Link and Pin couplers became a symbol of the perils of railroading in the Nineteenth Century. From the 1830s to the 1880s, the simple link and pin coupler was the most practical method of semi-permanently attaching train cars. Responsible for unknown thousands of injuries and deaths, the technology became illegal in the United States on mainline railroads with the passage of the Railway Safety Appliance Act in 1893. With the addition of safety buffers, link and pin couplers remain in use in other parts of the world to this day.
A iron loop, or link, is inserted by hand into a pocket on one car and secured with a large iron pin. The brakeman then holds the link in one hand an a second pin in the other while the next car is pushed into position. At exactly the right moment, he must let go of the link and insert the second pin into the pocket of the oncoming car. Early cars had no means of cushioning the impact so if the brakeman's timing was off, he could loose fingers, a hand, or even be crushed completely between the two cars.
Learn more on the history of link and pins and how to add them to your models.
