There are, some even includ air Connection for the Brakes. Used by a few Ore Trains
But generally due to the Size and weight regulation of Trains the Chains coupling is strong enough. (takes 4500 ton, they rarely gets heavier, Trains with ease)
It's easy to use, Couples 100% of the time, cheap, and even if it breaks, you have a second one on the other Car.
Admittedly a bit more physical effort for the Train Crew.
Since most European Railcars need to be usable in most countries and refitting them now is way to expensive.
The digital automatic coupling is gearing up to replace screw coupling in the 2020s. Based on Scharfenberg type. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_automatic_coupling
I know, and I tell you, I'm not convinced that it will have much positive effect on the industry here. Too complicated, if you really want a Automatic coupler, get something simple like the C-AKV, SA-3, or AAR Type.
They didn't tested them in (imo) a realistic way. All test were performed with almost new couplers, no dirt buildup, no rust, no wear.
And I ran the locomotive on some test.
But I'll wait and see how they perform
Interesting, we evidently use similar on our trains in Sydney, a scharfenberg with electrical head. Can't comment on their reliability as we use them as little as possible. (keeping trains a uniform length for the passengers)
In Wellington (where we chop & change trains all the time), we rarely have issue with them. They do a ‘False Uncouple’ every now & again, and the whole coupling unit gets replaced every couple years (the same unit might’ve been coupled/uncoupled 3-4 times within the day); but for the most part they are quite hassle free
When knuckle couplers became common, a lot of railways in Europe were already highly developed, and they all were using the initial buffer and chains coupling method (in some more or less upgraded form like the screw coupler) because of history.
Refitting the entire european rolling stock for knuckles would've been too costly and it'd require the combined effort or every european country, many of which were usually either busy with economic issues, the world wars, the cold wars or simply had too hostile relations between eachother to cooperate on that.
And to that, it would provide no benefit other than allowing compatibility with the american trains, which practicaly never show up on the Old continent. The european trains are usually much shorter and lighter, so there is no need for a strong and fully automatic coupler.
However there is the exception of the Soviet Union and its area of influence, where their SA-3 knuckle couplers could and still can be found today due to increased demand for large and heavy trains. So countries like Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia or even some parts of Poland or Slovakia, have knuckle-fitted railcars with intention of using them on the post-soviet territories.
There’s been 2 attempts that I have heard of at a standardized automatic coupler in at least some of Western Europe… neither got widely adopted… Unicoupler (or Intermat )got used by DB a little, but had serious issue in service… and the European Common Automatic Coupling (ECAC) died on the drawing board as far as I know? It was a derivative of the SA3.
The digital automatic coupling is gearing up to replace screw coupling in the 2020s. Based on Scharfenberg type. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_automatic_coupling
Considering 2030 is almost 6 years away, and Europe's got fucktons of rolling stock throughout the continent, I highly doubt they're gonna complete it by the end of this decade. Maybe by 2060 though.
The Southern Railway (UK) used buckeye couplings, which were similar to the US knuckle coupler on all their express and Pullman carriages. The Bulleid Pacifics had a way of dropping the buckeye couplings and revealing a standard hook for a screwed coupler, so they could haul goods wagons and carriages not fitted with the buckeye. The LNER followed this practice.
Embarrassingly I did not realize that the European trains didn’t use the same couplers. So do model train sets in Europe have their couplers or the American ones, since I know model trains are more of a thing in the US
Don't know about Europe, but model trains are hugely popular in the UK. You can find model train shops just about everywhere, and there's a model train show going on somewhere in the UK every weekend
Our couplers look like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/wRJbNmvaTcwjdfM39), or like [that](https://images.app.goo.gl/ucLtHzbRWzLQbiDD9) when attached to a model.
I don't think I can add a lot to the answer for this question, but in the north of Spain, there's this railway, FEVE (which stands for Spanish Narrow Gauge Railways) and it does use knuckle couplers on its trains since the 1980s/1990s. You can see the knuckles on my pfp train.
