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Your'e welcome Quentin.  Yes, it does look like a rather frail coupler link, but I would guess that the link & pin coupler era, where this type of front coupler rod was used, did not entail much pushing with locomotives as helpers on the hind end of trains.  I had not really thought about that until now, but I don’t recall ever seeing a 4-4-0 of this era pushing on the train.  However, I suppose the front coupling bar was used for switching operations, which would have entailed shoving cars.  I think where it was commonly used was for double heading where it would have been in tension.  <o:p></o:p> I am not exactly sure if there was a clear standard on this, but link & pin couplers were not as adept at withstanding shoving force, as are the automatic couplers that replaced them.  With link & pin couplers, many cars had dead blocks on the end sills.  So when you shoved on a cut of cars, the slack bunched against the dead blocks rather than bunching the couplers together.  The couplers were only subjected to tension force of pulling the cars.  It was similar to the European system that uses buffers for the compression or shoving force.  <o:p></o:p> Theoretically, link & pin couplers should withstand compression force directly through their coupler bodies.  But couplers of the link & pin era varied greatly.  They were not even standardized necessarily well enough to always mate together.  So the dead blocks eliminated at least the compression part of the coupler task.  But like the variation in couplers, the dead blocks were not universally applied to any standard either.   <o:p></o:p> With the long coupling link on the front of engines with long cowcatchers, and nothing on the engine to engage any opposing dead blocks, I would think that shoving, especially more than one or two cars, could have easily jackknifed, maybe derailing the engine or the car it was pushing.  <o:p></o:p> The #999 was indeed famous for setting a speed record, but alas, that one too has been “debunked” by the modern “experts.”  But even though its speed title has been besmirched, it was undisputedly the most handsome locomotive ever built.  But like the speed record, its striking appearance was lost in a rebuilding at some early point.            <o:p></o:p> There are some excellent photos of #999 if I can figure out a way to post them or link to them.
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