Janney coupler
Originally known as Janney couplers (the original patent name) they are almost always referred to as Knuckles in the US and Canada (regardless of their actual official model name, nowadays generally various AAR types in North America), but are also known as American, AAR, APT, ARA, MCB, Buckeye, tightlock (in the UK) or Centre Buffer Couplers.
AAR: In the first decade of the 1900's there were upwards of 75 makes of MCB Standard compliant couplers in use on North American railroads.
The participating coupler companies agreed to each submit their best designs for rigorous testing under the MCB committee's supervision, to work together to eliminate weaknesses and combine the best features of each, and to freely share (among themselves) any patented features chosen or developed for the new standard.
[5] A stronger version, the AAR type E was adopted in 1931, the principal change being an increase in knuckle depth from 9" to 11" (229mm to 279mm).
Both the D and E were essentially freight car couplers, and necessarily provided a degree of slack in their coupling, which is undesirable in passenger service.
The development of unit trains for moving coal or ore has led to the substitution of rotary dumped gondolas for traditional hopper cars.
These incorporate a rotating coupler and draft gear in one end, to allow the cars to be dumped without uncoupling them.
In the UK, several versions of Janney couplers are fitted to a limited number of coaches, multiple units, wagons and locomotives.
Prior to the formation of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) these were known as Master Car Builder (MCB) couplers.
Knuckle couplers of the 1880s and 1890s had a chaotic mixture of proprietary internal components, but all had the standard MCB external contour, making them compatible.
That ended the market for knuckle couplers with proprietary components, excepting those exported from the US to other countries not complying with MCB standards.
Prior to this, there was a chaotic variety of constantly evolving and proprietary external contours and internal components.
Type H tightlock couplings used on passenger stock have a variation of the 10A contour that nearly eliminates slack during normal operation and minimizes the possibility of "telescoping" during a derailment.
Major Eli Janney, a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, invented the semi-automatic knuckle coupler in 1868.
Knuckle couplers are used in the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, UK, Belgium and Spain (narrow gauge railway only).
Among its features: Janney Type E double-shelf couplers are yet another variety, typical on North American hazardous material tank cars.
[24] The large bogie boxvans for car parts, used on the Victorian Railways, were fitted with gooseneck couplers for that reason.
Janney was a dry goods clerk and former Confederate Army officer from Alexandria, Virginia, who used his lunch hours to whittle from wood an alternative to the link and pin coupler.
[18][26] In 1893, satisfied that an automatic coupler could meet the demands of commercial railroad operations and, at the same time, be manipulated safely, the US Congress passed the Safety Appliance Act.
Standard, Adopted 1915 Arthur James Bazeley (1872-1937), railway couplings inventor/design engineer; was born in Bristol, England, in 1872, and worked for the Great Western Railway until the age of 34 when he immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1906, where he worked as a mechanical engineer for National Malleable Castings, Co., inventing and designing improvements in the function, strength, and durability of the (MCB/ARA/AAR/APTA) Janney, Knuckle, Alliance couplers and other coupling devices/draw gear for the evolving heavier demands by US railways, as well as, National Malleable Castings' international customers in the United Kingdom, India, and many other countries building and expanding their railway systems.
National Malleable purchased the Latrobe Steel & Coupler's plant in Melrose Park, Illinois, in 1909.
In 1923, when it had begun to supply the automobile industry, the company changed its name to National Malleable & Steel Castings.
Specifications as of March 1939 required that the fabrication casting material be of open hearth or electric furnace grade "B" steel with specific metallurgic requirements to insure proper tensile strength and reliability of the coupler and its moving parts.
