Each car's brake pipe ends in a flexible hose with a cast fitting and a rubber gasket, and two of these fittings twist together to make an airtight joint between cars. Railroaders call them glad hands because a coupled pair looks like two hands clasped in greeting. When cars separate the hoses pull apart at the glad hands on their own, and a missing or cracked gasket is one of the most common causes of brake pipe leaks.
Glad hands on that tank car are missing a gasket, toss me one out of the bucket before we lace it up.
Truckers use the same name for the air couplings between a tractor and its trailer.
Also heard as
- hose couplings
- air hose couplings
Related terms
Lace up the air
To connect the air hoses between cars and open the angle cocks so the brake pipe runs through.
Brake pipe
The air line running the full length of a train that charges and controls every car's brakes.
Pull the pin
To uncouple cars by lifting the coupler's pin with the cut lever; also, to retire from the railroad.