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Links for the Link-Pin Couplers
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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Broken links and pins were much more common than broken knuckles today, even though train lengths were shorter back then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wrought iron used to make coupler hardware in the link and pin era was variable in terms of quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the pre-air brake / link and pin era, freight trains used to break in two, and then the forward half might break in two again before the engineer became aware of the first break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the middle section might catch up and run into the first section, and the last section might catch up and run into the middle section.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All manner of variations of this occurred in the 1870-1890 era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Link and pin couplers generally had a lot more slack than today’s automatic couplers, so slack run-ins could be so violent that couplers would override each other and all the cars to telescope together.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Link and pin hardware included straight links, offset links to match differing coupler heights, round shank pins, rectangular shank pins, and pins with notches to allow pre-positioning for automatic dropping upon impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all of these came in a variety of sizes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; 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-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Most old railroad roadbeds are littered with link and pin coupler hardware buried just below the surface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There must be thousands of tons of links and pins buried across the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p>
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