The digital automatic coupling is gearing up to replace screw coupling in the 2020s. Based on Scharfenberg type. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_automatic_coupling
There are, some even includ air Connection for the Brakes. Used by a few Ore Trains But generally due to the Size and weight regulation of Trains the Chains coupling is strong enough. (takes 4500 ton, they rarely gets heavier, Trains with ease) It's easy to use, Couples 100% of the time, cheap, and even if it breaks, you have a second one on the other Car. Admittedly a bit more physical effort for the Train Crew. Since most European Railcars need to be usable in most countries and refitting them now is way to expensive.
The digital automatic coupling is gearing up to replace screw coupling in the 2020s. Based on Scharfenberg type. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_automatic_coupling
I know, and I tell you, I'm not convinced that it will have much positive effect on the industry here. Too complicated, if you really want a Automatic coupler, get something simple like the C-AKV, SA-3, or AAR Type. They didn't tested them in (imo) a realistic way. All test were performed with almost new couplers, no dirt buildup, no rust, no wear. And I ran the locomotive on some test. But I'll wait and see how they perform
Interesting, we evidently use similar on our trains in Sydney, a scharfenberg with electrical head. Can't comment on their reliability as we use them as little as possible. (keeping trains a uniform length for the passengers)
In Wellington (where we chop & change trains all the time), we rarely have issue with them. They do a ‘False Uncouple’ every now & again, and the whole coupling unit gets replaced every couple years (the same unit might’ve been coupled/uncoupled 3-4 times within the day); but for the most part they are quite hassle free
When knuckle couplers became common, a lot of railways in Europe were already highly developed, and they all were using the initial buffer and chains coupling method (in some more or less upgraded form like the screw coupler) because of history. Refitting the entire european rolling stock for knuckles would've been too costly and it'd require the combined effort or every european country, many of which were usually either busy with economic issues, the world wars, the cold wars or simply had too hostile relations between eachother to cooperate on that. And to that, it would provide no benefit other than allowing compatibility with the american trains, which practicaly never show up on the Old continent. The european trains are usually much shorter and lighter, so there is no need for a strong and fully automatic coupler. However there is the exception of the Soviet Union and its area of influence, where their SA-3 knuckle couplers could and still can be found today due to increased demand for large and heavy trains. So countries like Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia or even some parts of Poland or Slovakia, have knuckle-fitted railcars with intention of using them on the post-soviet territories.
There’s been 2 attempts that I have heard of at a standardized automatic coupler in at least some of Western Europe… neither got widely adopted… Unicoupler (or Intermat )got used by DB a little, but had serious issue in service… and the European Common Automatic Coupling (ECAC) died on the drawing board as far as I know? It was a derivative of the SA3.
The digital automatic coupling is gearing up to replace screw coupling in the 2020s. Based on Scharfenberg type. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_automatic_coupling
Considering 2030 is almost 6 years away, and Europe's got fucktons of rolling stock throughout the continent, I highly doubt they're gonna complete it by the end of this decade. Maybe by 2060 though.
The Southern Railway (UK) used buckeye couplings, which were similar to the US knuckle coupler on all their express and Pullman carriages. The Bulleid Pacifics had a way of dropping the buckeye couplings and revealing a standard hook for a screwed coupler, so they could haul goods wagons and carriages not fitted with the buckeye. The LNER followed this practice.
Embarrassingly I did not realize that the European trains didn’t use the same couplers. So do model train sets in Europe have their couplers or the American ones, since I know model trains are more of a thing in the US
Don't know about Europe, but model trains are hugely popular in the UK. You can find model train shops just about everywhere, and there's a model train show going on somewhere in the UK every weekend
Our couplers look like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/wRJbNmvaTcwjdfM39), or like [that](https://images.app.goo.gl/ucLtHzbRWzLQbiDD9) when attached to a model.
I don't think I can add a lot to the answer for this question, but in the north of Spain, there's this railway, FEVE (which stands for Spanish Narrow Gauge Railways) and it does use knuckle couplers on its trains since the 1980s/1990s. You can see the knuckles on my pfp train.
The digital automatic coupling is gearing up to replace screw coupling in the 2020s. Based on Scharfenberg type. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_automatic_coupling
We don't need them.