What's your expeience with MTH's proto 3 wireless drawbar - Problem free and no complaints or have you had problems???

Prepare for a Ford vs. Chevy argument.

Embrace them, I have never had an issue with one.

Scott Smith

Good idea that could be executed better. Wires too short, plugs come out, possible shorts, that all could have been avoided with a little better execution n manufacturing. Nice when they work. No fear when they fail just feeling let down and upset.

Love it or hate it, "wireless drawbar" is a stupid name for an apparatus that uses wires to transmit power and data.  

JGL

I replaced three sets of boards in the PS/3 Imperial Big Boy's before I tumbled to the fact that I was seeing the same failure and realized that the drawbar was shorting on the trailing truck of the locomotive!  I heard that they had a redesigned drawbar for these, but obviously the owners didn't get the word, and paid the price!  I now insulate them if they come in for repairs.

I prefer the wired tethers all day long.  I generally run large Premier steam locomotives in lash-ups.  I have a few locomotives, where they continue to come loose causing the locomotive to either go dead and get dragged around by the other engines in the lash-up, or worst yet; they temporarily regain connectivity and start running full throttle!  This happened to me where an N&W J went dead and was getting pushed by the GG-1 behind it.  The J regained power and started running like crazy shredding the traction tires.  Had the GG-1 not been behind the J to control it, that locomotive would have been in the plaster!  I seemed to have solved the issue by reinforcing the connection to the tender with small zip ties.

But who really feels like having to roll an engine on its side to properly seat the drawbar into the tender, then zip tie it, and finally try to roll the tender and engine back onto the track simultaneously.  With the umbilical cord I could swap engines back and forth from my mainlines to my shelves and vice versa.  Now it is a production.  And you always have that fear that an engine is gonna go dead in a lash-up or start running wildly.  My mainlines run tight tolerances with thousands of dollars passing in close proximity.  Needless to say, I don't like them at all.

Mine came loose 3 times on my Christmas passenger train 280 over 4 Christmases! Truthfully I may not have pressed it hard enough to click! But I solved it by checking it every time I run it and hasn't happened yet! Not a huge issue, just stopped! Disconcerting the first time, annoying the 2nd and a learning experience the 3rd!

PITA!!  I would take the "Anaconda" wire any day.  I only have one wireless drawbar in my tinplate O scale engine and it will be my last!   

I just worked on a tinplate PS/3 with their oddball "wireless" drawbar.  What a piece of ****, I'd take the wired tether all day long!  The whole arrangement on this locomotive is flimsy, it's small wonder they get a bad rap!

I like the way the wireless contraption looks but I'll take the wired cable any day. 

1) Right now, I only have one engine with the "wireless drawbar". It is an 0-6-0 switcher, PS3 Imperial Railking. I've semi-permanently attached it via zip-tie. One day I'll get rid of the zip tie and use clear tubing over the metal pin to hold it in place to clean up the look. That is very low on my priority list. Before this, it worked well but would work loose occasionally, especially on my old layout with VERY rough track in places. 

My now sold MTH Imperial Mikado had no issue with the tether. Easily connected, stayed in place and worked well. 

My brief ownership of the MTH Imperial M1A Mountain had the same issue the Big Boy had/has that gunrunner john mentions. The trailing truck hit the drawbar solder joints and, well, it went "boom"! My dealer promptly gave me my $400 back after THAT one! I also don't think I was the only customer of his that had this happen.

A friend of mine has a PS2 Premier K4 with the drawbar, maybe one of the first MTH premier locos to have the drawbar and had nothing but problems. I think it got it fixed and running reliably but it probably had mere minutes of run time on it due to constant problems with the drawbar. Last I heard he got it running semi-reliably but also bought a display case for it at York and put it in there and stuck it on a shelf in his office or something. 

Boy, I had no idea these were that problematic! I have an Imperial M-1a and a RailKing 4-6-0 with those "wireless" drawbars. Never once had a problem with them either shorting or disconnecting in the two or three years I've had them.

Some love them, some hate them.  I tend to see the bad as I do the repairs.

I have been very lucky with the wireless draw bar,it is difficult to install on larger locomotives and you have to make sure you bottom it out,in my opinion they look much better than the garden hose arrangement.

 I'll just go with the if you don't got anything nice to say better not say anything at all. All i will say is I HAD two engines with this "wireless" drawbar setup, I'll repeat that HAD..... No longer HAVE them, I HAD them.

No doubt they look better than the wired loop...

Give me the wired one any day.  My all time favorite is the Lionel IR tether.

I don't understand why MTH didn't go with the IR tether, any way of doing away with the wireless tether?

I don't disconnect the drawbar no morewith my ten wheelers because I bought an OSH and use that to save me issues and other stuff disconnecting it.

I had a big boy that I sold. It took forever to connect it. I absolutely hate the proto 2 anaconda. I was excited when mth came out with it. I thought it was going to be more like lionels where any idiot like me could easily connect it.  I don't think I will be buying any large steamers from mth because of the drawbar. I would like to convert the proto 2's I have to a straight tether which looks pretty good. John

Forgot to mention that I also use some liquid electrical tape on the solder joints. (Sold at Home Depot / Lowes and pretty much anywhere electrical tape is sold).  It provides a nice insulating layer that helps prevent anything inadvertently bridging the solder joints causing a short, such as the trailing truck.  It applies easily as a liquid and takes the shape of what your applying it to and dries in about 15 min.

When I first encountered the problem it was with my Premier 4-12-2.  That one also went dead in a lash-up then came back to life full throttle.  Just like the N&W J I mentioned.  I assume that a specific sequence of power interruptions makes the locomotive think it is under conventional control in the forward direction at 18volts!  (Scary)  Everything gets zip-tied now.

