I always wanted one of those, just to say I had one. And just look at it. There’s no way it would run on my tight turns though.
" Because the tractive effort of the locomotives was so great that the couplings and frames of the cars could not withstand it,[4] the triplex locomotives could only be used to bank[1] heavy trains up steep grades."
I outta drive down there tomorrow and kick your ass for posting this! I did not need to waste time reading about it however it was an incredible read!
She was a brick house but I wonder if it was Erie’s original intention to use it as a bank locomotive or did they have other evil plans ? Had to keep up with the jone’s back in the day right?
BTW … you made me learn something and this is all your fault!
The original intent
These Triplexes were given the classification of P-1 and they could reportedly pull 650 freight cars.[2]
The triplexes were primarily used as pushers on grades requiring helper locomotives. Slow moving, the triplexes were not considered highly successful, and no more were built for Erie.
I read that one of the biggest problems was the rear drivers lost traction when the water level dropped!
Hadn’t heard that Pete it’s said that the tractive force was more than the then couplers and car frames couldn’t handle the force
I’ve asked on a number of occasions what is the maximum shear force coupler knuckle pins can withstand and have normally gotten the answer that the issue is the knuckles break before or more so then the pins. Which doesn’t answer the question. But, the shear force must be astronomical on the locomotives coupler knuckle pin .
The triplex locomotives were of the Mallet type, but with an extra set of driving wheels under the tender. The centre set of cylinders received high-pressure steam. The exhaust from these was fed to the two other sets of cylinders.[1] The right cylinder exhausted into the front set of low pressure cylinders, and the left into the rear set; this is also why the high pressure cylinders are the same diameter as the low pressure cylinders, making the engine a 2 to 1 compound, whereas most Mallet locomotives have much smaller high pressure cylinders. The front set exhausted through the smokebox and the rear set exhausted first through a feedwater heater in the tender and then through a large pipe directly to the outside, as can be seen in the photo. As only half of the exhaust steam went through the blast pipe in the smokebox, the draft in the firebox and the heating of the boiler was poor. Although the boiler was large in comparison with contemporary two-cylinder and four-cylinder locomotives, six large cylinders required more steam than even such a boiler could supply.[1]
The Erie locomotives always operated in compound mode and did not have starting valves that would have put full pressure on all six cylinders,
Even with their huge boilers, the Erie locomotives could only produce enough steam to run at 16 km/h (10 mph), the Virginian only 8.0 km/h (5 mph).[4] The reason for this was the poor performance of the boilers due to the lack of exhaust draught from the driving wheelset under the tender.[5]
The triplexes could also be considered the largest tank locomotives ever built, as the tender also had driving wheels and thus contributed to the traction. The problem of variable adhesion of the tender unit was not a serious one, as the pusher locomotives had frequent opportunities to take on additional fuel and water.
The function of the knuckle pin is to hold the knuckle in place when the knuckle is opened for coupling. If the knuckle pin is missing, the coupler is designed to carry the load as long as the knuckle remains closed. When the knuckle pin is missing the knuckle will fall out when opened for coupling. - This is one reason common safety practice is to have both feet outside the rails whenever opening the knuckle. - The amount of load capacity of the coupler and drawbar, i.e. steady state draft force, is determined by the grade of steel used in manufacture and the design.
Hope this helps.
Kenneth, Thank you. I did do a search after you answered but now it makes sense on the knuckle being the weak link. 
Well dang.
The thought plickens…
Guys I am still alive. Life’s been a bit cray cray…I can’t belive i said that. I have sorted photos. Need to edit them for physical size and data size. And then I do plan to get you a recap of my adventure. Just wanted to say hi and I am still working on bringing you my big boy adventure
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That’s got Groovy vibes man!
Swing by and pick me up on the way Bill. Maybe we can pick up Hollywood and Cliff on our way out (up to you as your driving). We’ll crash at Devon’s then You, Cliff and Devon can eat all your fun foods while Hollywood and I head into town for some good bar food and a beer!
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Rooster, when there is a group like this that gets together, usually it’s the Australian who is the designated drinker.
You guys tend to sober up too quickly when we drive. 
Game on. Just don’t forget the KFC this time, and I’ll be at the bar at 7.
Ho Lee Kow…
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(quoting Rooster, but with a different Chinese word at the end)