I have four MTH steamers, and all have exhibited some, or all, of the symptoms described by Ed.
I have solved the pickup problem by adding plunger pickups to the inside face of the driver wheels and the tender wheels.
The tethers are another matter. Each has its own flaws. The wireless tether I have had no electrical problems with, but none of their fixed lengths are short enough to couple my L1 to its tender within a short enough distance to have a sensible firing plate. The old Anaconda tether works fine if one is willing to settle for a 2 foot gap (yes, that's half an inch) between loco and tender. making the gap shorter by choosing the "display hole" in the drawbar causes the rather large tether plug to foul the tender on curves. It also puts a sideways stress on the socket, and eventually loosens the solder connectors to the board. Converting to a straight tether gets rid of the Anaconda (BE AWARE THE PIN MAPING IS NOT THE SAME) allos close coupling and a realistic appearance, but evenually loosens the socket solder connections.
To be fair, I have not had pulling issues, but then three of mine do not have trailing trucks, and the one that does has a rather weak spring.
