Sooo... I have two locomotives with "wireless" tethers. And I can't stand either one of them. Not the engines, the engines rock, but the tethers are marginally affective. In fact, I can't think of a good thing to say about them because they are a pain to connect and they are really finicky. What's more, I can't get the locomotives to crawl at low speeds (particularly in reverse) which is probably the single most annoying thing about it... enough griping.

I am very interested in changing the connection to a wire(s) tether with a male and female plug connection between the loco and tender. Does anyone know where I can find such plugs/connectors? I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks.
Benjamin.

oh... also. I failed to mention that the locomotives are MTH with the "drawbar" connectors.

The only problem I have heard about with the draw bar is if the operator doesn't seat it properly. I have several engines with the draw bar and they run perfectly including at very slow speed. When you insert the bar make sure you push it in to you feel the click as it locks.

I also have a few of those engines with drawbars and I have no problems at all. I think they're great and have not really heard any complaints from customers, except for like what Paul said.

As far as changing them that would require a lot of cutting of the chassis and shell to get them in. Personally doing that much cutting on a thousand dollar engine dosen't sound good to me there is to much room for error. Also you would still need to put a drawbar in so why not just leave it.

If you are really having that much trouble with them, might I suggest you get it together and park it on a siding and leave it together so you don't have to keep taking it appart. As far as it not crawling in reverse I really don't think it has anything to dso with the drawbar.

Sorry to hear you have a problem with it, but I think they are far bett than the old tethers.

I like the fact you can buy a tether kit and get rid of the engine/tender gap with a shorter drawbar