Lionel 0-6-0 Tether Appearance Improvement

Nice work Bill! Thanks for the breakdown👍

Real nice work, Bill. One quick suggestion: get yourself a foam cradle. You’ll love it for projects like this and it will get used over and over. Again, nice work - the tether looks a lot better wrapped.

One way to get a smaller sleeve on it would be to simply remove the contacts from the connector one at a time and shove them through the sleeve and reconnect them.  When you get all done, the sleeve is on and you didn't have to thread it over the large connector.  The reason for one at a time is to make sure you don't mix up the wires.

You can buy split loom

John

@Craftech posted:

You can buy split loom

Not sure that would work as well as the stuff he's using.  When the split flexes, it will open, it's not nearly flexible enough for a short run like the tether.  The braided stuff is very flexible and will bend with the tether.

Not sure how well it would work in actual practice, but a short length of shrink wrap (1/4" to 3/8") at each end might tame those braided ends without needing as much heat as it would to melt the braid...

Actually, it's best to only put the heatshrink on one end and let the other end "float".  If you put it on both ends, it wrinkles up when it flexes. You melt the braid enough to avoid it unraveling on the free end.

Don't ask me how I know this.

You're welcome @RickO hope it helps. I may try the smaller diameter sleeve. I'll report back if I do.

@Rider Sandman I need a foam cradle bad. I normally would use a thick folded towel at least but I did this one in a hurry so I was just gentle about it.

@gunrunnerjohn the bundles of wires are so neatly zip tied in the tender. I knew I could use a small diameter sleeve if I unplugged them to slip them through one at a time, but I wasn't confident I could reassemble that bundle afterwards. A smaller sleeve would definitely look better.

I'm just kind of amazed Lionel thought that the look of it as it stood was satisfactory

@BillYo414 posted:

@gunrunnerjohn the bundles of wires are so neatly zip tied in the tender. I knew I could use a small diameter sleeve if I unplugged them to slip them through one at a time, but I wasn't confident I could reassemble that bundle afterwards. A smaller sleeve would definitely look better.

I'm confused, I'm talking about this end of the tether.  I don't see any bundling that you'd be disturbing.  Those wires come out individually.

@Andrew B. posted:

I'm just kind of amazed Lionel thought that the look of it as it stood was satisfactory

Fwiw. When Dave Olson demoed the prototype on "Demo's with Dave". It had a sleeve on it.

Was it supposed to? Did the factory make a field change? I'm sure we'll never know.

The tether is a weak link, but it's the only option in order to offer this engine with Legacy. The boiler is simply too small for the command boards. All of the  command functions go through the tether to the loco.

In the past. The only thing the tender handled was sound. This engine is completely the opposite of every steamer Lionel has offered since the advent of tmcc.

For anyone who has one of these. If you are experiencing running issues or a non operating front coupler. Most likely the tether is not fully seated.

At least Dave managed to shoehorn in the swinging bell feature to take one's mind off the tether.

@BillYo414 posted:

You're welcome @RickO hope it helps. I may try the smaller diameter sleeve. I'll report back if I do.

@Rider Sandman I need a foam cradle bad. I normally would use a thick folded towel at least but I did this one in a hurry so I was just gentle about it.

@gunrunnerjohn the bundles of wires are so neatly zip tied in the tender. I knew I could use a small diameter sleeve if I unplugged them to slip them through one at a time, but I wasn't confident I could reassemble that bundle afterwards. A smaller sleeve would definitely look better.

Rider Sandman

I'm looking for a FOAM CRADLE also!  Collectors Choice , who usd to make them went out of business!!  Bowser makes one,  but it is too short for the longer Engines.

FREDSTRAINS

@Fredstrains posted:

Rider Sandman

I'm looking for a FOAM CRADLE also!  Collectors Choice , who usd to make them went out of business!!  Bowser makes one,  but it is too short for the longer Engines.

FREDSTRAINS

Hello Fred. I have the Bowser - $18 in stock on Amazon. I’ve used it to change traction tires on a Legacy Mallet. That’s the biggest steam engine I have. Given the reasonable price, you could probably use two of them side-by-side if you have bigger stuff.

@Rider Sandman posted:

Hello Fred. I have the Bowser - $18 in stock on Amazon. I’ve used it to change traction tires on a Legacy Mallet. That’s the biggest steam engine I have. Given the reasonable price, you could probably use two of them side-by-side if you have bigger stuff.

Thanks for the reply,

Will probably have to do that for theChallengers and Bigboys!!  Thanks again.

FREDSTRAINS

@RickO posted:

Fwiw. When Dave Olson demoed the prototype on "Demo's with Dave". It had a sleeve on it.

Was it supposed to? Did the factory make a field change? I'm sure we'll never know.

The tether is a weak link, but it's the only option in order to offer this engine with Legacy. The boiler is simply too small for the command boards. All of the  command functions go through the tether to the loco.

In the past. The only thing the tender handled was sound. This engine is completely the opposite of every steamer Lionel has offered since the advent of tmcc.

