Freight Car Couplers

[CSXfoamer1997]

I was told by a friend who works for CSX that couplers are designed to snap in order to prevent further damage to the car. Coupler breaking commonly occurs when the loco pulls too hard or when climbing a steep hill and the cars are too heavy.

However, had couplers not been designed to snap, what sort of damage could be done to the car (which could be life-claiming), and what exactly would cause the damage?

 

[cirdan]

Just guess here, but a car derailing on a high trestle and then falling off should not drag the rest of the train down with it.

Also, every system has to break somewhere. So suppose the coupler was not the weakest point. That would imply the weakest point was somewhere else. Maybe the frames of the car. That would mean that in an extreme situation the couplers would hold but the frames would break. The content of cars would spill out (which especially in the case of oil or chemicals could be very nasty). I think its safer if the couplers break before anything else does.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I was told by a friend who works for CSX that couplers are designed to snap in order to prevent further damage to the car. Coupler breaking commonly occurs when the loco pulls too hard or when climbing a steep hill and the cars are too heavy. However, had couplers not been designed to snap, what sort of damage could be done to the car (which could be life-claiming), and what exactly would cause the damage?

What did your friend who works for CSX have to say about it when you asked him?

 

[CSXfoamer1997]

I was told by a friend who works for CSX that couplers are designed to snap in order to prevent further damage to the car. Coupler breaking commonly occurs when the loco pulls too hard or when climbing a steep hill and the cars are too heavy. However, had couplers not been designed to snap, what sort of damage could be done to the car (which could be life-claiming), and what exactly would cause the damage?

What did your friend who works for CSX have to say about it when you asked him?

All he said was... They are designed to break. It helps prevent further damage to the car.

 

[lo2e]

One other thought on this, but this is honestly a bit of a stab in the dark.

Say a very long freight train is going along and there's a failure of some kind in one of the cars near the rear. The coupler stays in tact, meaning the air lines and other connections stay in tact. How long before the engineer finds out something bad has happened?

 

[CSXfoamer1997]

Well, to answer your question, lo2e, it'd take a while for the engineer or conductor to know, and for that matter, it depends on how bad the situation is.

 

[CCC1007]

Might be the next roll by inspection that finds it.

 

[Acela150]

One other thought on this, but this is honestly a bit of a stab in the dark.

Say a very long freight train is going along and there's a failure of some kind in one of the cars near the rear. The coupler stays in tact, meaning the air lines and other connections stay in tact. How long before the engineer finds out something bad has happened?

Define failure please.. Cause if the knuckle isn't broke, and brake line is in tact.. It's just a normal run.. When something happens the conductor gets to walk the train to find the issue, and try to fix it.

Well, to answer your question, lo2e, it'd take a while for the engineer or conductor to know, and for that matter, it depends on how bad the situation is.

Don't answer questions you don't know the answer to.

To answer the original question.. It's not the coupler that snaps. It's the knuckle. Spare knuckles are carried on the "B" end of the locomotive. I have seen an entire draw bar pulled out.

If the knuckles didn't break you'd have a derailment.