World Library  
My Account |  Register |  Help  
  
Flag as Inappropriate
Email this Article

Railway coupling by country

Article Id: WHEBN0017967330
Reproduction Date:

Title: Railway coupling by country  
Author: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Language: English
Subject: Railway coupling conversion, SA3 coupler, Tightlock coupling, Railway coupling, History of rail transport
Collection:
Publisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Publication
Date:
 

Railway coupling by country

Part of a series on
Rail transport

Listed below are railway couplers as used on historic and modern industrial, mainline, mining, narrow gauge, plantation and transit railways.

Couplers are often known by more than one name. Compromise couplers or cars are used to transition between coupler types.

Coupler types

Africa

Algeria

  • English, Russian couplers on 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge track[6]
  • English couplers on 1,055 mm (3 ft 5 1⁄2 in) gauge track[6]

Angola

  • AAR couplers[6]

Benin

Burkina Faso & Côte d'Ivoire

Cameroon

  • Russian couplers[6]

Congo~Brazzaville

  • SA3 coupler[6]

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Egypt

  • English couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on modern stock[8][9][10][11]

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Gabon

  • Russian couplers

Ghana

  • Norwegian couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on modern stock

Liberia (Bong)

  • Link and pin couplers

Malawi

Mali

  • like Senegal

Mauritania

  • AAR couplers

Morocco

  • English couplers[14]

Mozambique

Nigeria

  • AAR couplers

Senegal

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Norwegian couplers on Indian Stock[15]

South Africa

  • AAR couplers on traditional stock[13]
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock

Sudan

Tanzania

  • AAR couplers on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge track
  • Norwegian couplers on 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge track[7]

Togo

  • Center buffer and side chain couplers
  • Norwegian couplers on Indian Stock

Tunisia

  • English couplers

Asia

Bangladesh

  • AAR couplers on 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) Stock
  • Norwegian couplers on 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) Stock[6]

Cambodia

  • English couplers

China

  • AAR couplers on passenger and freight stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on high speed (CRH) and subway trains
  • BSI couplers on Hong Kong passenger units (MTR)

India

  • English couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on modern stock[18]
  • Norwegian couplers on 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge track[19]
  • ABC couplers on narrow gauge stock
  • Scharfenberg Couplers on Mass Transit systems (EMU/DEMU)

Indonesia

  • Norwegian couplers on traditional stock
  • AAR couplers and Shibata couplers on modern stock

Iran

  • English, Russian (C-AKv) combo couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock

Iraq

  • English couplers on historic stock
  • English, Russian (C-AKv) combo couplers on modern stock[20][21]

Israel

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock

Japan

  • English couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Shibata couplers (based on Scharfenberg couplers) on passenger stock

Malaysia

  • Norwegian couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on modern stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on ERL, LRT, MRT and Monorail.

Russia

  • Russian couplers on domestic stock (with side buffers on passenger coaches)
  • English couplers on Euro Stock (exchanged on the border)
  • Scharfenberg couplers on some passenger unit trains (Velaro, Desiro)

South Korea

  • English, link and pin couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on modern stock[22]
  • Shibata couplers (based on Scharfenberg couplers) on Subways and metro car

Sri Lanka

  • Buffers and AAR couplers

Thailand

  • AAR couplers on every SRT rolling stocks
  • Norwegian couplers on historic stocks
  • Scharfenberg couplers on mass-transit trains
  • Wedge Lock, Ward couplers on London Underground stock
  • Narrow gauge lines use a mixture of couplings.

Vietnam

  • AAR couplers on both 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) and 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) rolling stock

Australia and New Zealand

Australia

  • English, Norwegian couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock

New Zealand

  • English, Norwegian couplers on historic stock
  • AAR couplers on modern stock
  • Scharfenberg on some commuter stock (AM, FP classes)

Europe

Austria

  • English couplers on standard gauge stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger units
  • Bosna or Scharfenberg couplers on narrow gauge stock

Finland

  • English (UIC) couplers on passenger cars and most freight cars and on historical locomotives
  • Russian SA3 couplers on Russian cars and some heavy duty freight cars
  • "Unilink" (SA3 clone with UIC-style screw link) or "Vapiti" (SA3 clone with movable link arm for English couplers) couplers on the majority of locomotives; compatible with SA3 and English (UIC) center hook
  • Scharfenberg (some made by Dellner) couplers or Secheron GF couplers on passenger multiple-unit stock

