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The chain (abbreviated ch) is a unit of length equal to 66 feet (22 yards), used in both the US customary and Imperial unit systems. It is subdivided into 100 links. [1][2] There are 10 chains in a furlong, and 80 chains in one statute mile. [2] In metric terms, it is 20.1168 m long. [2] By extension, chainage (running distance) is the distance ...
Rail transport. A coupling or coupler is a mechanism, typically located at each end of a rail vehicle, that connects them together to form a train. The equipment that connects the couplers to the vehicles is the draft gear or draw gear, which must absorb the stresses of the coupling and the acceleration of the train.
Buffers and chain couplers are an assembly of several devices: buffers, [1] hooks and links, or turnbuckle screws. [2] Screwlink coupler and buffers – the UIC de facto standard in the EU and UK – on a British diesel locomotive. On the modern version of the couplers, rail vehicles are mated by manually connecting the end link of one chain ...
Multiple unit (MU) A self-propelled rail vehicle that can be joined with compatible others and controlled from a single driving station. The names of the sub-classes of this type of vehicle, diesel multiple unit (DMU), diesel–electric multiple unit (DEMU) and electric multiple unit (EMU), are more common terms. These may also be termed railcars.
The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Railroads played a large role in the development of the United States from the Industrial Revolution in the Northeast (1820s–1850s) to the settlement of the West (1850s–1890s). The American railroad mania began with the founding of the first passenger and freight line in the country ...
Major Eli Janney, a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, invented the semi-automatic knuckle coupler in 1868. It automatically locks the couplers on cars or locomotives together without a rail worker having to get between the cars, and replaced the link and pin coupler, which was a major cause of railroad worker injuries and deaths.
Different types of railroad rolling stock have different couplers depending on the purpose and type of equipment being used and its intended destination. European rolling stock tend to use buffers and chain couplers while American rolling stock uses a Janney coupler or "knuckle coupler". These are incompatible with each other, but where some ...
Map. Rail transportation in the United States consists primarily of freight shipments along a well integrated network of standard gauge private freight railroads that also extend into Canada and Mexico. The United States has the largest rail transport network of any country in the world, about 160,000 miles (260,000 km).