MTH Triplex

[S&G Rute of the Silver River]

Think of how much it'd weigh. I'm thinking of all those spindily tressals that most shays ran over that'd crush those eazy. and if you ever had to turm that around....

[Snoq. Pass RR]

Which bugger?  14-Truck Shay or the Triplex?  A side not about the 14 Truck.  When the B&O Rail Museum had a fire, about '95 I think, they did an inspection of all artifacts that may have been damaged.  Someone wrote down that a "14 Truck Shay was inspected".  What he ment to say was that "#1 a 4 Truck Shay was inspected".  But just think about a 14 Truck shay steaming down your line, or imagin the number of cars you could pull, imagin how much you would now be in debt......

[S&G Rute of the Silver River]

Just another 14 truck shay olny this one got built. Now Issac if that bugger will even fit in your house...

[cabbage]

At this time the Garratt was a small Narrow Gauge design.

20 years would pass until the dawn of the age of the BIG Garratt.

regards

ralph

[DMUinCT]

Your right, The Virginian triplex had a 4 wheel trailing truck.  It looks like a longer water tank section to the Tender from the prototype photo.  2-8-8-8-4  The 700, built in 1916 was dismatled in 1920 and rebuilt into a 2-8-8-0.  It was scrapped in 1953.  The original Tender was retained on 4 wheel trucks, it sat low like a switcher tender.  Also the Virginian version has the Headlight on the Pilot Platform, the ERIE on the Smoke Box front.

And yes Erie had three 2-8-8-8-2.

MTH built the model in "O" gauge a few years ago and will now build it in "G".  I suspect the catalog photos are the "O" gauge version.

[Ray Dunakin]

The Triplex design seems like one of the "wouldn't it be cool" ideas; something that in theory is pretty neat but in practice is not really practical.

I wonder if they would have been better off just building a huge Garratt instead?

[Snoq. Pass RR]

I heard somewhere that the Virginian #700 was actually a 2-8-8-8-4, and that Erie had three 2-8-8-8-2s.  But yes the Virginian #700 then bacame a 2-8-8-0 and a 2-8-2.  But anyway, the middle driver recieved the high pressure steam, which was then piped to the front and back drivers.  From the front driver, the steam went out through the stack.  From the back driver, the steam went out through a stack in the tender.

Just think, these suckers where the largest tank locomotives in the world!!!!!!

[DMUinCT]

The big Baldwin mistake!  Steaming three engines from one boiler!  Only three were built.   The two built for the ERIE went to an early retirement, The Virginian did it right.

They sent it back to Baldwin where it was converted to a 2-8-8-0 with plenty of steam. The 3rd engine from under the tender had a new boiler added and built into a 2-8-2 Mike.  Both ran on for 25 more years.

Now, how long will we have to wait for MTH to import it?

 (click photo to enlarge) (from MTH 2007 "Gauge One "G" Catalog)

[Snoq. Pass RR]

When I got to page 31 of the August GR in the midst of the TrainWorld flyer, I noticed a photo of a MTH Railking 2-8-8-8-2 Triplex.  Man did my jaw drop.  I am somewhat shocked, but delighted, that someone is actually making one of them.  Too bad the real ones had steam problems and became normal mallets.  If you have not seen, take a look.  Page 31 > right column > towards the bottom > and there it is, one mighty fine 2-8-8-8-2 Triplex.  Can't wait to see the model photos.