Thank you Rob and Dschmitt for your replies. I did not know about the existance of railcarphotos.com or freight.railfan.ca. The trains magazine article is particularly useful as well.
Common use depends on era. For my late '70s - early '80s modeling, most cars used type E. Most tank cars received type SE, but a few got type SF. Peruse some sites with freight car photos to get an idea of typical couplers for your purposes. Try http://rr-fallenflags.org/ , http://freight.railfan.ca/ , http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/railroadList.aspx , or http://www.railcarphotos.com/ .
Rob Spangler
http://trn.trains.com/railroads/abcs-of-railroading/2006/05/couplers
Type E bottom shelf - Industry standard
Type F - Hazardous material tank car
Type H - Passenger cars
See also
http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=14995
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
My girlfriend and I recently operated on a friend's layout that uses Sergent couplers exclusively. Being users of Kadee couplers we found the experience interesting and somewhat more enjoyable. I've also noticed it actually makes the use a brakeman almost a necessity.
That having been said, I have decided to attempt assembly of the Sergent coupler kits. I have purchased a set of the E type coupler.
My questions are as follows:
On what car/locomotive types would you find the E, double shelf SE (1975-present), F (1954-present), SF (1975-present), H (1940-present) and lower shelf type E (1968-present) couplers?
The dates are supplied by Sergent Engineering on their web page.