Abstract: A hook-type railroad car coupling includes a hook vertically centered and laterally offset in a pocket opening in the front face and a guide pin and hole at opposite top corners. At one side of the bottom a guide horn extends beyond the hook, the front plate having an opening beside the horn and below the hook. A guide wedge is inside the opening to contact the horn of the mating head and improve the parallelism of the front faces of the heads as they come together.

Abstract: An assembly for absorbing energy between first and second bodies subject to relative movement comprising a cutting ring on one of the bodies dimensioned to cut into and remove a layer from a cylindrical member on the other body. The ring has an annular cutting edge with an inner diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the cylinder member. The two bodies can be, for example, two tubes forming a coupling device between two railroad cars. The outer surface of the cylindrical member can have longitudinal grooves to promote small chip formation during the cutting operation, thereby reducing the chance of jamming.