{"data":{"id":"us/49-cfr-215.123","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"49 CFR 215.123","heading":"Defective couplers.","body":"A railroad may not place or continue in service a car, if—\n(a) The car is equipped with a coupler shank that is bent out of alignment to the extent that the coupler will not couple automatically with the adjacent car;\n(b) The car has a coupler that has a crack in the highly stressed junction area of the shank and head as shown in the figure below (see figure 2).\n(c) The car has a coupler knuckle that is broken or cracked on the inside pulling face of the knuckle.\n(d) The car has a knuckle pin or knuckle thrower that is:\n(1) Missing; or\n(2) Inoperative; or\n(e) The car has a coupler retainer pin lock that is—\n(1) Missing; or\n(2) Broken; or\n(f) The car has a coupler with any of the following conditions:\n(1) The locklift is inoperative;\n(2) The coupler assembly does not have anticreep protection to prevent unintentional unlocking of the coupler lock; or\n(3) The coupler lock is—\n(i) Missing;\n(ii) Inoperative;\n(iii) Bent;\n(iv) Cracked; or\n(v) Broken.","path":["Title 49—Transportation","Subtitle B—Other Regulations Relating to Transportation","CHAPTER II—FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION","PART 215—RAILROAD FREIGHT CAR SAFETY STANDARDS","Subpart B—Freight Car Components"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-49.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:26:34Z","sha256":"58a4b9cb3c64d98b1d0757190a7808e9948c2760f6395a392973fa9cd305079e","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/49-cfr-215.121","next":"us/49-cfr-215.125"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}