Re: Locomotive Coupler Question

PRSL, thanks for the information. I do know there were still link and pin couplers in use when my
Dad started with the "Q" in 1911. I asked him one time about the trainmen with missing fingers and
he explained how the link and pin couplers worked.
His thought that a man who used his hand to position a link was just asking to get hurt and
said he always used a stick he carried to lift the link.
Dad was a member of ORC Lodge # 112 and maintained the grave markers the club furnisher for deceased members. The brass markers which are
a little over 6" dia. carried an image of a hand reaching for a link between two couplers, an arm draped with a coupling chain, and of an arm, with a lantern in the crook of the elbow, reaching for a grabiron. Around the perimeter it reads "Order of Railway Conductors. Division No." with the
divison number in a tab below the circle.
One of my regrets is that I didn't realize that with Dad being a "Q" employee, I could have ridden all over the C&S on a Q pass ! As you know, railroaders are always give great treatment
to the families of other railraders, so I know it would have been a great experience.
Jim