Owing to the large number of accidents, Mr. F. D. Adams, of the Boston & Albany Railroad, recommended to the Master Car Builders' Association, at its third convention, in 1869, that a uniform height should be established for couplers; their failure to meet when cars came together being considered the cause of numerous accidents. In 1871 that convention adopted 33 inches as the standard height for standard-gauge cars. At the convention of 1873 Mr. M. N. Forney urged that a committee investigate the cause of accidents and make recommendation. This committee in the following year gave as the principal cause the same as reported by Mr. Adams eight years before. They pronounced the tests of automatic couplers to date a failure. Another committee at this same convention gave the first recognition to automatic couplers by reporting that a great advantage would be derived from a uniform drawbar, such as would be accepted as a standard and which would be a self-coupler. During several years following various models were examined, but nothing was found to meet the demands. In 1877 Mr. John Kirby, of the Lake Shore, reported that his company intended to equip 100 cars with self-couplers, and at the same meeting Mr. Garey, of the New York Central, told of having been waited upon by a committee of yardmasters, asking for dead blocks or some such safety device. This turned the attention of the Association from the coupler to the dead block. In the year following they invited the Yardmasters' Association to act in concert with their committee in reporting upon means of safety for protection of yard and train men in the performance of their duties.
This was the situation when on March 19, 1880, the Massachusetts Legislature instructed the Railroad Commission to investigate and report with recommendation as to means of prevention of accidents in the coupling of cars. They reported that they preferred to be guided by the action of the railroad companies, and any device made standard by them would, in their opinion, be the best recommendation for such device.
In 1882 the Connecticut Railroad Commissioners recommended to the Legislature that automatic couplers be required on all new cars.
In 1883 the Massachusetts Commissioners expressed the hope that the Master Car Builders' Association would at its convention agree upon some type of coupler for freight cars.
In 1884 the Association selected Mr. M. N. Forney to conduct tests of automatic couplers and report. Attention was called at that time to less than a dozen varieties that were worthy of consideration. With this action of the Association as a guide, the Massachusetts Commissioners undertook to solve the problem, and announced that they would not prescribe any coupler that had not been tested in actual traffic, but notified the railroad companies in the State that all new cars, and cars requiring new couplers, should be provided with one of five kinds specified. It happened that the kinds specified would not couple with each other.
In 1885 public tests were held at Buffalo by Mr. Forney. Forty-two couplers were tested, twelve of which were recommended for further tests. In the following year the trials made of power brakes on freight trains made it very evident that the link and pin type of coupling would not suffice, and it was eliminated from further consideration.
In 1887 the Executive Committee reported in favor of the Janney type of coupler and all other forms that would automatically couple with it under all conditions of service. This report was adopted in 1888 by a vote of 474 for and 194 against. The Executive Committee then undertook to establish contour lines, drawings and templates as standard, but found that the Janney patents covered the contour of vertical plane couplers. This was remedied in 1888, when the Janney Coupler Company waived all claims for patents on contour lines of coupling surfaces of car couplers used on railroads members of the Master Car Builders' Association, which enabled the Association to formally adopt in all respects this type of coupler as standard. At the convention of 1889 such action was taken, on motion of Mr. Voorhees, General Superintendent of the New York Central Railroad, and since that time this type of coupler has been the standard, and called the "Master Car Builders' Coupler."
In 1893 Congress enacted a law requiring all railroads engaged in interstate commerce to provide on all cars and locomotives a continuous power brake capable of being controlled by the engineman in the locomotive cab, and also automatic couplers which would operate by impact. January 1, 1898, was the date set by which these changes must be made—subsequently extended two years. We now have uniformity in height and contour to insure perfect contact between all classes of equipment, and a positively locked knuckle. The design and attachments to car body are prescribed of a strength in excess of the power of locomotives, and in modern friction draft gear the strength reaches 250,000 pounds.
SIGNALING.