Coach Fittings
| The external fittings on coaches were, after the earlier
years of the railways, fairly standard so that new coaches could work with
older ones and coaches moving between different railways could be connected
together if required. Some of the detail from the coach ends is reproduced
below.
Although modern coaches were fitted with automatic couplers, coaches needed to have a coupling hook for use with older, non-automatic coupling-fitted stock, and the end coach of a rake needed to have a coupling hook for use with the locos, which were fitted with screw link couplings. The solution to this was to have a fitment that combined the older coupling hook and the more modern automatic coupler, all in one unit. |
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Here the coupler is in the "down" position
with the hook exposed and available for receiving the loco's coupling link.
To raise the coupler the pin that can be seen protruding on the left-hand side
is removed, the coupler lifted and the pin re-inserted through the coupling
hook. The pin has a pivoting tail piece that must be seen to have fallen down
(through 90°) to ensure the coupler cannot come off the hook. The chain on
the right is connected to an uncoupler lever for when coaches coupled using the
automatic coupler need to be separated.
The hose on the right is for steam heat, with the shut-off cock above, and that on the left for the vacuum brake. photograph by Peter Richards |
| When using the automatic coupling the buffers need to be
in the "short" position, and when using the coupling hook in the
"long" position. Here the buffer is in the latter position and is
kept there by a saddle that simply sits on the buffer shank. This is the piece
of metal that can just be seen attached to the chain. To change the buffers to
the "short" position the saddle is removed and the buffer simply
pushed into its housing, with the saddles hung from the hooks provided.
photograph by Peter Richards |
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A close-up view showing the buffer in the
"long" position with the saddle in place to keep it there.
The vacuum pipe can be seen to be sitting on a dummy coupling to ensure that no air may enter the system whilst this vehicle is not coupled to another. photograph by Peter Richards |
All photographs are copyright
First | 2nd
This page was created 10 July 2003
