WorldRailFans

Side buffers and central couplers

To use side buffers and central couplers seems to be common in several countries.

In UK they probaly use an baby version of the AAR-coupler that is not compatible with the "normal" AAR. True? When coupling up to a "normal" waggon the central coupler is folded down.

In Finland the SA3-coupler is very common i e all lokomotives and many waggons are fitted.A SA3-link is to be used when coupling to a "normal" waggon.

In Sweden most MTAB- lokomotives have SA3 and side buffers.By MTAB one also can see SA3- and Willison-couplers working together.

In Germany the Z-AK recently has been intruduced as "the sulution" on all coupler problem!Can Z-AK be coupled to a waggon with side buffers and with couplers of type SA3,Willison or Unicoupler?

In Egypt central couplers also are used in combination with side buffers.What type of coupler do they use?I have heard that in Egypt the side buffers can be folded up when not needed.Is that true?

In Iran they probably use SA3-coupler (Willison is also possible as it is compatible with SA3) in combination with side buffers.Is there any waggons with screw-couplers still in use?

In India they also have side buffers and central-couplers.Type?Height?Height and distance between buffers?

Have Pakistan the same system as India?

In Austria Unicoupler is in use with some automobile-trains.Do they have a link simmilar to the SA3-link when coupling to other waggons?

In South Africa I sew side buffers and central-couplers in passinger trains more than 30 years ago.Do they still use side buffers there?

In Great Briatin, to the best of my knowledge (Nick Lawford may confirm/deny this), the only vehicles that have dual couplers are the classes 33 and 73 locomotives, some multiple units and passenger carriages. I have never heard of freight wagons with drop couplers, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Even though most (?) passenger carriages have buffers, they retract so that they do not come in to contact with those on the next vehicle, and the buckeye (i.e. knuckle) couplers are used. Whether they are AAR compatible (which I doubt) is rather academic anyway as they are hardly likely to come in contact with an American vehicle, apart from which, the US loading gauge is much larger than ours. In the block freight trains (such as the Yeoman and ARC stone trains), they use knuckle couplers within the train (with no buffers) and have buffers and screw-link couplers on the ends for coupling to the locos


I'm not sure what happened when the "Flying Scotsman" toured the US. Most of the photos I have seen (which aren't many) show her pulling her own train, but I have also seen photos with a US diesel on the front (on the Western Pacific).

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John Oxlade (webmaster)

The class 59/2 locomotives formerly owned by National Power were fitted with drop-head buckeye couplings, as were the outer wagons in the sets of the National power owned wagons. Also the new wagons being built for EWS are fitted with a combined hook and buckeye coupler, on which the buckeye coupling is swung sideways to allow the use of the hook when necessary.

Iain is correct - new EWS wagons are fitted with centre couplers.

Also, iron ore hoppers leased to / owned by what was / is British Steel Corporation on the Port Talbot / Margam flows , and possibly on the old Tyne Dock / Consett flow , were also centre coupled without side buffers allowing the whole wagon to be inverted by rotation about those couplings at the discharge point without actually uncoupling them. The Yeoman wagons - at least the earlier batches - are second hand off these flows _ think Yeoman does not invert them anywhere but I stand to be corrected on that point.

On locos 33/1 , all 73, [and of course all 74s] were ''buckeye'' centre coupled as well all loco hauled Mk.1 2 3 4 corridor passenger coaches [although not all Mk.1 non-gangwayed were, also some EPB types middles cars were not.]

Class 90 and 91 are also buckeye fitted.

Bengt,

In New South Wales Australia, most early diesel locomotives used buffing plates instead of side buffers (I believe to prevent buffer lock with passenger coaches). Side buffers or buffing plates were provided on all locomotives up until the late 1970s.

China is another country using exclusively automatic couplers in their railway system. According to my observation the Chinese couplers are very much like the American AAR type with a nuckle, but I'm not sure if these two are of the same design or compatible.


I think the Japanese also use automatic couplers, but I'm not sure on that.

China has a very extensive use of automatic couplers indeed, but I have seen photographs of special trains with both buffers and automatic couplers, but it's a mystery how they couple! Then in the early days of the Kowloon Canton Railway in Hong Kong, they use both buffers and auto couplers at the same time, but how can you couple when the buffers are not folded? So later the buffers were removed at an unknown period of time.
Talking about couplers,there is a type widely used by industrial and narrow gauge railway locos. It looks like a huge lump of iron, with three to five horizontal and rectangular, long holes. How do they actually couple them together? And are there any special coupling ways for trams?
Answering the question of Mr. Mandoki, the Japanese trains do use automatic couplers, but in the pioneering age of the late 19th century to the 1920s, they used hook couplers, and varied types of auto couplers, and they were eventually standardised. This really takes a very long time!