France

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock (multiple units and high speed trains only)
  • Russian couplers on unit ore trains

Germany

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock
  • AK69e and C-AKv couplers on unit ore trains
  • AK69e and Russian SA-3 mixed in trains via Mukran ferry terminal
  • Scharfenberg or central buffer couplers on narrow gauge stock

Greece

  • English on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg on passenger stock
  • Center buffer and side chains on narrow gauge stock

Hungary

  • English on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg on multiple units (in some cases jointly with side buffers)
  • BSI with side buffers on BDVmot electric multiple units
  • Link-and-pin on narrow gauge stock

Italy

  • English couplers on standard gauge stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on some EMU/DMU and FS Class E.464

Netherlands

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • BSI, Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock
  • Russian couplers on unit ore trains

Norway

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Norwegian couplers on historic stock, narrow gauge only
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock (multiple units)
  • Russian SA3 couplers on unit ore trains (Ofoten Line)

Poland

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock
  • Russian couplers on unit ore trains and Russian interchange stock

Romania

  • English on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg on Desiro multiple units and some ex-German rail buses
  • Link-and-pin on narrow gauge stock

Russia

  • Russian couplers on domestic stock (with side buffers on passenger coaches)
  • English couplers on Euro Stock (exchanged on the border)
  • Scharfenberg couplers on some passenger unit trains (Velaro, Desiro)

Spain

  • English couplers on freight and loco hauled passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on multiple unit passenger stock

Sweden

  • English couplers on freight and passenger stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock
  • Russian couplers on iron ore trains (Iron Ore Line)
  • Variant of Norwegian couplers on historic (museum) narrow-gauge stock

Switzerland

  • English couplers on standard gauge stock
  • GFV, Schwab, Scharfenberg or BSI couplers on passenger units
  • AK69e couplers within BLS EW III sets
  • GF, GFV or center buffer couplers on meter and narrow gauge stock

Turkey

  • English couplers on traditional stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock
  • Russian couplers on mining stock

Ukraine

  • Russian (SA3) couplers on wide gauge rolling stock
  • Combined Russian/English couplers on SUW2000 gauge-changing coaches
  • Scharfenberg couplers on some EMU trains
  • Central buffer and chain couplers on narrow gauge rolling stock

United Kingdom

  • BSI couplers on older multiple unit passenger stock
  • Deliner & Scharfenberg coupling heads on most new multiple units but a variety of electrical connection systems.
  • English couplings, AAR couplers on some freight stock, most loco hauled passenger stock has a 2⁄3rd size Janney/Buckeye coupler
  • Wedge Lock, Ward couplers on London Underground stock
  • Narrow gauge lines use a mixture of couplings.

North and Central America

Canada

  • AAR couplers on traditional stock
  • Scharfenberg, Wedge Lock, H2C couplers on transit stock

Mexico

  • AAR couplers on traditional stock
  • Scharfenberg couplers on passenger stock

United States

South America

Argentina

  • English couplers on 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) and on 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge[6]
  • AAR couplers on at least some Buenos Aires passenger equipment (observed 1997)
  • AAR couplers on 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge[6]

Brazil

Chile

  • AAR couplers[6]
  • English couplers in coaches and locomotives bought to Spain
  • Scharfemberg couplers in passenger units bought to Spain

Paraguay

  • English couplers[25]

Uruguay

  • English couplers[25]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^
  2. ^ ABC Couplers
  3. ^
  4. ^
  5. ^
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Jane's World Railways 2002–2003 p5
  7. ^ a b http://www.steam.dial.pipex.com/africa.htm
  8. ^
  9. ^
  10. ^ http://www.besco.in/clients.htm
  11. ^
  12. ^
  13. ^ a b c
  14. ^
  15. ^
  16. ^ Locopage
  17. ^
  18. ^
  19. ^
  20. ^ Jane's World Railways 1969/1970 pp 594/595
  21. ^ http://www.ajg41.clara.co.uk/iraq/links.html
  22. ^ Railway Gazette International Aug 2008 p517
  23. ^ Jane's World Railways 1969/1970 pp 501 thru 504
  24. ^ Railway Gazette International April 2009, p61
  25. ^ a b

External links

  • Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
General
Systems
Categories
This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.
 
Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.
 
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.
 


Copyright © World Library Foundation. All rights reserved. eBooks from Project Gutenberg are sponsored by the World Library Foundation,
a 501c(4) Member's Support Non-Profit Organization, and is NOT affiliated with any governmental agency or department.