Talk:Coupling (railway)

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Contents 1 Allison Willison 2 Which railways use Janney couplers? 3 Duplicated content 4 Redirection 5 Article melding 6 What about three-link couplers? 7 different types in the UK 8 Advantages of Soviet SA3 over AAR Janney? 9 BSI coupling 10 New Coupler design 11 Arrow Drop Coupler 12 GA Re-Review and In-line citations

[edit] Allison Willison

Allison? What's that?

It is called the JANNEY coupling, after its inventor, Eli Janney. I might add that I couldn't find any reference to "Allison" couplings on the 'Net.

Anyway, I am going to try to merge this article with the "Coupler" article, and try to make it all make sense.

...I have now done that.

Maybe Allison is a mishearing of the Russian SA3 Willison ... Tabletop 09:54, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Which railways use Janney couplers?

A more complete list of railways that use Janney couplers would be nice!

Tabletop 05:08, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

• Actually, Tabletop, I'm not sure you're right about China's use of Janney couplings. I've spent a bit of time there, and I was sure that Chinese couplings more closely resembled the Russian ones. The old Metro-Cammell trains once used by the KCR in Hong Kong had knuckle couplings that rather resembled Janneys. -------Kelisi

Photos of the ends of trains are often small and dark, making it hard to tell what kind of couplers are in use. Tabletop 09:55, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Duplicated content

Substantially the same content is now duplicated at Coupling (railway) and Coupler. We should standardise on one and make the other a redirect or disambiguation page. The accurate content at Coupler predates Coupling (railway), so that might be an argument in one direction. The word 'coupler' is more common in US English, while 'coupling' is more common in British English (probably because a European railway coupling is not a single device, but rather the combination of hook and chain for draft forces and buffers for buff force). —Morven 07:24, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Redirection

The "Coupling (railway)" article is more complete and should be retained over the "Coupler" article.

Things can be renamed and redirected if you like.

Tabletop 07:45, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The problem I have with that is that it is only more complete after having copied the content of the Coupler article. —Morven 18:18, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Article melding

As mentioned further up, I am responsible for the melding of the two articles.

While it is true that the Coupling article is more complete now owing to copying from the Coupler article, there were a few things, most of which have been retained, in the former which made it more complete in its own way. The Coupler article focused mainly on the development of railway couplings in North America (specifically in the USA), and although it mentioned the buffers and chain and Scharfenberg couplings used elsewhere, the Coupling article mentioned other systems, such as the meatchopper and Russian system.

I believe that the two articles have now been melded in a more or less coherent way, and I'm all for keeping it as it stands now, other than pertinent additions that other editors might choose to make.

And yes, a "Coupler" search should redirect the searcher to "Coupling". The only problem is that the "coupler" article does mention another use for this word, and I can personally think of two or three other usages. So, perhaps a search of "coupler" should lead to a disambiguation page from which there should be a link to "Coupling (railway)".

Kelisi 2005/1/26

[edit] What about three-link couplers?

Section heading but no further comments were added by anon editor at 213.78.107.245

Good question. First off, do you have a definition or another reference that discusses them? I haven't heard of this kind before. slambo 20:18, July 12, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] different types in the UK

I admit I don't know a lot about different coupling types, but I do know there are at least three used in the UK, Dellner, BSI, Scarfenburg, Hook and Chain, tightlock etc. Some of these might the same but with different names.

Dellner	Scharfenburg	Hook and chain	BSI
Buckeye/knuckle/Janey (this name is not apparently used in the UK)	Drophead buckeye	Tightlock	Wedgelock - This might be proprietry to London Underground?

Except it seems more complicated than this! It really ought to be covered in the article (or even a sub-article!) if anyone understands it better than me. Is there a difference between Dellner and Scharfenburg other than manufacturer? Thryduulf 11:53, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I would say that this article is too heavily biased towards the US types (I have only ever heard Janey coupling called "Buckeye" in the UK). First move to improve thinks might be a list of types with a photo and a brief description. Perhaps a separate article for each major type could be justified. Also to be noted is the number of variations.

As for types, add - "Ward Coupling", used on the London Underground; "ABC" and "Grondana" (spelling might be wrong), both used on narrow gauge lines in Africa and/or India. AHEMSLTD 12:54, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I've found some better photos for some of the types above, and a good article on how some types - but nothing on how the BSI coupler works. I'll ask on a mailing list I'm on. Thryduulf 15:51, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Advantages of Soviet SA3 over AAR Janney?

Soviet railways borrowed quite a lot of ideas from the AAR manuals, automatic couplers not being one of them. Presumably they thought that they could do better, with 100 years of experience to play with, especially as there was no need to be compatible for convenient interrunning.

What are the advantages of the SA3 over the Janney?

Tabletop 10:12, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

I think the main advantage is that the SA3 is a single unit with no moving parts required to actually couple up, the only drawback is that the necessary locks are contained within the body of the coupler and are hence somewhat inaccessable. SA3 couplers do not require being bashed together to connect either, and as far as I know they can be uncoupled under load. To allow for the necessary slack the couplers must have dampers inside the body of the rail vehicle.

Robbie aka Zoqaeski 12:08, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

How would the maximum tonneage of the SA3 compare to the Janney?

I don't know - I think the main reason that the knuckle coupler is stated to have a larger maximum tonneage is simply because the trains which have SA3 couplers are nowhere near the length and weight of those which use knuckle couplers. Russian rollingstock might be the same size as their North American equivalents, but I don't think Russian freight trains are, on average, over 1.6 - 2 km long, like most American ones.--Robbie aka Zoqaeski 12:28, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] BSI coupling

Having just seen the picture of the BSI coupling in the section on UK couplings above, can anyone explain how it works?--Robbie aka Zoqaeski 12:33, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

I've found some better photos for some of the types above, and a good article on how some types - but nothing on how the BSI coupler works. I'll ask on a mailing list I'm on. Thryduulf 15:51, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Coupler design

Unknown Coupler seen on Swiss EMU

Does anyone know anything about this design of coupler? It's fitted to the FLIRT series of EMUs built by Stadler. If anyone can find sufficient information about it, perhaps a section on fully automatic couplings should be added (differing from plain automatic couplings in that all the connections are made without human intervention.

I'll make a start and add some information on the Scharfenberg coupler.

The coupler on the photo looks to me like a "Schwab Verkehrstechnik Frontkupplung". -- 145.253.237.114 15:58, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Arrow Drop Coupler

Does anybody have information about this type? BenBurch 15:22, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GA Re-Review and In-line citations

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