains on that line and spared Northwestern Rapid Transit the expense of having to purchase a right-of-way for its line north of Buena Ave.