>>1243742>No, I'm saying the cars themselves get uncoupled and switched frequently. They don't stay together.In Europe, the wagons (I'm going to use wagon to refer to European versions, and car to refer to North American versions) for containers almost always are kept together in the same rake. They are usually also at the same length to allow them to fit inside container portals like the ones pictured above.
Much like a container ship, containers are unloaded at a portal and then loaded onto a rake of wagons. Once full, an electric loco will attach itself by chain and then proceed to another portal somewhere else in Europe where the containers are unloaded into a portal and sorted accordingly.
>Oh my god dude, this is so easy. You use adapter cars between the locomotive and rolling stock until everything is standardized to automatic couplers.Adapters have existed to allow for chain and buffer locomotives to attach to Scharfenburg Couplers. As stated above though, pretty much every European rail operator, both publically owned and privately owned have locomotives equipped with chains and buffers. Introducing an automatic coupler like the Scharfenburg would then start up interoperability issues, primarily being the need to use an adaptor for all existing wagons and carriages, and that will make the train operators ask the question: why bother introducing an automatic coupler for everything while wagons and carriages are still using chain and buffer and then be forced to use adaptors for years when you can just keep using chain and buffer now?
The idea of using automatic couplers for freight and long distance (slow) passenger routes just doesn't make sense. Pic related is what an existing adaptor looks like (coupled to a Class 373 on its way to be scrapped).