I'm a little confused by the first part of the question. The common tender for the 260 and 263 is the Vanderbilt tender, which is an oil tender, no coal load. The 262 tender has a coal load, which is loose in the tender. It kind of snaps in if I recall. I believe all of the tender shells for these are attached with screws. The MTH tenders are replicas of the Lionel Vanderbilt tender and should be interchangeable with Lionel. My MTH 260 tender has a tether, which I believe is used for the automatic coupler.
George