What you describe, Ernest, sounds like a link-and-pin coupler. On locomotives, multiple holes accommodate different heights of car couplers. For coupling cars of different heights, offset links were made. See http://www.gn15.info/index.php?c=qanda&question=17 for some pictures of prototypes and models.

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e-mail: lionelsoni at aol dot com

Until the early 1930s, the Japanese Railways used buffers and screw couplings, and also the vacuum brake. The couplings were changed, according to at least one book, in one day, to the buckeye by ensuring that the new couplers were stored on the vehicle a few days earlier. At about the same time air brakes were introduced, but I have seen only one or two photos of dual fitted locos so I reckon that was also done remarkably quickly. Anyone got the details?

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David Manders

In China european rolling stock with screw-couplers and side buffers were in use. Later Janney-couplers were introduced at the coupler height of aprox 1040 mm abowe rail. Later used american freight cars were imported with american height of the couplers. At last the japaneese made the things right and the american coupler height(=the japaneese height to?)were the norm.


In Organ of 1914 I found the writings about a patent that must be what was later named Willison-coupler.

In 1916 someone recived en american patent for the Willison-coupler.

ORGAN für die FORTSCHRITTE DES EISENBAHNWESENS

4. Heft. 1914 15. Februar.

Starre Eisenbahnkuppelung.

D.R.P. 264662. Knorr – Bremse A. –G. in Berlin – Lichtenberg

Die Erfindung bezieht sich auf starre Eisenbahnkuppelungen, bei denen das Kuppeln durch Einschieben und Verriegeln hakenartig in einander greifender Passflächen erfolgt. Die Verriegelung erfolgt durch senkrecht verschiebbare Fallstücke, die an den einander zugekehrten Seiten ausgeschnitten sind, so das sie sich in der Riegelstellung gegenseitig teilweise überblatten. Ferner sind ihre Stirnflächen derart abgeschrägt, dass sie die Fortsetzungen der beiderseits angrenzenden Passflächen bilden. Um eine unbeabsichtigte Rückwärtsverlagerung der Fallstücke zu verhindern, sind ihre einander übergreifenden Teile zweckmässig auch noch in der Weise abgeschrägt oder schwalbenschwanzförmig gestaltet, dass sich die Fallstücke nach Art eines Hakenblattes gegenseitig überkämmen.

At one time, Indian Railways were exclusively hook and link with side buffers.

Nowadays IR exclusively uses CBC without buffers for goods wagons. A typical mineral carying wagon can be seen at


http://www.irfca.org/photos/Wagons/BOXNHS_ngp


Passenger coaches still use hook and link couplers with side buffers.


Most locomotives can handle either CBC or passenger stock. A typical locomotive coupling can be seen at http://www.irfca.org/photos/Diesel/vatva_wdm2c_18619r


The interesting thing is that the link is on the engine side and is actually attached to the knuckle.

Some Queensland locos still have buffers, but use the central knuckle coupler. Later build locos do not have the buffers.

CBC, does it stand for "Central Buffer Coupling"?

To me it looks that Willison/SA3-couplers are in use in India.Is it so?

Under the indian cars there is three-piece bogies of american design. Are they cast in India?

If so, the name and adress for the maker?

In Australia, I supose "central knuckle coupler" = AAR-coupler? Right?

David, according to Guinness, 3rd Edition, 1979, JNR completed the change to automatic couplers in 24 hours, on July 17, 1925, after 8 years of planning.


Hirota also mentions the feat, noting that it involved 4000 locomotives, 10 000 passenger cars and 60 000 freight cars.


At that time, JNR used air brakes for freight cars, but vacuum brakes for passenger cars. Passenger locomotives of the period were dual-fitted. For example, the EE-built EF50 class 1.5. kV DC electric locos of the mid-1920s had both a 14EL air brake system and a vacuum brake system, as far as I know with a separate train brake valve and with a proportional valve to operate the locomotive straight air brakes. I don’t know when the JNR passenger stock was converted to air braking.


JNR seems to have adopted the 14EL schedule as a standard for locomotive brakes fairly early on, and new locomotives were equipped with it (or derivatives) at least until the mid-1960s. As 14EL was really outmoded by the early 1950s, I imagine that various updates and new features were added to suit JNR requirements without any change of basic designation.


Roger, the Australian and New Zealand Cape gauge roads presented an interesting mix of coupler and brake combinations.


New Zealand (NZR) basically used ABC couplers and air brakes, with automatic couplers used on some passenger stock since the 1930s I think, and more recently on some freight stock. I must admit that I don’t know what the current situation is. NZR was the first railway outside of North America to adopt the schedule 26L locomotive air braking system, in 1961. There was an interesting evolutionary pathway in that NZR had adopted the Australian A6ET/A7EL schedule as standard for main line locomotives around 1938. However, its very much off-the-peg GM G12 fleet of 1955 had 6SL, presumably simply because these were the standard fitment. 26L would have been an option for the 1961 G12 order, and evidently NZR saw the benefits despite the higher cost.


