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Yes to both questions. Drawbar strength is limiting, on how much power you can put on the head end and expect knuckles not to break off (the "broken drawbar" is almost always a broken knuckle). Couplers come in two varieties, standard and high-strength. Almost all Western roads use high-strength, at least on bulk cars (hoppers, covered hoppers), as do most private owners of unit-train cars. Eastern roads often use standard strength even on hoppers. <br /> <br />By comparison of why this matters, on the 2.0% climb from Taberna***o the West Portal of Moffat Tunnel, a train is allowed 8000 trailing tons with high-strength couplers, but only 5000 tons with standard couplers. The difference for a unit coal train might be three or four power sets versus two or three. <br /> <br />Knuckles break off with some regularity. Bad train handling gets most of them, but also DPU failures, undesired emergency brake applications (from many causes), and mechanical failures of various types.
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