Thoughts on the MTH Wireless Drawbar

I have 11 MTH Proto 2 & 3 wireless tether engines and have had no problems with them but you must be careful hooking them up and it gives a better look to the loco tender area.The worst one is the Z-6 GN Challenger.

Mikey

i just got the bigboy and tried hooking up the wireless teather. it took me about 15 minute. the design STINKS X10. I will not buy another mth engine with this. I have a couple of railking engines but they are much smaller so you can put them on their side and connect them. John

Tim,

    I look at this from engineering eyes, I actually like the wireless tether on engines that are long and big enough to accommodate them in the proper engineering manner.  One of the other members did a great review on a new train just recently, and he was right on the money saying that he liked the wired tether, on some particular engines.  If the spacing on the pick ups & the number of pickups does not accommodate the wireless tether than stay away from those particular engines, with wireless tethers.  The loss of power especially on switches and cross overs makes those particular wireless tethered engines problematic from the get go.  IMO that means almost every Tin Plate Engine produced should have a wired tether, due to the pick up spacing, on the engine and tender.  It's one of the reasons I stayed with the Tin Plate P2 engines/trains when I purchase Tin Plate.  Although the battery helps and the BCR is even better, it's still not enough in some cases, especially if you run back to back, to back switches in multiple areas on your layout.  You can see the wired tether on the MTH P2, 263E in the picture below on the very simple 4x8 Christmas loop, the wired tether does not bother me at all when running toy trains, in fact it can be a plus in some cases.

PCRR/Dave

Yep - and MTH's is not really "wireless". But, I dislike all of them, even though I've never had a Lionel IR tether give any trouble - except, when you need to shorten the drawbar (and I usually do), it takes an act of whatever to get it done. Old-type drawbar? Drill another hole. 

The thing is, real steamers have all sorts of connections between the loco and the tender: drawbar, of course, plus various combinations of air, water, steam, electrical, coal stoker "tube" (if so equipped) or oil piping for oil burners, and this "advancement" is actually a missed modeling opportunity, and a modeling stumbling block. If a real tether (which did not have to loop to the sky like so many MTH ones did) is constantly causing one problems connecting it, one is separating locos and tenders too often - really.

I don't think that a pair of big boxes on the drawbars, or a plain, flat circuit board look particularly good.

SDIV Tim posted:

So it has been 5 years plus since MTH started using a wireless drawbar. I really miss the Old wired tether. my reason is with the Santa Fe Ten Wheeler I have that is Proto 3.0, the drawbar board was fried and a mother board in the tender. that costs me 200 dollars to replace and repair. My newest Ten Wheeler from MTH, George Washington, has to get a new tether and it didn't even go a scale mile yet, good thing it is under warranty. I have heard from my repair guy, Jim Osborne that in the last year he has worked on 4 Railking Steamers and the wired tether is the most replaced part on the engine. He has Bob1949 's Railking Imperial M1a 4-8-2 still sitting in his shop and has gotten that part finally. My Ten Wheelers have had issues similar to Bob's.

Another Reason that I lean towards the wired tethers is because the struggle of disconnecting the tether after running it an putting it away to transport home or to the club layout. That is why I have been buying Proto 2.0 Steamers from a guy in my club who is selling some off his stuff off and have purchased 3 Proto 2.0 locos from him. My friend Matt ordered a GS-4 and it was a pain to hook up the wireless tether, so I feel that the Ten Wheelers are the easiest engines to hook up.

I don't want to send a message to MTH until I think about some solutions. What if any ideas could be used to make some better tethers? 

I think with Lionel using the wired tether on the new 0-6-0 might be a good idea and putting a plate between the tender and engine would be a good idea.

Thanks.

You should have heard/read the complaining/whining/b**ching/moaning/kvetching that was going on when MTH made wired tenders. It was constant and loud (at least as loud as writing can be). The fact that the DCS system is completely different in design from TMCC makes a hard wired, two way connection between the loco and tender a necessity. Lionel gets away with using an optical hook up because the communication only goes in one direction and no power transfer is required.

MTH did the best they could to answer everyone's complaints. Maybe they can make the PCB more robust, but the connection must be able to carry current.

