Excerpted from
http://www.railroadiana.org/hw/pgKeys_274.php
another reference to a coupling knife:

Random thoughts;

SP called the coupling aids "paddles" in a rule book.

While there might not be any mainline link and pin railroaders left in the 1980's for Quincy to find, there were industrial railroads that used them into the 1950's (some later) Here in California, the West Side Lumber Co used link and pin drawheads universally until 1940 or so, then on older cars and work equipment until 1960 or so... The nearby Diamond & Caldor used link and pins until shut down by California authorities in 1952 or so.

The poem is wonderful... full of railroad references. This is a great resource for a interpretive program.

Excerpted from rom the book "Bill Knapke A Railroad Legend" by Dick Murdock,
which probably quotes early chapters of Bill Knapke's autobiography "Rolling
Wheels":This was sometime in June, 1886.

Unfortunately found an expired eBay listing, but luckily the photo was cached:


The eBay listing listed it as a Bishop patent coupler knife. As I can't find the original posting I am not sure if there were any markings. For all I know it could be a modified cheese knife

Assuming the notch is about an 1" wide then the blade would be long enough to keep the handle outside the head. Using 1" for the notch width that would make the blade about 4" long and the handle about 3" long which would not be too cumbersome on the hip of a Brakeman when sheathed, as it is about the same length as a standard Hunting/Utility knife and shorter than a Bowie knife.

Rich C.

It's a knife for obvious reasons: thin, difficult to break or to bend, relatively impact resistant but without 'levering out of your hand' if misaligned, long enough to keep the handle clear of the drawhead.

You lift up the link and just let the drawheads crash together with the knife between them -- this lets you concentrate on dropping the pin correctly, wiggling it if it doesn't quite go in cleanly, etc. You do not need to hold the lantern with your third hand on the dark, stormy night to see what is going where, and the little semicircular cutout holds the knife steady relative to the link as well as allowing you to slide the blade around from the point on the link where you picked it up to the side where the drawheads come together without having it slip off.

As soon as the joint is made and the cars recoil even a bit, the thin blade will come neatly down a bit and then out. Don't try that with a stick; you'd have little but splinters after a few joints unless you whipped the stick out nearly as fast as your fingers...

Eminently sensible, and I'd have put on a PR 'safety' push to get the things used more.

I realize that this is an old thread, but thought that it might still be of interest.

When I search Google images for "railroad coupling tool," I get a photo of a device that is stamped, "BISHOP'S" and below that "PAT DEC 6, 1881" and below that "6912."

The image is not real clear, so some may interpret the runes a bit differently.

The general shape of the tool is consistent with what was described in this old thread.

I did not have any luck searching for the patent, so I may have read the date wrong.

Bruce E. Babcock

The patent is US 250,338, issued to Goodwin G Bishop of Hannibal MO. It's v20,n23,p1595 in the Patent Gazette.

As drawn, the knife has TWO semicircular recesses, on opposite edges of the blade, "for the purposes specified", while all the "Bishop" knives I've seen pictured only have the one toward the tip, where the leverage and control are better. I think the "original" idea was that if the link has to be worked from side to side to get the pin in, and it's pulled too far in one direction, the tool can be pulled out and inserted between drawheads without having to turn it around in the hand. But the additional notch might have weakened the blade and perhaps made it likelier to snap if the drawheads clamped it and 'sprung' it suddenly.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread! I love the research that has gone into the responses.

Below is a link to the image in question. It does indeed say Bishop's; this artifact is in possession of the Kansas Historical Society.
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/graphics/railroad/1917_22a.jpg

These are photos of what I believe might be a wooden coupling knife. There are no markings, and no indication that it has ever been used.

Bruce

In the mysterious prose, “He Was a RR Man,” the railroad man being interviewed is asked to explain how the Bishops Safety Coupling Knife is to be used, and he replies, “By sticking them in the left hand hip pocket with the blade turned up.”

I take that to refer to the general reluctance of trainmen to use such devices. The wooden knife or paddle shown in the above photo does appear to be unused. Its story might include the number of couplings it witnessed while safely tucked in the owner’s left pocket with the blade turned up.

Or its life may have included the assistance of many actual couplings, each done with such perfection that the knife was never pinched, and thus shows no sign of damage or wear. Trainmen were probably good at that because they had, out of necessity, cultivated the skill needed to retain their fingers, and so they may have naturally applied that diligence to the coupling paddles.

If a trainman were confronted by an official and asked to show his safety knife; and if it were damaged; it would make the case that such devices were necessary. That conclusion would please the official, but maybe not the trainman. On the other hand, presenting a pristine safety knife might be incriminating evidence that the tool had never been used, and was only slightly worn by being carried in the left hand pocket.