Janney coupler

The Janney coupler is an automatic coupling for rail vehicles, nationwide used on the railways in North America and southern Africa. It is the highest duty clutch type and also enables the formation of kilometer-long trains.

The American Eli Hamilton Janney constructed the automatic clutch is named after him in 1868 and had them patented in 1873. As of 1877, the clutch was used on railways in the United States; In 1888 it became the standard coupling of the U.S. railroads with slight modification. Since March 3, 1893 all railway companies are required in the United States to use the Janney coupling. Over the following decades, the coupling was larger to transmit higher tensile forces, but continue to function and form are derived from the original Janney coupling from.

In the U.S., this clutch is almost always referred to as " Automatic Coupler ". Officially it is called AAR Coupler (AAR is the abbreviation of the standard organization Association of American Railroads ) or Knuckle Coupler. There are several compatible variants of this coupling; so the Tightlock Coupler is widely used in the United States - passenger, since it does not transmit unpleasant vibrations between the cars.

In Germany this type of coupling used in the narrow-gauge railway icefield - Schönbrunn in Thuringia.

Security

The Janney coupler was a significant security improvement over its predecessor, the link -and- pin female connector for the North American railway staff. During the coupling process there was a shunter to guide the ring of a cart in the slot of the next, while the locomotive together pushed the car; Then, a bolt has been inserted. It passed many accidents; 1877-1887 occurred during the coupling process about 38 percent of all accidents involving injuries. In 1902, nine years after the introduction of the automatic clutch, this figure had fallen to four percent.