Here are some of the results from my latest operating and photography session. The operating side was interesting, as I was controlling the two locos independently from separate throttles on the same handset, and balancing their individual throttle settings by watching the tension in the coupling between them. The technique seems to work well. Since my normal loco policy is to have a cosmetic hook & screw coupling on the front of the loco, I keep a few 3-lonk chains to couple to the locos in the event of double-heading, banking, or hauling wagons only fitted with hook-&-chain couplings.
And now for the photos. They are aimed at finding some new viewpoints on the railway, using an 11-coach train headed by Hornby Bulleid pacific 34067 "Tangmere", and piloted by Midland 3F 0-6-0 43218. This is a combination that could have happened in real life in the 1950s or early 1960s on the Somerset and Dorset line between Bath and Bournemouth, where freight engines were regularly used to assist the pacifics over the 1 in 50 gradients of the Mendip hills. A train of 11 coaches would certainly have required assistance, and the same is true on the 1 in 50 gradients of my railway, where Tangmere would not have been able to move 11 coaches without the pilot engine.
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