Prior to zip-tying, the darn thing kept coming loose.  I know it wasn't me because I would use the eraser end of pencil to really seat it properly.  I emailed and called MTH concerning the 4-12-2.  I heard back nothing.  Not a peep.

Good morning, I have 3 engines with the draw bar set up from MTH.

The one engine I have which is a Pennsy Premier L1 Mikado was one of the first to come out with the draw bar setup.

This engine is notorious for coming unplugged while running.

The Instructions say push on the draw bar with your finger until you hear a click, I have good hearing  and strong fingers and I have never heard a click yet and I have had this engine for about 8 years.

I have a Pennsy M1A Imperial and a Pennsy L1 Imperial and so far I have not had any issues with the drawbar setup on these two engines.

Actually on both of these engines I have changed the drawbars to the shortest drawbar thats available to bring the tender up close to the engine and reduce that large gap.

I have several older Railking Steamers with the tether cable and had only 1 tether failure and that was self inflicted by trying to disguise the loop in the tether cable and make it as small as possible.

My Imperial M1 A has a protective covering over the bottom side of the draw bar so the axle shaft on the rear truck cannot ground on the drawbar.  This engine came this way so MTH must have made some last minute corrective actions before it was sent to their dealers.

The Imperial L1 has a different spacing on the rear truck which eliminates this issue.

I understand what MTH was striving for with this setup but I think they could have come up with a better way of holding the plug in place to eliminate any issues and these kind of complaints.

It's amazing that the smallest things and the lack of attention to detail that come backs to bite you !!!!!!!!!!

feet posted:

I don't understand why MTH didn't go with the IR tether, any way of doing away with the wireless tether?

The truly wireless tether is a one-way channel, it just sends a data stream to the tender from the locomotive with Lionel stuff.  The MTH requires power and signals to be transferred via the drawbar, so it has to have wiring.

Its a poor design but it works for me. The only time I have had it come loose is when I try to install it upright. Laying the engine on it side, I can make sure its seated. 

Rather that relying on detents in the connector housing they should have used the more common spring loaded ball bearing in the tender post. Similar to what holds a socket on a ratchet. Not likely to change though.

Pete

gunrunnerjohn posted:

feet posted:

I don't understand why MTH didn't go with the IR tether, any way of doing away with the wireless tether?

The truly wireless tether is a one-way channel, it just sends a data stream to the tender from the locomotive with Lionel stuff.  The MTH requires power and signals to be transferred via the drawbar, so it has to have wiring.

That answers that question, surely MTH could come up with something better, maybe go back to the tether.

don't abuse them and they will last.

I agree with John above that the wires are needed and that is why the pin board assembly was developed. 

That said, I think where MTH could of done better was instead of relying on a engine pin pad that depends on friction to counter gravity, they should of went with a device that pivots at both the engine and tender connection. The connection could of been made as a twist lock connection placed in the center of the tube shaped device like that found on a BNC co-axle connector.

The advantages would be simplicity of assembly, ease of movement and it could very simply be made to look like a prototypical automatic coal feeding tube from the tender to the engine. 

I brought this up on these pages when MTH was in the development stage of their wireless tether but I guess they forgot to check into the site that day.   

I agree 100% with all of the negative replies above.  I can personally related to almost every single one of them.   As of the end of this past Christmas layout, I too no longer disconnect the engine and tender for the off season.  I store them on track tacked to board now.

I guess my biggest disappointment though is that I tested running an "O" tin-plate baby blue comet on a temp layout to see if it would handle 27" curves and switches since 1/2 of my inventory is made of those.  My friend brought his PS2 version and it glided right thru every test.  I was elated - until I bought my PS3 version and it does NOT negotiate that diameter.  SIGH.

My other "O" tin-plate PS3 is the smallish Christmas set.  It's actually WORSE on 27" curves that the Baby Blue Comet!  Sign again.

I'm not a high railer so the LOOK of the tether never bothered me at all.  I bought the PS3 stuff thinking it was an improvement.  HAH!  Joke on me.

- walt

I agree 100% with all of the negative replies above.  I can personally relate to almost every single one of them.   As of the end of this past Christmas layout, I too no longer disconnect the engine and tender for the off season.  I store them on track tacked to board now.

I guess my biggest disappointment though is that I tested running an "O" tin-plate baby blue comet on a temp layout to see if it would handle 27" curves and switches since 1/2 of my inventory is made of those.  My friend brought his PS2 version and it glided right thru every test.  I was elated - until I bought my PS3 version and sadly discovere3d that it does NOT negotiate that diameter.  SIGH.

My other "O" tin-plate PS3 is the smallish Christmas set.  It's actually WORSE on 27" curves that the Baby Blue Comet!  Sign again.

I'm not a high railer so the LOOK of the tether never bothered me at all.  I bought the PS3 stuff thinking it was an improvement.  HAH!  Joke on me.

- walt

I had a disaster with the first (and last) wireless drawbar equipped loco I purchased: the handsome MTH J-1 2-10-4 steamer, 20-3458-1.

Out of the box, it would run just a few feet then abruptly stop, and go dark. I sent it to MTH at least three times for warranty repair, it would repeat that same behavior right after I received it back. Then, I gave it to a friend who is a MTH repair guy, said he fixed it, but I had more of the same.

Expensive paperweight.

I won't have any shelf queens, so I fully disclosed the problem and sold it on the buy/sell forum at a 60% discount.

Lesson learned: No more MTH steam for me until they get rid of that lousy tether.

Terrible design. Raise the price, if necessary, and give me an IR tether.