Tried to do a service twice, I coupled up at about 5mph and it caused derail both times. pretty sure the game likes it under 10mph on all other routes.
10mph is very fast for coupling - I normally try to go maximum 2mph, and I've seen derailments in-game at 5mph and above.
Must admit I also aim for circa 2mph as well. It's not really a speed as such - it'll be down to the physics of the wagons, couplings, the curvature of the track and so forth - how well does it survive the jolt. If everything is perfectly straight in a line it may well be fine at quite high speeds. Throw a curve or a gradient change in the mix and it'll have a less fun time. Matt.
On the RL CRR, coupling faster than 4 mph would get you an unfriendly conversation with the boss. It's even in the handbook.
I have a collection of timetables and RR memorabilia . There was a catchy saying RRs had , it was No More than 4 , the rule was any coupling speed above 4 mph can damage freight and equipment etc .i usually try to do couplings on US trains 2.5 to 3.5 mph
I try to stay under 2 mph when coupling. Any faster and I've found that rolling stock will sometimes bounce apart and make you start over.
To me a "perfect kiss" with US stock is between 0.5 and 1.0 mph (slower than a half and the couplers may not lock)
Wasn't there some TSW US locos that required you to unlock the couplings before coupling up (on many it's useless as they will lock a second later again)? I remember some tutorial scenarios telling you to do so, else you'd bump off and the automatic coupling wouldn't work.
In real life the conductor will either pull up the uncoupling lever to open the knuckle or pull it open by hand before coupling .
I always thought the limit is set at 4 MPH/6 km/h. which does seem a little finicky. In Run 8 I have banged cars together at 10 MPH without causing catastrophe, though that does kind of border on "rough shunt" territory.
As I said, there's no "limit", it's purely physics. 10mph though vern, wow definitely not giving you a buffet car if you're gonna treat it like that haha
The caboose on Clinchfield was very fussy about coupling in the past although I've had no issues recently, and haven’t even had to open one coupler to enable it to couple like I used to. I don’t know if anything changed or if I’ve just been lucky with it recently.
Managed to complete the service today I was derailing on, reduced to 2mph and got it all done, though one I accidentally coupled at over 4mph and gave it quite a jump.
