jasonboche
New Member
One thing that has always amazed me is couple strength.
Consider a long string of cars being pulled by a locomotive. The pulling coupler on the locomotive and the couplers on the first couple of cars must have tremendous strength because they are pulling the weight of the entire string of cars. I am very surprised that the couplers put up with the stress and do not break or suffer catastrophic failure (yes, I know that some do once in a while).
Anyone know how coupler strength is rated? What is the theoretical limit to the amount of cars a coupler can actually pull without failing? In one of my rail fan VHS videos, locomotives are pulling a 9,000 foot string of cars. That's almost 2 miles of cars.
Jas
Consider a long string of cars being pulled by a locomotive. The pulling coupler on the locomotive and the couplers on the first couple of cars must have tremendous strength because they are pulling the weight of the entire string of cars. I am very surprised that the couplers put up with the stress and do not break or suffer catastrophic failure (yes, I know that some do once in a while).
Anyone know how coupler strength is rated? What is the theoretical limit to the amount of cars a coupler can actually pull without failing? In one of my rail fan VHS videos, locomotives are pulling a 9,000 foot string of cars. That's almost 2 miles of cars.
Jas