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Knuckle Coupler
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<P mce_keep="true">[quote user="Paul_D_North_Jr"] <P><STRONG><U>Bucyrus</U></STRONG>, I think I understand what you're saying - I'm sure that in an 'alternate universe', that could be the accepted design. But here, I'm inclined to agree with Larry / <U><STRONG>tree68</STRONG></U>.</P> <P>What we really need is an actual 1<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">:1 coupler to play with and jiggle and see for ourselves. Perhaps coincidentally, during a bike ride one morning last week I found that one of my distant neighbors - 1.5 miles across some farm fields - is a pretty senior general foreman in the mechanical department of a Class I. After the usual preliminaries, the first question I asked was about knuckle couplers. <IMG alt=Cool src="http://cs.trains.com/trccs/emoticons/icon_smile_cool.gif"> My subversive intention is to get to be able to photograph one close up, perhaps even one that's been cut in half - 'sectioned' - with a cutting torch. Give me a few weeks or a couple of months to work on that . . . . <IMG alt=Wink src="http://cs.trains.com/trccs/emoticons/icon_smile_wink.gif"></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Either that, or get a video that's been shot by someone else who's experienced in close-up videography of similar moving parts from many different angles - say, an 'adult' movie photographer <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">? <IMG alt=Mischief src="http://cs.trains.com/trccs/emoticons/icon_smile_mischief.gif"></SPAN></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">- Paul North.</SPAN></SPAN></P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>What I am saying about the lock not being needed once the coupler is stretched and loaded is a further development of my thinking in my post on page 7 from 5/14/2007.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I could be wrong, but this point needs to be made:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My theory on this cannot be proven or disproved by studying an actual coupler, whether you operate it, or take it apart, or section it to reveal the operation of the assembly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My theory can only be proven or disproved by the design engineering on which the actual coupler is based, or by modifying an actual coupler so that the locking pin does actually disappear while the slack is stretched.</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT face=verdana,geneva size=2></FONT></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT face=verdana,geneva><FONT size=2>Such a modification would replace the normal locking pin with a pin that was made to be collapsible in the direction of its loading from the knuckle tang.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This collapsibility could be created with a controlled hydraulic cylinder.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When the coupler makes a joint with another, the hydraulic cylinder pushes the locking pin into its locked position.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then you put a stretch on the couplers of say 25,000 pounds.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then release the hydraulic cylinder so that the locking pin feature is free to fall back away in line with the force of the knuckle tang.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t think the knuckle would open.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
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