For anyone who has one of these. If you are experiencing running issues or a non operating front coupler. Most likely the tether is not fully seated.

At least Dave managed to shoehorn in the swinging bell feature to take one's mind off the tether.

I understand that, but every tethered locomotive in O scale I have seen prior to this one had the tether sleeved in some way (3rd Rail, Atlas, MTH, etc). Doesn't make sense that the "leader" in O would say, "Meh, who cares."

The really ideal answer would have been for something more akin to the MTH wireless tether but with some engineering improvements to mitigate the loss of connection issues that sometimes occur with those.

@Andrew B. posted:

Doesn't make sense that the "leader" in O would say, "Meh, who cares."

The really ideal answer would have been for something more akin to the MTH wireless tether but with some engineering improvements to mitigate the loss of connection issues that sometimes occur with those.

Like I said, we don't know if it was done because Lionel didn't care. They used ball bearings in the gearbox on these. Who cares. Most people never see inside the gearbox.

What's the mth drawbar 8, 10, pins tops? Were talking a 20 pin drawbar design. Possibly a 1" wide drawbar?

You can forget about close coupling and O-31 and probably O-36 for that matter.

20 lines could be easily accommodated in a narrow drawbar, the harder part would be the connectors at the ends.  Obviously, doing 20 lines in a compact drawbar would necessitate a multi-layer board and small connectors, that would add to the expense.  I'm guessing this was the low cost option with the big clunky connector and separate wires.

Of course, Lionel could have also gone with much fewer wires with a small MUX board in the engine to split out the wires.  Six wires would do the trick just fine, (2) motor, power, ground, serial data, clock.

In my opinion, the tether is an unacceptable way to deliver a steam engine model at a price of more than $700 even in this day and age. I'm glad I didn't buy one and will just keep running my MTH version.

MELGAR

Not having ordered one of these, I definitely see the tether the way it is as an issue. The Pennsy B6's tether was all wound up solid like a big plastic bar that you couldn't bend. This doesn't make any sense why they wouldn't have popped something over all the wires.

I think you guys are all just jealous, cause your switchers don't have a swinging bell....

The one Eric had also had the swinging bell Rick, don't remember what road that was as I sort of was listening more than watching. I'm surprised he didn't discuss the tether about how it looked. He was more about how the tying in of the engine and the tender being as one to get over the dead spots in switches.

@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

He was more about how the tying in of the engine and the tender being as one to get over the dead spots in switches.

I saw that as well. On the B6 a few years back, its about tieing the power rollers together. On these USRA 0-6-0's EVERYTHING is in the tender, including the Legacy antenna.

I don't have a B6 for comparison but this USRA 0-6-0 is tiny, most notably in boiler diameter. It makes my old TMCC USRA 0-8-0 look like a berkshire.  It is what it is, just trying to find the Lemonaide in it. Its an outstanding performer when it comes to slow speed switching moves, and thats what its for.

Besides, if the tether ever fails down the road. I'll just have gunrunnerjohn fix it. I'll have him do it up right, sleeve and all.

@RickO posted:

I saw that as well. On the B6 a few years back, its about tieing the power rollers together. On these USRA 0-6-0's EVERYTHING is in the tender, including the Legacy antenna.

I don't have a B6 for comparison but this USRA 0-6-0 is tiny, most notably in boiler diameter. It makes my old TMCC USRA 0-8-0 look like a berkshire.  It is what it is, just trying to find the Lemonaide in it. Its an outstanding performer when it comes to slow speed switching moves, and thats what its for.

Besides, if the tether ever fails down the road. I'll just have gunrunnerjohn fix it. I'll have him do it up right, sleeve and all.

I think that the B6 may be just a tad bit bigger on the shell, but hardly by much. I have a few of them, but I don't have the 0-6-0. Guessing that between the 0-6-0, B6 and the A5, real small shells.

John can definitely make that engine tether much better. Just listening to John talk about some of the things he has done to what he has worked on(this is in person mind you), it would be magical.

@Andrew B. posted:

I'm just kind of amazed Lionel thought that the look of it as it stood was satisfactory

Doesn't matter to me. That's the point of this cheap fix. You also wouldn't see it if a layout height was lower enough.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I'm confused, I'm talking about this end of the tether.

I definitely misread what you said. You're right but I wasn't sure how those wires came out. That would definitely be the better way to do it. You could probably leave the tender shell on, which would negate the need for a foam cradle.

@BillYo414 posted:

I definitely misread what you said. You're right but I wasn't sure how those wires came out. That would definitely be the better way to do it. You could probably leave the tender shell on, which would negate the need for a foam cradle.

Look closely at the connector.  Use an X-acto knife to gently lift the plastic locking tab enough to slide the contact out.  Run that through the braid and plug it back in again.  Repeat until you run out of wires.

Note that the tiny bump on the contact faces the locking tab. the actual contact surface goes to the inside of that connector.

I frequently work on stuff like this without the cradle.  I just lay an old towel on the bench.  Also, you can unplug any shell connections and set the tender shell aside for the job.