One of the joys of riding steam fantrips is watching the highway insanity while you relax. Before NS axed its steam program, my wife and I rode behind N&W 611 and 1218 on several trips and treasure the memories. One thing we noticed while behind 1218 is that we could feel the two "engines" work in and out of unison as she dug in to start those monster fantrip trains.
I had the pleasure of riding on a logging Mallet a few times. When starting out, if she would slip, the noise and vibrations were quite an attention getter.
Our son-in-law took the photo from our front porch with his smart phone and I’m pretty sure he used some iPhone camera filter to enhance it. It does look cool.
The 4014 has the PTC screen and controls, but still needs the trailing engine's electronics for now for PTC to work. From what I've read they are trying to figure a way to add what they need to the 4014 itself. The trailing diesel in most places probably does nothing but ride along. Most think of using the diesel for power, but it's probably used more for dynamic braking, saving wear and tear on the train's brakes.
You can tell how much the diesel is contributing just by listening to the 4014. In the video I posted, you can hear her work. In most videos, you can tell they are just loping her along as there is little to no chuffing. I mean, that's a basic thing with steamers - the louder the chuffing, the more they are working. I wish some of you guys would get over the diesel being there. This isn't 60 - 80 years ago. They HAVE TO have a backup source of power. For me, I am just glad they restored her and we get to actually see her in action in real life. Doug
One thing I like about that back-up diesel, it has silver painted trucks and is an older SD70. I like the looks of it.
I do like the fact that diesel helps with braking, I just wish that it was the set of E8`s,they look so much better.