Have recently gotten my first MTH steam engine. Found that there are shorter drawbars available (10 pin drawbar). General question - any pros and cons I should know before buying / installing them? Note - min. curve on my layout is 072. Thanks in advance.
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In general, not much. I've used shorter ones on my PS/3 steam, and no operational difference, just looks better.
You have to sneak up on stuff when you’re running O72. What looks great on a section of straight track, can make things collide in curves. Assuming you’re talking about MTH’s wireless drawbars, they’re all marked as to their length, that measurement is center of hole to center of hole. Granted, one hole is square, but you can make “test” draw bars from scrap styrene and place some O72 track on your bench, and this’ll give you an idea what will and won’t work,…..This way, you’ll be armed with knowledge before committing, and testing your set up cold on a workbench doesn’t blow stuff up….make some samples, then measure the hole center to hole center, and you’ll know what will work….
Pat
My experience is 5mm shorter will usually work without any modification. 10mm shorter and you will likely have shave the cab apron back, leave it down, or fabricate a shorter one. Anything less than that will be strictly for static display. Depends on how much too long the original is.
Pete
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