Ok so I have an interesting question. Is it actually possible to break a coupler and is there any way to show slacking and bunching physics? never experienced it but am curious.
It's possible to have consists split yeah, which means a broken coupler. Though TSC doesn't simulate a damaged knuckle visually. It happened a lot because for some time, DTG used slackless couplings. TSC does simulate the forces traveling through the train, and there was a lot of consists splits reported on Donner Pass, Sherman Hill and other US routes. In Run 8 you can display a small hud that shows which part of your train has the highest forces acting upon them. When starting a long train, The forces travel from the front to the back. If you have a DPU pushing, forces on the frontmost couplings are lessened. When climbing over a hill, and the rear of your train is still going upward, the front already downhill, the chances of a mid breakup are high. You'd use DPU fencing here and have the rear locos running in higher notches than the front - TSC can't do this. TSC has strength, and max force values in their coupler blueprints. Now when you don't have slack in your train, the forces cannot distribute and travel. The front must instantly pull the full weight of the train from a standstill, whereas in reality you'd slowly stretch the train, with the weight of the cars adding in as you're accelerating. So yes, by adding slack the consist splits disappeared. You'll just not get a damaged coupler like in Run8 which you must replace then. TSC simulates broken couplers if the forces that are acting on them are big enough. A reason why they had removed the slack was players complaining. A lot of the default cab cameras define swaying parameters that amplify the forces, leading to an uncomfortable bumping when stretching your train, or when dynamics kick in you feel the back of the train ramming into your loco way too hard. I'm currently testing for better cab camera sway values, this effect must be eliminated here. Here's where I adressed these issues: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/the-big-buckeye-coupler-fixes-thread.50579/ There's a pretty rough track section on Sherman Hill, I think it's east of Dale Jct, were you can be sure your train splits if long and heavy enough using the default couplings. After a split, there's only a small chance of recoupling because of a bug in TSC. The part of the consist you're losing will become "dead" if you're at a certain distance from it. It will be stationary on the track but its momentum is not reset and will freeze at the value when the split occured. So when you're approaching it and the consist becomes active (physics calculations are active), it will suddenly ram you and derail most of the time. It also happens on WCML North, Class 70 scenario "Keep on Running", which is the only non-US split I've ever experienced. The track section down to Beattock is extremely rough and violently shakes the train. I've modified the coupling blueprints of the used tankers accordingly and it worked.
