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From what I can find, it seems clear that the connectors have had issues with reliability.  It is unclear to me whether those issues have been resolved.  The initial development effort has been concentrated on a system that works.  Ultimately, that system has to be made practical and reliable enough to withstand day-to-day operation on loose car freight trains.  It would be interesting to learn how much of that phase is completed.  I would not be surprised if very little of it has been completed. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> When I look at the mechanical design of freight car components such as couplers, air brake equipment, trucks, and handbrakes, I see a kind of robustness and simple elegance that meets the challenge of reliability in an environment of extreme heat and cold, ice, rain, snow, mineral and metal dust, chemical corrosion, vibration, shock, and neglect.  The component designs able to meet these challenges have been perfected over more than a century of trial and error. The solutions were not obvious at the onset.  Once nuts and bolts seemed like the logical way to fasten freight car trucks together.  But nuts and bolts could never be kept tight, so they designed trucks that don’t need nuts and bolts to hold them together.   <o:p></o:p> In these early stages of ECP, the most daunting prospect is the conversion of the whole fleet.  But the sudden introduction of complex electro-mechanical-pneumatic systems that can meet the rugged reliability challenge posed by freight cars may be yet to emerge as a daunting prospect in its own right.  <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> Here is an explanation of the connectors and how they work: <o:p></o:p> <A href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQQ/is_4_48/ai_n25337860/pg_1?tag=content;col1">http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQQ/is_4_48/ai_n25337860/pg_1?tag=content;col1</A> <o:p></o:p> From the link: <o:p></o:p> “The physical wagon-to-wagon wireline connection was standardised a few years ago by the Association of American Railroads (MR). It uses a connector similar in operation and appearance to the traditional end-of-wagon air brake hose "gladhand" connector. During uncoupling, the electrical connectors separate by themselves along with the brake hoses. During train formation, they are connected by a brakeman in much the same fashion as the air hoses, with a negligible increase in the time required to make two connections, rather than a single one.”
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