Buffers and chain coupler

Three-link coupling on an antique tank wagon. There is no hook at the end of the chain, nor is there a turnbuckle.

A peculiarly British practice was the "loose-coupled" freight train, operated by the locomotive crew and a "guard" at the rear of the train, the successor to the brakesman of earlier times. That train type used three-link chain couplings for traction and side buffers to accept pushing forces but, since such trains were not fitted with an automatic through-train braking system, there were no pipes to connect between the vehicles. The last vehicle of the train was a heavily ballasted guard's van with its brakes controllable by a handwheel operated by the guard. The slack between vehicles was very convenient when starting heavy trains with a relatively low-powered locomotive on the level or on a rising gradient.

On the driver's command the guard would apply his brake as hard as possible. The driver would then gently reverse to close up the wagons onto their buffers. Then the locomotive was driven ahead, picking up the load wagon by wagon, thus giving an easy start up the gradient. Wagons of that era didn't have roller bearings and the grease-lubricated plain bearings exerted considerable resistance, especially on a cold day, so starting wagon-by-wagon greatly reduced the traction force required from the locomotive.

The disadvantage of that convenience was that the guard could get badly thrown about as the train changed speed due to the inter-wagon gaps opening or closing. In the worst case, the jerks could break a coupling or cause a derailment. A skilled guard would observe or listen to his train and apply or release his brake to keep the last few couplings reasonably taut, acting as a shock-absorber. The same effect occurred when the route changed gradient. When going over a hill the rear of the train would catch up with the wagons held back by the locomotive, but the guard could minimise that. That method of train working was why the guard, just like the driver, was required to prove his route knowledge before being given charge of a heavy train. Loose-coupled trains travelled at low speeds and were phased out in the 1970s.[3]

An improvement on the loose-coupled train is the "Instanter" coupling, in which the middle link of a three-link chain is specially triangular shaped, so that when lying "prone" it provides enough slack to make coupling possible, but when the middle link is rotated 90 degrees, the length of the chain is effectively shortened, reducing the amount of slack without the need to wind a screw. The closeness of the coupling allows the use of inter-vehicle pipes for train brakes. Three-link and Instanter couplings can be operated entirely from the side of the wagons, using a shunter's pole, which has a hook on the end, and is safer when shunting is being done. Similarly, the screw-adjustable coupler can be connected by a shunter's pole once it has been unscrewed. Ordinary three-link couplings have been superseded by instanter, screw or buck-eye couplers in UK freight trains today.

Narrow gauge flat wagons, 750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in). Note the single buffer with a hook on the right side and a chain on the other

On some narrow-gauge lines in Europe, and on the Paris Metro, a simplified version of the loose-coupler is used, consisting of a single central buffer with a chain underneath. Sometimes there are two chains, one on each side of the coupler. The chain usually contains a screw-adjustable link to allow close coupling. These variants are also used elsewhere. On sharp curves, a single centre buffer is less likely to be subject to buffer-locking. The Eritrean Railway also uses a centre buffer and chain coupler.

Buffer-and-chain couplers are not suitable on lines with very sharp curves, because there is a buffer-locking problem if pushing the limit. Because of that, and because of Carl Pihl's successful promotion of the single-buffer Norwegian coupler that he designed to overcome the problem, conventional buffers-and-chain coupling is rarely employed on narrow-gauge systems, notable exceptions being the railway networks of Senegal/Mali, Tunisia and Côte d'Ivoire/Burkina Faso in Africa, and Queensland and Tasmania in Australia. Narrow gauge railways are often isolated from other railways, so standardization is not as important.

The buffers and chain coupling accommodates much lower maximum load than that of the Janney coupler. Buffers and chain couplings allow a total train weight of around 3,000–4,000 tonnes (3,000–3,900 long tons; 3,300–4,400 short tons), depending on the how they are constructed, whereas the Janney coupler is sometimes built to allow for train weights of 32,000 tonnes (31,000 long tons; 35,000 short tons).

Buffer-locking

On sharp reverse curves, the buffers can get buffer-locked by slipping over, and onto the back of, an adjacent buffer. Although careful track design makes that a rare occurrence, a series of derailments at Stuttgart Central Station in 2012 were caused by buffer-locked wagons. Buffer-lock could occur on very sharp switches on rolling stock with the older, rounded buffers. The newer buffers are rectangular and are wider than they are tall. Buffers and chain couplers allow curves to have around 150 m (492 ft) radius, but sharp S-curves are not allowed. If it weren't for the couplers, much sharper curves could be allowed, on the condition the train is not too long.[4]

The width between the buffers tends to increase as the track gauge increases and decrease as the track gauge decreases, which means that if wagons are changed from one gauge to another, the buffers might no longer match. That is because the buffers are originally extensions of the frames, which are spaced according to the gauge of the track. As well, the height of the buffers is usually lower on narrow gauge railways, corresponding to the generally lower height of the rolling stock. Therefore, narrow gauge railways often use centre couplers without buffers.

However, in the case of Iberian broad gauge railways, the height and spacing of the buffers are the same as for standard gauge railways in Europe including Great Britain, in order to allow through-running of rolling stock by the use of bogie exchange.