I’ve been fooling around with double headed steam engines again. In my first video I was trying to see how many freight cars that could be pulled using double headed steam engines on a level loop of track.
In my new video I tried to see how many short postwar boxcars that to steamers would pull going up the steep incline of the inner loop of the layout. For some added action, I also added shots of the cars being organized in the freight yard as well as engines being called up and returned to the engine yard.
Have you ‘fortified’ the couplers on your boxcars? My Motocraft boxcar is unreliable in a long train unless it is a few cars from the end. One of these days I’ll find some small rubber bands and fix it.
I know what you mean about unreliable couplers. The couplers from the MPC era and most from more recent eras that have the single piece plastic uncoupler spring/pin/lever are prone to opening under heavy load. Most of these also have the integral knuckle/spring and the springs end up fatigued after several years. On most of mine (including the Motorcraft) I have replaced both trucks with postwar trucks. There are 2 types of postwar trucks, one has a metal plate on the bottom that is attracted to the magnetic uncoupler track and has a metal coupler and metal spring. The other postwar type has a metal button for the uncoupler and a plastic coupler and metal spring. If you have trouble with postwar trucks uncoupling, remember they are 50 years old and may need adjusting. The pin springs may need to be increased in tension by careful bending, The metal knuckles that are crimped to the metal truck plate may need tightening or the knuckle pin may need to be tightened where the pin is crimped to the metal plate.
There were two companion articles, titled “Doublehead those steamers!”, on page 86 of the January, 1999, CTT on how to add front couplers in ways that did not permanently alter the locomotives.