I’m not sure when Queensland Railways (QR) started the change from buffers to automatic couplers, but I think it may have been in the mid-to-late1960s. An operating manual I have covering the 1270, 1300 and 1620 class diesel locomotives shows the 1270 (introduced 1964) with buffers only, but the other two classes (introduced in 1967) with buffers and automatic couplers. QR was an early user of the air brake. I suspect that the combination of buffers and air brakes may have been unusual in the CMT gauge world, at least post the JNR coupler conversion. Australian railways generally were late adopters of the 26L locomotive air brake system. Perhaps because Westinghouse Australasia had a near-monopoly of the market, the A7EL and B7EL systems were used until the late 1960s. The QR 1320 and 2100 classes were I think its first fitted with the 26L system.


Western Australia (WAGR) used ABC couplers and vacuum brakes on its Cape gauge system. Air brakes and automatic couplers had been introduced at least by 1968, when the R class locomotives were introduced. These were dual-braked, using the reputedly very excellent Davies & Metcalf system. Presumably transition head couplers were used to facilitate interworking between automatic and ABC coupler equipped stock.


One source also reports that WAGR operated mixed braking system trains by interposing a brake converter wagon between the vacuum and air braked portions. The converter wagon incorporated diesel engine-driven air compressor and vacuum exhauster, and could convert either way with full retention of safety/emergency features. Although the core of such a unit would use familiar proportional valves, some complexity would be involved to prevent bootstrapping. One imagines that it would be necessary to use the pneumatic equivalent of a telephone hybrid. (British Rail and South African Railways also used brake conversion equipment. At least Southern Pacific in the USA and, I think, Commonwealth Railways in Australia used “repeater air cars” (SP terminology) with diesel engine driven air compressors to boost rear-end air brake performance in long trains.


Tasmania (TGR) used the very British combination of buffers and vacuum brakes. Automatic couplers were introduced at least by 1972, as the Z class locomotives were fitted with these as well as buffers. Air braking was not used until the 1980s, when the railway was part of ANR.


Commonwealth Railways Cape gauge basically used ABC couplers and air brakes, although I think that the Northern Australian Railway at one time had vacuum braked stock. At least one source reported that some of the NSU class diesel locomotives were fitted with vacuum brakes (in addition to A7EL air) for NAR operations. By 1965, it must have changed, though, as the NT class locomotives had automatic couplers and air train brakes.


South Australian railways Cape gauge and Silverton Tramway were both air braked, but I’m not sure about their respective coupler histories. Emu Bay Railway was vacuum braked and used buffers, although with automatic couplers coming in sometime after dieselization.


Evidently not much used “down under” was the bell coupler, which was I think quite common in Africa at one time.


Cheers,


Steve P.

Steve. Thanks for that info. Where else but WRF can you be virtually certain to find out what you want to know, however obscure?

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David Manders

All I can say is: <IMG Src="/GardenRailway/Images/Smiley.gif">

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John Oxlade (webmaster)

Re "buffers" (haven´t checked the whole thread here...):


Also note that even the larger US lines used buffers a bit - a central type of thing on passenger cars, to relieve the slack in standard MCB couplers, placed above the couplers. This actually began as long back as the 1860s, combined with the then "Miller Hook Coupler". When "tightlock" MCB couplers came into use, this was discontinued altogether, I believe. /kurt

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/ kurt

"Bell coupler"? = Hook & buffer coupler with its opening upwards? Or...?

CBC does indeed stand for Center Buffer Coupler) in Indian Railways terminology. The Indian Railways FAQ on our fan web site has some more useful information about couplings:


<a href="http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-stock.html#coupler">IR FAQ</a>

Kurt, I've never seen a diagram of a bell coupler, so I can't be 100% sure of its nature. Those shown on early pictures of SAR 1E class locos look like a central flared buffer, circular in section, with a bell mouth. Out of the mouth there is usually visible a hook with an eye. Presumably there is a vertical pin just behind the buffer mouth.


Later versions, as shown on pictures of the Nigerian Railways 1000 class diesel locomotives and "River" class steam locomotives look somewhat like the wide, rectangular face version of the ABC coupler, but with a wider notch opening in which the hook resides. I think that Ghana Railways might also have used the bell coupler.


I can't trace it now, but somewhere I'be seen a references to the fact that automatic couplers can be built that mate with bell couplers as well as their own kind. I think that such varieties have horizontally-split knuckles.


Cheers,


Steve P.