There is a Trains article about a trip over Tennessee Pass as part of
a doubleheader for a passenger train - they describe the process
quite well - the author was in the cab for the trip.
The D&RGW/D&RG (pre 1923, meaning in this case, Utah) regularly had
4-6+ locomotives on the head end of passenger trains going over
Soldier Summit, there are various images of this, mostly in postcard
form out on the web.
There was a recent NP Mainliner issue with an article of operations
of a troop train with double headed power in winter. Very well done.
One of the main problems with such things, especially with a longer
helper session, is servicing - coal an water. They typically would
run the helper separately to the tank, but that wasn't always
possible - the signals to archive precise spotting could be
cacophonous. Double or triple that and in a canyon, the noise must
have been either beautiful or terrible depending on your
viewpoint. I'd imagine the reverb whistles might have added to the
entertainment, if not the enginemen issues.
If interested, I can dig out the references for such operations,
another source are the Western Railroader series of interview books
that include operations on the Moffat, DSP&P, Boulder and other
Colorado operations. Lathrop's articles and books, while not always
100% accurate, still provide a lot of "you are there" type of
information on mountain operations. As John says, the C&TS still
does it, but uses (mostly) radios for communications. The D&SNG also
use radios.
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