my "hitch" with the UK

[Ham549]

Here in the good ol' USA we have a standard coupler that works very well. It the UK they have many different couplers that are inefficient and cumbersome (I saw a photo of a UK rail worker unhitching a car and he had this device with a crank and a poll that he had to stick between the cars to unhitch them) Why doesn’t the UK use our system?

[Anonymous]

Because this is largely a logistical problem and a problem of low budgets as well!
You simply cannot put all locos and cars out of service to mount new couplers and stop traffic this way for at least one day.
Moreover, nowadays, your old US couplers aren´t sufficient any more. trials with new automatic couplers(and their invention on block trains for example) have shown that a new automatic coupling system inherits far more than only the coupling itself but also breaking and wiring connections and other equipment to be connected.
But as you have to consider the European rails in all these different countries as one big rail system it has turned out back in the seventies that it´s simply impossible to invent new couplers on the whole European rail system due to the above problems.
So, what was left was to invent the new couplers on EMU´s and DMU´s and block trains such as iron ore or coal train. For example on the "Ofotbana" the iron ore line which links the iron ore mines of Kiruna, North Sweden with the Norwegian harbour of Narvik on the atlantic ocean and boasts the heaviest trains on European rails(some 7500 tons), apart from some of the strongest electric lcomotives around the world. And for that purpose, normal couplers of our European standard would not withstand the demands of traction and the weight of trains.
Another example are some 5000 t iron ore block trains on DB(Deutsche Bahn, Germany) rails which are equipped with automatic couplers, These trains are normally headed by two class 151(Co´Co´)electrics, also equipped with automatic couplers and each one capable of about 9000 HP. These trains are running between the North Sea harbour of Emden and some steel works some 200 - 300 miles south.
Also the German high speed ICE trains and the French TGV of course are equipped with the modern couplers, also, as I pointed out, EMU´s and DMU´s for regional service, but not in general throughout Europe, depending on the different level of standards.

Hope I could give you just an idea of the problems the change to automatic coupling the old Europe rail systems have to face. And, what you should not forget : We in ole Europe are boasting the densest and most sophisticated rail systems around the world, - apart from the couplers, that is, but this does not make things easier for that.

Best regards

Tom