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KNUCKLE OR BUCKEYE COUPLERS ! The American "Knuckle" (or Janney) semi automatic rigid coupler was invented in 1873, with detailed improvements up to 1882. It was also taken by "Mr. Pullman" to Britain in 1888, but it's introduction across Britain was slow, and did not become a "Carriage coupling" standard until after 1948. The British version of this coupling is also slightly smaller than its U.S counterpart. Further in Europe due to the existence of Buffers and "chain" type couplings on most vehicles. Means the British Buckeye, also has to have a mechanism to lower the "Buckeye" out of the way, to reveal a standard coupling hook behind. As the Buckeye was never adopted in mainland Europe.

The first five seconds is when me and my bro meet up on the weekend.

what if you just held the link with another object

Thanks, Bob!

Excellent explanation and those numbers to reveal how safety standards actually benefit everyone!

you’d think you could just hold up the link with like… a hooked piece of wood or something?

In Poland (Europe) we use chain system, which is pretty safe, because you're linking cars when they are stopped. I always wondered how american coupling can works till yesterday, they're interesting as they don't need anyone for them to clutch.

I don't know why nobody ever held up the link with a stick or something, it would be so simple

Rough coupling

I was wondering if some of these Jenny couplers have a heavy buffer spring behind them inside their slack box? A lot of people think American couplers should break in no time with how they jar into each other at very low speeds. I am convinced there is a very heavy spring behind each coupler assembly acting as a shock absorber.

Do they ever hold services here?

"Ay dab me up"

Я понял от силы слов 10, так как не знаю английского языка, но даже по иллюстрациям всё было достаточно понятно. Интересное видео.👍 Спасибо!

0:02

The RR industry in the United States doesn't use the "Janney" design anymore but a better design patterned by Andrew Jackson Beard, who introduced two improvements to his design in 1897 and 1899.

Rip Ear-phone users..

I recall reading that another issue with them was that the slack action could yank air or vacuum break hoses and steam lines apart, hastening their replacement.

Indian railways also use AAR type couplers.

In Europe we still in 2022 don’t have automatic couplers. We use screw couple and buffers..

I have a train yard right next to my neighborhood and everytime they connect they are loud Af

I knew someone who got crushed between those. He had to call his family to say goodbye. After he said his goodbyes they opened it so he could rest.

Besides Janney, the other hero in this story is a man named Coffin. He lobbied tirelessly to get the Janney coupler adopted.

I can't ever watch this again without thinking about that meme.

The modern coupler is truly an intelligent design. Janney was a smart man.

0:02 they don't have to couple up that hard.

In 1925, Japan ( JNR) converted its entire Rolling stock fleet from hook and link system to MCB Janney couplers in one or two days. The USSR also developed an auto coupler which has fixed jaws, and a wedge lock system; it is now standard throughout Europe, although only on Block Trains; most of the older stock is still side buffer with central hook and threaded link. EMUs and DMUs have a German Male/Female coned coupler, which includes electric and air brake lines.

There were many thousands of railroad workers killed in the performance of their jobs. Workers cost nothing, but safety improvements ate into profits. The Janney coupler (developed by a Confederate Veteran) saved many lives. Prior to this, workers were hired who were often missing fingers, as this was considered a measure of experience. The Janney coupler won a competition with several other designs. It took decades AFTER the federal government mandated that railroad use the Westinghouse Air Brake system and the Janney coupler for them to be adopted.

ouch!

Thank you Mr. Andrew jackson Beard.

So basically, the rail company wait decades to made change that are safer for worker and people on train, until such change made compulsory by government? Its like laissez-faire market and lack of government oversight doesn't push for progress. As a plus, i bet the patent must've expired, giving this Janny guy short end of the stick.