"Yep - and MTH's is not really "wireless"." - D500

This is pretty much the crux of the matter.  You've replaced a poorly designed wire that gets pinched and breaks connection with a difficult to connect plug soldered to a pcb board.  It is still wired, and the board and solder joints will still fatigue.   To call it wireless would be Dishonest, wireless simply means without a physical connection, which is not what MTH is offering.  Now being wired does offer some benefits, especially for smaller foot print engines, but being truly wireless provides an ease of use that is quite nice in cases where that tender to locomotive power connection is not needed.  

I would suspect that Big L has a patent on file for the use of inferred signals between pieces of model/toy train equipment, and that alone would be the reason you don't see that tech on other brands.  If there were a need for two way communication, it would cost all of about 20 cents to add a second pair of IR emitters and transistors for backwards communication.  

Well, I picked up my Proto 3.0 AT&SF Ten Wheeler and the tether hole is so narrow I have to force the engine into the tether. I would think MTH would check to make sure it is the right tether size on each Locomotive but it seems they don't. I give MTH a rating of 5/10 on their tether, at least they tried.  I guess it will be only Diesels from MTH for a while

Wireless is something that is not attached by wires but by a receiver or an electric eye, that is still wired but the wires are in the circuit board

I just received my third so called 'wireless' tether yesterday.  Once I got the hang of connecting and disconnecting, I haven't had trouble.  Knock on wood! 

I don't know how well they will hold up as compared to a wired tether.  I had one of the wired ones where the connector slowly wore and it would loosen ever so slightly going around curves and break contact.  I had bought the loco used, and it had seen a lot of running.

I guess time will tell on the so called 'wireless'. 

Good evening everyone, I like the draw bar style connection that MTH is currently using.

I also agree 100% that there should be a deck plate from the back of the engine to the tender to make things more realistic.

I have two MTH Proto 2 engines that have the original style tether cable and I am always tucking the cable back into the tender to help reduce the visibility of the tether cable loop.

On the Black Diamond Railroad web page Mr Battista shows how to help reduce the tether between the engine and the tender.

When he is finished it almost looks like part of the stoker housing between the engine and the tender.

Never ever tried this modification but it's out there.

All in all I have no real complaints about the drawbar set up.

Mark,

I also agree 100% that there should be a deck plate from the back of the engine to the tender to make things more realistic.

All of the PS2 and PS3 Premier steamers with wireless drawbars also have deck plates. The Raill King steamers with wireless drawbars, however, do not.

Barry Broskowitz posted:

Mark,

I also agree 100% that there should be a deck plate from the back of the engine to the tender to make things more realistic.

All of the PS2 and PS3 Premier steamers with wireless drawbars also have deck plates. The Raill King steamers with wireless drawbars, however, do not.

Actually that is not quite true.  I have a Pennsy L1s 2-8-2, 20-80007a, which was the first engine with the tetherless drawbar, released back in 2008.  It does not have the deck plate between the cab and tender.

Stuart

On PS2 engines, if the plug end was straight instead of a 90 degree, it would look much better. I believe since the wire is already capable of sliding in and out of the tender, that if the hole the wire comes out of was just widened a bit, it would give the wire enough freedom of movement to not damage and make it possible to do away with the 90 degree elbow. Does anyone know who manufactures the wire and if they make it in a straight version. I would love to do a modification on an engine and run it through some test.  

Hello Barry, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.

Stuart I have that same MTH Premier Pennsy L1 Mikado and you are right there is no deck plate.

I thought I was being smart one day and bought a set of drawbars so I could shorten up this distance and when I went to change the draw bar I found this draw bar and connection has 8 pins instead of 6.

Back to the drawing board.

Dave I was told by the gentlemen that works on my MTH engines when needed, is the reason the tether cable goes upward and has that 90 degree connector is so on continuous use on tight radius curves the tether cable does not get damaged and fail. Also with this loop this also helps prevent the tether connection from coming loose from the engine.

The tightest turn I have on my layout is 042 so I have been able to get away with pushing the tether cable back up into the tender shell.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Stuart and Dave !!!   

Mark has a good point about the loop on the wired tether,  This was brought to my attention when I started having trouble with the engine I mentioned yesterday.  At first, I did not know why my engine was stopping.  When I asked on the forum, someone told me to check the tightness of the connector.  Sure enough that was the problem.  I knew the engine was well used when I bought it.  It was my first dabble in DCS, and I bought the engine at a low price just to try the system out.  At first it only worked it's way lose on 036 curves, then later it happened on 042 curves.  I am convinced this would have happened much earlier if the tether had been shorter.

