Just wondering if there are any standard gage cars with link & pin couplers left. I was wondering when the last Link & pin couplers were used on main line railroads.

Dave Huffman

I believe both the B&O Railroad and the Nevada State Railroad Museums have equipment still with link and pin-perhaps the california State RR Museum also?

I think all the equipment at Nevada and California State Railroad Museums that have link-and-pin couplings have been restored/backdated to have that set-up.

The Federal legislation regarding railroad safety appliances mandated changes (couplers, brakes, grab irons) for all railroads/equipment in interstate service. Several narrow gauge lines fought this off as they did not interchange equipment; but ultimately, because they were in interstate commerce, they were required to change.

Maybe someone can post the dates of the Federal legislation.

March 2, 1893 is the date of enactment of An Act to Promote the Safety of Employees and Travelers upon Railroads by Compelling Common Carriers Engaged in Interstate Commerce to Equip Their Cars with Automatic Couplers and Continuous Brakes and Their Locomotives with Driving-wheel Brakes, and for Other Purposes otherwise known as the Safety Appliance Act. It gave the railroads 7 years to update equipment prior to enforcement. A subseqent act was passed in 1903 that clarified certain provisions and conferred more safety related regulatory enforcement power with the ICC.

At the Henry Ford Museum, there is a link and pin coach. I think its a Bangor and Aroostook coach.

Thanks for all the info!

DBH

The Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT and the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor, CT have a number of 19th century standard gauge boxcars with link and pin. They ran in captive service at a Singer Sewing machine plant. A few are single truck. Very rare.

Though not main line, there is still at least one steam excursion operation actually using link-and-pin of a sort: The steam locomotive ride at the Pioneer Tunnel coal mine in Ashland, Pa., using converted mine cars as passenger carriers, with semi-permanent drawbars and pins. It's an insular system, of course, with 42" gauge.

I seem to recall that at least some of the equipment that ended up at the Carroll Park & Western nearby in the 1960s and 1970s at least arrived with link-and-pin fittings, but was converted to "glad-hand" couplings.

I know the original post in this thread was limited to standard gauge, but the modern day Palmetto Brick Company in Wallace, SC is a modern day "critter" operation with 36" Plymouths and dump cars with link and pin couplers.

It is one of the featured tours of the upcoming narrow gauge convention in September.

www.narrowgauge2011.com


Matt

The Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources in Fremont, CA operates link and pin equipment.

There used to be a brick yard in Danville IL."Western Brick" that had a narrow gage railroad that they hauled shale with to make brick with it was around two miles long when they shut down in the early 1970's.
It was 3 foot gage & they had two Brookville diesels in later years.
There is a surviving steam locomotive owned by a dentist near Villa Grove Illinois. All link & pin couplers & as I remember a really neat operation.

DBH

Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Longleaf, LA has one particular piece of link and pin equipment on display, and other relics with link and pin couplers lost in the woods.

The last remaining Clyde, double drum log skidder, at Longleaf has a MCB coupler on one end, and a link and pin on the other, which is interesting to say the least.

As noted, the SPCRR (Ardenwood Farm) runs link and pin, but also miller hook and a couple of Janey cars on its narrow gauge line (so outside the original question's parameters)

There is a standard gauge logging camp car preserved in Brookville Fl (they call it a pre-Civil war dining car... but it is not...) with link and pin... a logging line refugee.

In California, two narrow gauge logging lines, both legally common carriers, ran link and pin late... Diamond & Caldor was shut down by the State's equivalent of OSHA in 1952 for using link and pin draw heads... West Side Lumber used knuckles on log cars, but link and pin on work equipment into 1961...

Virginia and Truckee and its associated narrow gauge, the Carson & Colorado, tried to use a safety link and pin (with cutting levers), called a SAM (also used by some Colorado lines) as a safety coupler... it appears to have worked at first, but was outdated quickly, by 1910, and disappeared quickly... of course the SPCRR has a car equipped with a pair...

The Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad has a wooden box car equipped with link & pin couplers on static display next to its station and gift shop in Middletown PA. This car sits on isolated track and is also one of the 19th century standard gauge Singer Sewing Machine cars mentioned above.

The White Mountain Central in NH operates link and pin equipment. I've had the pleasure of being there for several railfan weekends with link and pin log train operations.

If memory serves, the nearby Beebe River logging outfit had rights over the B&M from Campton to Lincoln and had an exception for use of link and pins quite late in the game. But I could be mistaken.

Rob