Since this video has been posted many of you have made great comments and asked several questions. My apologies for not responding before this - no excuses or reasons other than "life." Regardless, I have asked our experts (not me) at the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum to respond, and you will find their comments after this. I would highly encourage you to look at all our videos on our TH-cam channel at th-cam.com/channels/YGqtAz-gvs4ZoK75G_DCTA.html and comment there. Impact speed: One of the most frequent comments involves the speed of the cars at impact (the opening seconds of the video). This is stock footage we used because we wanted to get people’s attention with a coupling scene right away (I guess we succeeded). We had not thought through the safety aspects, but the viewers’ comments are enlightening. We never noticed the dust flying until it was pointed out. This does raise a question we would like to pose to everyone; does anyone have an idea how long a typical knuckle lasts? We know they break/wear down (the impact speed so many people commented on offers one explanation for it) but we just do not know how often they need replacement. And by the way, this same footage was used on Jeopardy! a while ago (Answer: He invented this coupler; Question: Who was Eli Janney?). Terminology: Several viewers mentioned Buckeye couplers. Our understanding is that the Buckeye coupler was a “Janney style” coupler manufactured to industry specs by a company in - surprise - Ohio. We do not think the company began manufacturing couplers until the late 1880s or early 1890s as the rail industry was moving closer to a more standardized design. McConway & Torley of Pittsburgh secured an exclusive license from Janney for his invention in the late 1870s, well before the Ohio company came into existence. With that, they were the sole producers of “Janney couplers.” They quickly began patenting their own derivations and marketed them as “Janney-style” couplers to avoid patent battles or royalty payment issues with Janney. Unfortunately, a flood in the 1930s wiped out a good portion of the company’s old records but company folklore has it that Janney’s license was for a flat fee of just $300. McConway & Torley still is one of the largest producers of AAR knuckle couplers and the term Janney-style coupler” seems to have become a generic term much the way Coke, Xerox and Kleenex have. And in a sign of the times, the neighborhood around the foundry has gentrified over the years causing some tension. Forged versus cast: Good question and something we have wondered about (one of those considerably basic questions that is pretty important but for which an answer has eluded us so far). We seriously doubt if expensive production methods were used for early pins/links (the drawbars might be a different story). The quality of the iron for some of the links/pins we have in our collection is very poor. One of the later steel versions is much more robust. Never having worked in a foundry it would be kind of neat for someone with production experience to take a look at the ones we have If you are ever in our area! (Seams are visible on some of our pins.) Theft: This apparently was a big problem. We once read that the Pennsylvania RR lost about $50,000 worth of coupler links & pins. A top-of-the-line Baldwin locomotive would have gone for about $17,000 during the same period. So, we are not sure what we read about the Pennsylvania RR loss is accurate. Start and finish dates for the link and pin coupler: As far as we know, the link & pin carried over from wagons and carriages from the beginning of U.S. railroads, so that would be the start date. As one viewer noted, they are still used very selectively in operations that were excluded from compliance requirements in the 1893 Safety Appliance Act. Some railroad had been using a semi-automatic coupler - the Miller hook coupler - for passenger cars many years before the Safety Appliance Act but they were not sufficiently robust to handle the demands of freight cars. The Pennsylvania RR began using Janney couplers on freight and passenger cars well before the 1893 act. McConway & Torley was one of its major suppliers and it was good public relations fodder for the company with its passenger audiences (much the same way that airbags were touted by car companies to potential buyers before they were required by law). I think the lack of standardization was a major obstacle in more widespread use prior to the 1893 act. As far as we can tell, the Washington Division of the Richmond & Danville RR (most of which was the former Orange & Alexandria RR that our station was built to service) used link & pin couplers exclusively. It was not until it was reorganized as Southern Railway in 1893/4 (and Congress passed the Safety Appliance Act) that a retrofit program was implemented for passenger and freight cars along that line (early Southern Railway annual reports include line items for coupler expenses). And from what we understand there are link & pin couplers in use today in Europe but they are far more robust and safer for rail users and workers alike. Competing couplers: There were references by a number of people to alternatives to the link & pin coupler. There were hundreds of patents awarded to new couplers over decades but none of them proved practical. Most were variations on the basic link & pin design and while they might have offered marginal safety improvements for workers, the problem remained that the pins and links were just insufficient in handling heavy loads and could not provide stability for freight cars (especially on the generally poor quality of U.S. roadbeds at the time). Companies just had no incentive to spend the money needed to introduce changes that might produce only marginal benefits. How do you couple a freight car? (answer: very carefully; ha-ha): A number of folks speculated on how to safely connect freight cars using a link & pin. We have been told about brakemen who used rail pullers and other long tools to support the link while using their free hand to drop the pin. However, we have not read anything in rail journals of the period that has shed any light on those possibilities. Standards: We know that couplers were standardized for both the U.S. and Canada but we don’t know when that happened in Canada. Company folks we interviewed emphasized that the biggest advantage of the coupler was standardization (which the 1893 act also set down as a requirement). Additional videos: Thanks for all the suggestions! There is always something to learn. We especially appreciate the air brake suggestion. The fact that to this day they still need to be connected manually is the reason that couplers are still called “semi-automatic” (or so “Trains” magazine tells us). Again, thanks to everyone for their inputs. Keep it coming!

in the mid 1800s, a brakeman's worth was determined by how many fingers were missing!!!

Yeiks

I think the link and pin coupler was not only a hazard for the worker's hand, over time the link could wear out and either break or break the pin.

It just locks and all the worker has to do is connect the air brake pipe

In Austria we use Hook Couplers. So each car has a hock and atleast 1 has a chain that just have to be put onto the hook. This actually leaves room for buffers on the train which I think is a bit safer because even if someone is between the cars to couple them toghether the buffers of the wagons will stop the rolling wagons and leave enough space for the Person to stay safe inbetween.

Although slowly being phased out for automatic couplers, New Zealand still uses hook and pin.

Now if only the guys who filmed Back to the Future 3 knew this piece of trivia.

🚂

I was always told that you could tell who the brakemen were because they were the ones missing fingers.

seems like im gonna need to recouple my fucking eardrums after the intro

On the link and pin, the operator is suppose to use a baton to lift the link up for alignment. We can all figure how many times people in the real world just used their hand to damaging results.

I thought that was The hand grinder

Excellent vid. Clear, straightforward, informative and well composed. Many thanks.

The link & pin system looks brutal... I can't even imagine how many hands have been crushed over the years.

Notice it took a law to make the railroads adopt the automatic couplers.

Early in my railroading career, I used to see the notched knuckles on some old work equipment. Another long gone item are the pole pockets on engines & cars.

Rip headphone users in that beginning. Seems very rough and unnecessary

Isn't that first couple done a little too fast?

I'm pretty sure those old links and pins weren't just cast, they were forged (squished under high heat and pressure to push the atoms closer together) to make them stronger.