Mostly a repeat of my photos above, but there is some operating footage at the end of this brief video I put together yesterday. The caboose running at the end of the train is an MTH product from the early 2000s. It's the closest steam era appropriate N&W caboose I was able to dig up. I doubt it's a perfect match for any true prototype other than the paint scheme, but it serves the purpose until someone comes up with something better.
A couple comments about the force coupler, I too noted some of the quirks mentioned above in its operation. At one point I deactivated the feature as outlined in the manual and you can then control the "laboring" effects manually as with a normal Legacy locomotive. I haven't quite decided which way I like better yet.
