P. T. Barnum would have loved the Triplex. It was an engine of superlatives: more drivers than anything before or since, too big for the shops of its owner, the Erie Railroad, powerful enough to pull a train nearly five miles long. Ninety years ago, in the days before multiple-unit control allowed one throttle to control several locomotives, the Triplex was the ultimate attempt to put as much power as possible in the hands of a single engineer. In the end, it proved a noble, flamboyant, but less-than-successful experiment. Baldwin Locomotive Works built three triplexes between 1914 and 1916 for pusher service on the Erie Railroad's daunting Susquehanna Hill (also known as Gulf Summit) near Deposit, N.Y. The cylinders of the Triplex's middle engine were powered by high pressure steam direct from the boiler, while the front and rear engines used low pressure steam exhausted from the middle cylinders.

Each triplex replaced three ordinary helper engines, and the new locomotives worked well enough to stay on the Erie roster for more than a decade. But the design proved a bit over the top and only one more Triplex was ever built, for the Virginian Railway. Even with their huge boilers, the locomotives could only make enough steam to go 10 mph. One reason was poor draft in the firebox, because only the front cylinders exhausted through the smokebox and created draft; the rear cylinders exhausted through a separate smokestack on the tender. Another inherent problem with the design was that traction from the rear engine decreased as the boiler used coal and water and the tender got lighter.

The M.T.H. Triplex recreates the flamboyance of the original design but runs much better than the prototype ever did. Only MTH engineering could make such a complex model run smoothly and steadily at speeds from a barely perceptible crawl to wide-open throttle - just ask any modeler who owns an M.T.H. O scale or One Gauge Triplex. The Triplex returns to our HO lineup, complete with a full range of engine sounds, puffing smoke, speed control, full Rule 17 lighting, and ready to run under conventional, DCC, or M.T.H. Digital Command System (DCS) control.

For those who have operated Marklin HO AC 3-rail trains in the past, this particular version of the Triplex is equipped with Proto-Sound 3E+ and will give you an opportunity to run sound-equipped North American prototypes on your railroad with your Marklin DCC command control system.

Outfitted with NEM 311 wheels and NEM 365 couplers, each of these engines feature an all-new version of Proto-Sound 3.0, contain a third rail sliding shoe for use with Marklin HO stud rail and can operate on AC power. Like their 3.0 counterparts, Proto-Sound 3E+ locomotives feature full digital sound, synchronized puffing smoke timed to the locomotive's drive wheel' revolutions, speed control, 28 DCC functions*, hundreds of DCS sounds and features** and a command control receiver for use with Marklin DCC control systems.

Each die-cast steam locomotive is intricately detailed to reflect the prototype's unique look. The balanced 12-volt, 5-pole precision skewed flywheel equipped motor ensures that these locomotives will be the smoothest running engines on your roster. And now, thanks to Proto-Sound 3E+, they'll be the most fun to hear and control as well.

* Requires any DCC controller with 28 function capability
** Requires DCS System

Did You Know?

The Triplex was engineered to haul 640 fifty-ton cars in a train almost five miles long. But the couplers and draft gear of the early twentieth century could not have handled such a load, so the 2-8-8-8-2 was used as a pusher and never put to a full test.