I recall a 1956 Dodge commercial with a car pulling four Union Pacific streamlined passenger cars.
As to the strap, some railroads supply locomotives with straps instead of chains, in case it is necessary to move a car with the drawbar broken on the "wrong" end to set it out, in the nearest siding or spur. Chains are heavy, and the use of them carries more injury risk than use of the strap. Usually, one employee has to do all the work of chaining or strapping the bad-order car to the drawbar of the one ahead.
