Riding on the first car behind EBT 15’s tender.
Note the minimal coupler interface.
Two totally different coupler types! And they are riding for a separation! With some real problems! One or the other needs to be replaced, preferably the one on the Tender if it is the little one.
Paul
3/4 coupler coupled to a full sized coupler. I’m with Paul, that’s asking for trouble!
That looks as though there’s a bit of sloppy engineering practise . A need for safety chains ?
Is the uncoupler on the left hidden under the metalwork? Or do they just wait for it to uncouple itself ?
Mike
Wow.
Great pic, though.
Ray Dunakin said:
Wow.
Great pic, though.
I agree!
didn’t the EBT have aluminum coupler adaptors for just this purpose? go around a sharp curve or some slack action is asking for a separation.
Al P.
Two more views
stopped
underway
Mike, that is not engineering it is call MAINTENANCE! Some supervisor was not watching the crew and the inspector did not do his job!
Paul
Yea, it looks like the pin, or the coupler, is worn and so its opens a bit under load.
Just for the record, they are both 3/4 size couplers. I think David has correctly described what we are seeing.
The Aluminum Adapter that was mentioned was used to adapt the 3/4 coupler on a NG engine to a SG car riding on NG trucks, then back again to the 3/4 coupler after the SG car. SG cars always ran first in a train.
There is a gap between the knuckle and the rest of the coupler on the lower coupler under tension.
Could this be caused by a worn pivot pin or worn hole in the moving part?
It’s pretty clear in the pictures.
Greg
Most likely wear on the knuckle part, unless the pin is partly sheared (just kidding).
Yes, you would think the pin was made of “tougher” metal than the cast parts.
Oops, I see that Dave mentioned this earlier.
Pretty scary looking.
Greg
Actually a closed knuckle will stay closed if the knuckle pin is removed. I think what you might be referring to is the called the “lock” which holds the knuckle closed, until the lock is pulled via the pin lifter… Confused yet?
Craig,
A picture/drawing is worth a thousand words.
I was talking about the pin that is the pivot point for the knuckle and the jaw.
In this diagram, it is indeed called a pivot pin.
Pivot pin= knuckle pin in in the terms of a train service employee. And just the knuckle will stay closed if the pivot pin/knuckle pin is gone. All the knuckle pin is holds the knuckle from falling out when you open the knuckle up. I’ll round a up AAR drawing from a Car Builders Cyclopedia and point out the different parts.
Here’s a detailed drawing of the different parts that make up the coupler.
And here’s how it opens. Notice that the knuckle pin simple allows the knuckle to stay in place.
This info is from the 1931 Car Builder Cyclopedia, when the than new Type E coupler was standardized.
I guess I should explain now that we have pictures. When the lock is worn, it causes the knuckle to rotate open, much like the picture that started this thread. When you replace the knuckle if you are not careful the lock will come out along with the knuckle… Putting the lock back in place requires a bit more effort to get everything working right. Even if you just pull the knuckle out and the lock doesn’t move putting the knuckle back in requires lifting the pin lifter (or the lock) to seat correctly. On long drawbar cars where the pin lifter is quite long, some fancy moves are required to stretch from the end of the pin lift to the where the knuckle sits. My instructor teased us by saying that your boot lace works really good to hold up the pin lifter.
If you look closely at the Fig 2539 in the above picture you can see how the lock interacts with the tail of the knuckle. This is the part that is most likely worn on the EBT 3/4 size coupler.
Does this explain how the coupler works Greg and why the knuckle pin doesn’t really effect the operation of the coupler?