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Unfortunately, I still don't have mine but I know the tether wiggles loose on my b6 loco. My solution was to plug the tether in and then put a tiny (like ball of a pen size) bead of Loctite Ultra Gel superglue in the corner of the tether and locomotive body. You should be able to scrape it off with a pocket knife if needed but it will hold the tether in.

My son got the PRR version.  He had the same issue with the short tether on tight curves.  The hole the tether comes out of the tender is somewhat tight. His had enough slack wires  inside the tender that he could pull enough out of the tender to give it  slack to prevent disconnecting on tight curves.

Everything else worked as should.  Nice engine.

@jstraw124 posted:

My son got the PRR version.  He had the same issue with the short tether on tight curves.  The hole the tether comes out of the tender is somewhat tight. His had enough slack wires  inside the tender that he could pull enough out of the tender to give it  slack to prevent disconnecting on tight curves.

Everything else worked as should.  Nice engine.

Was he able to just pull on the tether to get more slack or did he take the tender apart?  Thanks for the reply!

@BillYo414 posted:

It also never quite feels like it is seated in there. I wish it clicked or fit tighter.

Agreed. Once its plugged in, and everything works, it stays that way. There is little plug resistance holding it there. On more than one occasion I picked the engine and tender up to move them without double checking the tether and weird things happened.

If your front coupler doesn't fire, check the tether.

If it stalls and the cab light is flashing, check the tether. ( cut power and restart)

If it runs away, like its dropped in conventional, check the tether.

Looking through the side of the plug assembly, it looks as though the plug could go in a bit farther. In order to do that, the tiny alignment pin on top of the plug would need to be trimmed back.

After straightening the tender drawbar as it was bent upward slightly, and figuring out I need to used the outer hole, its been running fine for me. The inner hole can result in the deckplate hitting the tender making the loco bind up on sharper curves.

I recommend adding some grease to the gearbox and giving it some break in time to smooth out even more.

As of late, it has performed well without a hiccup over the O-36 turnouts by my icing platform.

On a side note. I'm rather excited that Lionel is getting their hands on some of the excellent Mth tooling. It has rekindled my interest in "new" Lionel offerings.   Mth tooled more, and did most of it better.

Last edited by RickO
@RickO posted:

Agreed. Once its plugged in, and everything works, it stays that way. There is little plug resistance holding it there. On more than one occasion I picked the engine and tender up to move them without double checking the tether and weird things happened.

I had some stuttering chuffs. I hope I correctly assumed it was tether related. I'm currently only running on 0-72, 0-80, 0-88, and 0-90 curves since that's all the track I have down.

@RickO posted:

Looking through the side of the plug assembly, it looks as though the plug could go in a bit farther. In order to do that, the tiny alignment pin on top of the plug would need to be trimmed back.

I'll have to take a closer look. I was planning to check into 3D printing some sort of bracket.

@RickO posted:

I recommend adding some grease to the gearbox and giving it some break in time to smooth out even more.

I'll have to open it up. I thought it sounded a little noisy, mechanically speaking. This just confirms it.

Thanks for the tips and comments! If I figure out a way to 3D print a bracket to hold that tether in, I will make a post.

I'm excited for Legacy to enter MTH tooling too. I'll always be squeamish about one large company surrounded by smaller companies but that's another discussion for another thread. For now, we can enjoy the meeting of MTH tooling and Lionel technology.

I can't seem to find the thread but I thought someone used fabric braided wire insulation or something to make a chunky tether look like a wrapped water hose. It was very effective. I wish I could find the thread so I could see what they purchased.

I think that was probably me and the tinkering I was doing with one of the Atlas O 0-6-0 swtichers.  I ended up creating two new tethers to replace the original with each covered with fabric.  I tried a bunch of different woven cable and wire coverings, but the thing that ended up working the best in that case was a shoe lace.  The trick was finding laces that had a black woven outer sheath and a separate inner core that could be pulled out.  To keep them from fraying I carefully applied a little heat to the ends and also shrunk on a little piece of shrink tubing on each end to help hold the fabric in place.  I have no idea which specific shoelace I ended up using.  I was only covering up 4 or 5 wires in that case...  Not sure how much of a challenge it might be to find a shoelace large enough to fit over that large bundle of wires in the tether of these Legacy 0-6-0's?

@BillYo414 posted:

@gunrunnerjohn that's the stuff!! I thought it would look better than those wires.

I've considered this as well. I'm just concerned about any type of movement restriction putting extra stress on the wires at the plug.

That may be why the plug doesn't fit terribly snug. If it did. Some might be inclined to tug on the wires to get it out. There isn't much plug to get ahold of.

I'm thinking about leaving well enough alone. I might try a couple of small rubber bands to keep the wires together in the future.

It is what it is, at least it couples fairly close.  Esthetically speaking, it's probably still better than the HUGE engine and tender gap in my old tmcc 0-8-0.

Last edited by RickO

Just to add.  
Received mine this week.  Strasburg version.  As noted seating the tether is a science.  Once done the engine ran fine, great sound effects.  But….one of the number boards wasn’t lighted. Argh!!!

after 5 minutes or so the number board light suddenly came on.  No problems after that.  

I really don’t want to open the engine or tender.  Any suggestions on why the light was out and then came on?   Bad solder joint?   Or like the other issues the tether was loose?

@Lyinel posted:

Just to add.  
Received mine this week.  Strasburg version.  As noted seating the tether is a science.  Once done the engine ran fine, great sound effects.  But….one of the number boards wasn’t lighted. Argh!!!

after 5 minutes or so the number board light suddenly came on.  No problems after that.  

I really don’t want to open the engine or tender.  Any suggestions on why the light was out and then came on?   Bad solder joint?   Or like the other issues the tether was loose?

Could be one of a few problems, but if she’s lit, let er eat,…..don’t fix it if ain’t broken…..

Pat

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