Now for Paul Harvey's 'Rest of the Story', as an aside.  Someone has wondered what I did about the problem.    The fix would be to replace the tether, since one could tell the plastic had worn on the connector when compared to my other not so well used loco.  Someone else on the forum said he had shimmed the connector so it wouldn't come loose.  Before I did anything, I loaned the locomotive to a friend who had lots of experience with postwar, but never DCS, and had borrowed a TIU and remote to try it out.  I told him about the troublesome connection, so he was aware.  He fell in love with the engine, and asked to buy it from me.  I finally agreed, emphasizing he needed to replace, or in some other way secure the connection for reliability.  I guess it is known as 'Passing the buck' and the buck stops at Harry Truman's desk.    I know, bad pun.  I couldn't resist. 

All said and done; I worried about authentic appearance in my HO days.  Upon accepting the third rail of the much easier to see and work with O-gauge, I can accept the big tether cable, no deck plate, 'wireless' drawbar with a big knob under both ends of the wireless drawbar, and even the smaller than scale size of RailKing and Imperial engines.  Reliability is number one in my book.

Dave Zucal posted:

On PS2 engines, if the plug end was straight instead of a 90 degree, it would look much better. I believe since the wire is already capable of sliding in and out of the tender, that if the hole the wire comes out of was just widened a bit, it would give the wire enough freedom of movement to not damage and make it possible to do away with the 90 degree elbow. Does anyone know who manufactures the wire and if they make it in a straight version. I would love to do a modification on an engine and run it through some test.  

I've used the MTH tethers in a number of upgrades, and I use the straight diesel connector for stuff that will run on wide curves.  I also widen the slot for the cable in the tender to allow for more travel.  If you're running on tighter curves, the loop tether makes more sense.

For small stuff, I've used the Minitronics 4-pin connector sets, they're really small and look like brake or electric lines, and they're very flexible.  The downside is they're rated at 1A, so they're not suitable for larger locomotives.

For my 2 cents worth.  I just had a new (purchased last summer) 261E tinplate go pop and then dead when I tried to reconnect the draw bar after it got disconnected coming out of a turn.  Now, I am faced with a BIG cost to purchase an new board.  I am wondering if it is worth putting in 180 or so bucks into a $325 engine.  And, it it goes bad again, I know I'll use it for target practice.  Seems like a circuit board shouldn't cost more than half the cost of the engine and tender.  

Thanks all for your response. Inventions are the product of necessity. The necessity is a need for a  better connection with a better look. No matter what type of plug is used, it could only handle so many cycles before it wares out. Unless its a big long engine and tender, why not have a beefier draw bar and keep them together as one unit? I'm sure with all the fantastic minds on this forum, we can come up with a better solution then one man sitting in a manufacturers office.

I 'thought' I wanted PS3 if for no other reason to get rid of the battery, even though I used BCRs in my PS2 engines.

I regret getting 2 of the PS3 steamers: the 'O' Christmas train and the 'O' Baby Blue Comet.  Both are tin-plate.

The drawbars connect the tender differently in each.  Neither is easy to connect and worse, BOTH constantly become disconnected for reasons that I can't identify.

I damaged the Christmas train because the repair guy said one or 2 of the pins was bent.  Somehow that must have shorted out the board since it was fried.  An believe me, if anyone is careful it's me.  Also, when I did have it hooked up correctly the pin that is supposed to take the pressure off of the drawbar connection was not long enough to drop down thru (or was it up thru?) the drawbar so it didn't do it's job.  The repair guy created his own 'correction' and now things are better than the original design.  Still, when I store it I no longer disconnect the engine/tender: I store it on track still connected.

As for the Blue Comet, the connection from the engine is supposed to click in position - it connects upward to the tender's female component.  it does not stay connected well, I guarantee you!  I tied the 2 together I got so tired of it coming loose.

