UK Trains

Both are sprung. The coupling has three links, the centre of which is a turnbuckle that can be screwed tight. When this is done the couplings are tightened in tension, and the side buffers in compression. The whole train becomes a single shock absorbing unit.

But that wasn't universal. The LNER used Pullman gangways and buckeye couplers, where the base of the gangway, was effectively the buffer. Bulleid took this to the Southern.

It was also used on BR. But only within rakes of carriages with corridor connextions. The buckeye coupling be hinged out of the way,revealing a regular hook that could be used to couple to non buckeye stock and engines.

Christopher A. Lee wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I understood the first paragraph but everything after that was arabic as far as I am concerned. Thanks for trying though.

LNER is the London & North Eastern Railway, a major UK railway company. Pullman gangways are the UK equivalent of diaphragms, the bellows-like connections between the vestibules of passenger cars. Buckeye couplers are - inexplicably - what knuckle couplers are known as in the UK.

Bulleid is Oliver Bulleid, a man who eventually became the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway, another major UK railway company. His early career was spent in the employ of the LNER.

BR is British Railways, the post-1948 nationalised government railway operator. A rake of carriages - in this context - is a fixed consist of passenger cars. Corridor connections are another name for diaphragms. Not all UK passenger cars had corridors or diaphragms, many had full-width compartment seating accessed by a row of doors along the side of the car.

Incidentally, the OP is not correct when he describes the function of the diaphragm buffers. UK cars fitted with knuckle couplers had draft gear similar to that of US cars, which performed the "shock absorbing" function.

All the best,

Mark.

=>I understood the first paragraph but everything after that was arabic as =>far as I am concerned. Thanks for trying though.

"Buckeye" couplers are what we call knuckle couplers -- regular couplers IOW.

And just to be evil :)) for Goods trains there were three link , five link and instanter couplings (a development of the three link) now if you want complications try braking systems...... with vaccuum, air and no brakes at all on the same train...... oh yes pin down the brakes time.....luvverly which is why a brake van was mandatory on british goods trains, I knew a guard (brakeman) who decided to clean out the iron stove in his brake van by using a fog detonator (so smart.....) which explode cleaning the chimney and setting fire to its roof all at 30mph him being the macho type dived off said train which wended its merry way a further 20 miles before passing a signal box where a lynx eyed signal man noted the fact that the brake van had been replaced by a brake frame and lots of smoke this was apparently back in the 60´s (I was a guard in the late 70´s ..Watford Jct)ah such exciting lives we guards could have...especially on the DC lines into the Big Smoke (London) and no that is not a reference to the Pakistani Guard who placed the metal block for shorting out the DC line by hand and then jumped on it to make sure it stayed put.....750 volts... and he did it three times, them pakistani fellahs are tuff........ but not insulated:) beowulf

So I guess the next question to ask would be: Are knuckle couplers or 'link' couplers more common on UK (and the rest of Europe) freight cars and which way the trend is (toward knuckle or away from it as the future progresses).

Knuckle couplers are almost unknown in the UK and Europe - screw link couplers are almost universal. Exceptions are Russia which now uses the knuckle coupler, and some block freight wagons such as unit coal trains.

There was a move in Europe to adopt the knuckle coupler around 1980, but it faded. Two problems:

- The screw coupler binds the entire train into a single unit, so damage to freight from jarring is minimised.

- The European wagon has it's longtitudinal frame structure at the outer edges above the axlebox springs, rather than as a center spine as in US stock, so fitting knuckle couplers requires fairly major structural alterations. $$$ The European "knuckle coupler" design attempted to eliminate the slack inherent in the US design plus add all lighting and braking connections in one go. The result was a high precision casting that was in itself very expensive, before fitting costs are considered.

Greg.P.