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I have had several failures of the drawbar between engine and tender on my MTH PS2 and PS3 locomotives.  I run long trains and have a grade, and evidently the tension and compression breaks the fine wires imbedded in the drawbar.

So why doesn't someone offer an "auxiliary drawbar" in the several standard lengths that MTH now offers?  The aux drawbar could not be very thick, and a thin and flexible drawbar made from a non conductive material such as textolite or ? could be installed on the bottom of the two posts (one circular and one "semi-rectangular") that presently connect the wireless drawbar, with no change in other hardware.  Dimensions would be critical, and designed so the aux drawbar would accept one half (or more) of the load on the current wireless drawbar.  Objective would be to eliminate this failure mode on MTH steam locomotives, since I suspect that the presently available MTH drawbar supply will dry up with MTH exiting.

NOTE FROM MODERATOR:  The title of this post was changed so that readers could understand what the poster's topic is as the original title was "someone-should" .  Also, since this topic has nothing to do with 3-rail scale, it was moved to an appropriate MTH forum.

Last edited by OGR CEO-PUBLISHER
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Critical dimensions indeed!  Trying to exactly match the MTH drawbar and share the load sounds like a fool's errand!

A better plan would be to make the drawbar that would carry the load and just do a thinner PCB with the connectors to carry the electrical connections, and it would have a larger hole so that it wasn't trying to share the load.

However, I'm the same as Bob, this is a failure mode that I haven't seen, and I get to see a lot of broken MTH stuff.

Have had the same problem with 2-6 -4 PRR steam.  The keeper on the tender keeps coming loose have to shut down, power down the Z-4000 put fingers under tender push up on keeper hear a snap then it will run fine. Run through a lot of switches.  Asked MTH to send a new keeper while under warranty they never did.

Unfortunately, the disconnecting issues with MTH steam engine drawbars are very common and have been well documented over the years on various Forum threads. The design was faulty and seems to occur most often on larger engines. For example, I have a Proto-3 J1a which has had drawbar issues from day one. I sent back it back to MTH several times, but the issue was never resolved. I had quite a time on one occasion getting it out of a long tunnel when the drawbar loosened. That was not fun.

The plastic connector, which MTH developed a few years ago as the "fix", helped to some extent with the disconnecting issue, but caused a new problem, as the engine commenced to derail because the connector was too tight. When I loosened it, the disconnecting issue commenced anew.

Alas, the J1a has been permanently moved to a storage shelf. Sad, as it was an awesome engine when it worked.

Pat

Last edited by irish rifle

Alternate Fix for PS3 Wireless Drawbar | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum (ogaugerr.com)

half way down is a post from Ralph4014

"I agree that MTH should do something about it. I like your solution Scott. Here's antoher idea. I used silicone fuel tubing from RC planes and cars. With the small diameter and the silicone's ability to stretch it makes a pretty good colar and it's non conductive.

drawbar2

drawbar

"

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