@hypewhip_1: 🤯I still can't believe a 143-ton railcar can be connected through a coupler knuckle with a critical steel section barely around an inch thick. A modern freight car can have a gross rail load of up to 286,000 pounds, or roughly 143 short tons. The coupler knuckle between cars is built from high-strength cast steel and has to survive enormous pulling and impact forces as the train accelerates, brakes and moves through slack. AAR requirements call for common freight-car coupler knuckles to withstand tensile loads of around 400,000 pounds of force. The railcar's full weight is supported vertically by its wheels and trucks, so the coupler is primarily transmitting longitudinal forces between cars rather than literally suspending 143 tons from that thin section. Still, watching one of these components get loaded in a test rig makes the amount of engineering packed into such a small piece of steel look almost impossible. Would you have guessed this connection could handle forces that extreme? What are your thoughts? (Media: @ ospdx @ospdx #trains #engineering #railroad #technology #steel

brianjordan2962 :

The coupler knuckle looks sketchy because of it's unusual design but if you look at a 1" log chain it looks capable of lifting a train

Ogbroham :

Something doesn’t look right- those railroad tracks are awfully narrow compared to the width of the train, and even the feet in the ground. This is weird.

Zane Cousins :

Fake news couplers are big asf it’s almost 3 inches of solid steel

Cathy!° :

I trust engineered design over flashy design any day. you show me a thing that looks like it *barely* works? that means the engineers figured out the EXACT math needed and executed it. any more would be useless, any less would be catastrophic. its the elegance of old design, build it simple, build it right, build it replaceable.

Iridiumgaze :

the legendary dap

swag117 :

1 square inch of weld can hold 70,000 psi and all tie off equipment should be able to hold a pickup truck. the shit humans do is actually insane if you look into it

Isaac Mullins :

so I work with these they are not 1 inch. and they also are not 143 tons lol

jimmyk3232 :

take my strong hand

VorQui00 :

trains are incredible, the juxtoposition of opposing ideas is brilliant

Sam :

Train: “I got you fam”

DonutOperator :

Well I’d normally agree except their have gears that eat most of the force. I’ve never seen a knuckle or coupler break that wasn’t a casting defect or major impact.

marin :

me n him in another life

MeanieWeenie :

Close enough, ur invited to the dap up tournament

ℜ𝔢𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔶.ℜ𝔬𝔤𝔢𝔯𝔰🦆 :

They break all the time if the engineer doesn’t know what he’s doing it aucks

752 Productions :

This is small models that you can ride

Deevee🇫🇮🇫🇮 :

The couplers don’r have to experience the entire weight of the cars, they only have to experience the force when accelerating or deaccelerating. When cruising, they handle way less force

NunyangBusinessu :

What if you just kicked it to the right from the left side while it’s in motion?

Userseventwoeight :

They accelerate slowly and make 3% grade, the actual force on it is never the weight of the train

LB :

I watched snowpiercer, it’s fine

1armdiddi :

LeBron’s Son :

Me and bros dap up

kadin_stuckey :

sMeyser :

k :

But all trains have airbrakes which automatically engage when the coupler or other linkage is broken

kaycee :

impossible