A coupler

A compact railway couple 30 with a two-stage buffer column 39 mounted to the frame by a gimbal arrangement 31, 38 allowing the buffer column to pivot horizontally and/or vertically. Gimbal frames 33, 34 surround and overlap the buffer column and where there is more than one the cuboidal frames 33, 34 are such that their pivots are orthogonal. The buffer column is a two stage type having a recoverable (elastic) buffer element (53, fig 4) which can attenuate buff and draft forces, and a non-recoverable (plastic) buffer element (51, fig 4) to attenuate buff forces at or exceeding a threshold energy level. The non-recoverable buffer element comprises a hollow tube (47, fig 4) expanded by a tapered wedge (49, fig 4) and surrounds part of the recoverable buffer element (53, fig 4).