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I tend not to believe much that comes out of MTH.  After all we were promised  a swinging bell at York well over ten years ago and I think it was delivered on just one locomotive maybe. Plus we're still waiting for the new DCS system announced over two years ago.

Looks to me like MTH's business model has changed to ninety precent special runs and ten present MTH offering.

Last edited by NYC 428

I don't know if anyone has had trouble with getting the grounding "spring" to cooperate when connecting the "wireless" drawbar to the tender but I did, so I re-engineered the drawbar with one wire to replace the spring:

20220705_173404

20220705_174551

20220705_174805i

Now I just roll the tender up, slide the drawbar onto the tender pin, push up firmly, and away she goes. The ring connectors are Red Dorman Conduct-Tite 22-18 ga. I used a #8 for the loco side and filed a #10 as shown for the tender side. I removed the red insulators and soldered the connectors together with a short piece of 22 AWG stranded wire. The tender side ring connector is glued with CA to a nylon spacing washer which is, in turn, glued to the drawbar. The nylon washer has to be filed flat on the edge to accommodate the connector on the drawbar. The spring on the tender pin slides over the pin and holds at the top while providing just the right amount of pressure on the ring connector to give good electrical contact without pushing the connectors apart. I imagine this "fix" will work with all MTH steamers that use this "wireless" drawbar.

Why MTH didn't just give us an 8-pin connector arrangement with the grounding connection built into the drawbar is beyond me.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • 20220705_173404: Drawbar Top View
  • 20220705_174551: Drawbar Side View
  • 20220705_174805: Tender Pin Spring

Bill - dumb question,  I have really never paid much attention to the spring wire which gets in the way of connecting boiler to tender. Are you saying the spring wire is needed for a ground connection? I never saw much use for it - sounds like an Ah Ha moment is in the works.   

Of course never made much sense to put a coil spring into an assembly you wanted to keep together to provide ground contact. This is probably the spring you are replacing?

Thanks ...  Jeff

Last edited by ScoutingDad
@ScoutingDad posted:

Bill - dumb question,  I have really never paid much attention to the spring wire which gets in the way of connecting boiler to tender. Are you saying the spring wire is needed for a ground connection? I never saw much use for it - sounds like an Ah Ha moment is in the works.   

Of course never made much sense to put a coil spring into an assembly you wanted to keep together to provide ground contact. This is probably the spring you are replacing?

Thanks ...  Jeff

Jeff,

According to the manual, the spring wire on the stock drawbar needs to be in tension against the tender pin to "ground" the loco to the tender where the bulk of the electronics are to ensure proper operation of those electronics. Otherwise, sounds will be intermittent and movement of the loco will be jerky. Travel around curves will especially present a problem if this "grounding" is not secure. As I allude to in my original post, I had a devil of a time holding the spring wire in tension across the hole for the tender pin while getting the tender pin through the hole AND ensuring the fireman's gangway would properly bridge the space between the loco and tender. The coil spring I show in the third photo of my original post is an "add-on" and of low compression force so it ensures electrical contact without forcing the drawbar connection to the tender apart.

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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