HiDef: Not 1 but 2 Broken Couplers!! Classic Joint Line...!

This was a very odd, and very rare sight at Palmer Lake today. Not 1 but 2 broken couplers on a Southbound BNSF coal train. According to my own intuition, The train probably was pulling too hard after it passed the summit causing the weakest couplers on the train to pull apart and break. The train blocked the only railroad crossing in town for 3 hours, while crews replaced the couplers. This was the first time I've seen anything like it so it was definitely intriguing! Enjoy and fell free to comment!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Trains
• BNSF
• Burlington
• Northern
• Santa
• Fe
• train
• locomotive
• rail
• broken
• coupler
• coal
• crews
• Palmer
• Lake
• Colorado
• Pikes
• peak
• subdivision
• Joint
• Line
• summit
• railroad
• replace
• car
• ES44AC
• SD70ACe
• SD70MAC
• UP
• Union
• Pacific

[penguingeneral2]

Your sound is really good. Do you have special equiptment?

[trainsruleandroll]

@penguingeneral2 None, just a built in mic.

[dbdrdbag]

It looks easy just to put the part back to the coupler. No welding needed?

[trainsruleandroll]

@dbdrdbag Even I was surprised! :)

[aval1998]

i wonder why the pins never break...

[GEES44DC]

@BordelDeMerle It's the fastest way of doing it when in the field and there is no one else around. The conductor tells the engineer what type of knuckle to drop off, has the engineer drop said knuckle off, pulls the train up, conductor throws the knuckle on, backs up, recouples ... and away they go.

[BordelDeMerle]

@GEES44DC Why?

[tpwtrainboy2010]

good video 5 ***** stars



[vac0002]

The coupler was fine.  It's just the knukcle that broke. :)

[trainfanatic1100]

The couplers look indestructible!

[petro062]

Great train action.

[normanmj]

Is there a minimum distance that you gotta have between the two sections of train while you replace the knuckles?