Just For Fun

I've been busily reshooting videos of my various locomotives in True HD 1080p using my new camcorder.  The latest video isn't a reshoot but rather is an original video that I've never shot before.  When reshooting the videos for the two Triplexes (Triplices?), Erie and Virginian, I started to wonder how much they could haul.  With the real coal loads made by my friend Bob (http://www.bobscoalloads.com), the coal hoppers are quite heavy and I wanted to see if one Triplex could haul all of the hoppers that I have, a total of 27.  The short answer is yes, pulling that much weight was no problem.  Well, at least for the Triplex.  The problem was that the couplers on the hoppers couldn't handle that much weight and the train kept breaking apart!  Now, I could have just wired the couplers shut and been done with it, but the fact that I use DCS opens up other answers to the problem.  In this case, since I was using the Erie Triplex, I went ahead and put the Erie Angus (the 0-8-8-0 camelback) at the end of the train, lashed-up the two locomotives using DCS, and as you can see in the video, it worked flawlessly in keeping the train from breaking apart under its own weight.  And, while you might never have seen a Triplex and an Angus on the same train in the real world, this is my railroad and on my railroad they work happily together!  Enjoy!  🙂