BUT::: the main reason I don't like the drawbar is that it drastically restricts the minimum diameter of track that can be used.  I'll cite an example using the Blue Comet.  My friend has a PS2 version, with tether of course.  I wanted to know if the Blue Comet could handle 27" curves and switches since most of my track is 27" even though I have bigger, just in lesser quantities.  I set up a test track and he brought his Blue Comet over to see.  It had absolutely zero problems on 27" curves and switches.  So I bought the PS3 version thinking I would get the same performance.  NOPE:  it handles some 27" switches but not all for some reason - it will derail.  I now have to not use 25 of my O27 27" switches and none of my 27" diameter track.  What a shame.

BTW: the Christmas train has the 7" or 8" cars, not sure which.  It derails every single time if I try to have it round a 27" curve.  Every time.

_ not a 100% happy camper but not ready to sell them either!

- walt

I am with you WALT.  The darn drawbar that is wireless on my PS2 Hudson is constantly coming loose and then shuts down the engine.  I get maybe about 30-45 minutes of run time then the engine will stop and shut down.  The first time I thought what went wrong?  But could not locate engine on track came up, I pick up engine and low and behold it was disconnected.  Frustrating Yes!  If only MTH and Lionel could bury the hatchet.....

Tim,

    I do not own any MTH engines with the exception of two that have Locosounds (Bell & Horn/Whistle only) but from what I have seen from guys at my club who do own MTH engines (PS2 & PS3) the tether either wire or the newer unwired tether are the Achilles' Heel of MTH engines.

JohnB 

walt rapp posted:

I 'thought' I wanted PS3 if for no other reason to get rid of the battery, even though I used BCRs in my PS2 engines.

I regret getting 2 of the PS3 steamers: the 'O' Christmas train and the 'O' Baby Blue Comet.  Both are tin-plate.

The drawbars connect the tender differently in each.  Neither is easy to connect and worse, BOTH constantly become disconnected for reasons that I can't identify.

I damaged the Christmas train because the repair guy said one or 2 of the pins was bent.  Somehow that must have shorted out the board since it was fried.  An believe me, if anyone is careful it's me.  Also, when I did have it hooked up correctly the pin that is supposed to take the pressure off of the drawbar connection was not long enough to drop down thru (or was it up thru?) the drawbar so it didn't do it's job.  The repair guy created his own 'correction' and now things are better than the original design.  Still, when I store it I no longer disconnect the engine/tender: I store it on track still connected.

As for the Blue Comet, the connection from the engine is supposed to click in position - it connects upward to the tender's female component.  it does not stay connected well, I guarantee you!  I tied the 2 together I got so tired of it coming loose.

BUT::: the main reason I don't like the drawbar is that it drastically restricts the minimum diameter of track that can be used.  I'll cite an example using the Blue Comet.  My friend has a PS2 version, with tether of course.  I wanted to know if the Blue Comet could handle 27" curves and switches since most of my track is 27" even though I have bigger, just in lesser quantities.  I set up a test track and he brought his Blue Comet over to see.  It had absolutely zero problems on 27" curves and switches.  So I bought the PS3 version thinking I would get the same performance.  NOPE:  it handles some 27" switches but not all for some reason - it will derail.  I now have to not use 25 of my O27 27" switches and none of my 27" diameter track.  What a shame.

BTW: the Christmas train has the 7" or 8" cars, not sure which.  It derails every single time if I try to have it round a 27" curve.  Every time.

_ not a 100% happy camper but not ready to sell them either!

- walt

Walt:  I have the identical problems.  One of the tinplate locos connect in a upwards direction, and sometimes it drops out.  Two of my tinplate locos connect in a horizontal direction into the tender, but are stiff and the tenders tend to derail around O-31 and O-27 curves.  And, these connections also just fall apart whenever they feel like it.  All in all, I liked the old style connection.  They didn't fall apart or disconnect, and they didn't restrict turning abilities.  

Put a tight fitting O ring on the tender stem of drawbar link to keep it on, or a piece of vinyl tubing

I hear you, I do not like the wireless tether one bit.  It is not nearly as durable as the wired tethers. THe wireless ones drive me crazy making sure that they are pushed in all the way.

Walt,

To use your Blue Comet on a smaller diameter curve than one for which it is rated, try using a longer draw bar. They're available in 3-packs of different sizes from MTH.

After reading all of the above I think I will pass on moving from Lionel to MTH. I have a lot of MTH standard gauge engines but I don't run them. I was thinking about purchasing a MTH "O" gauge steam engine because of cost, but if what I am reading is a problem then I will hold off on buying MTH until MTH takes care of the problem. I would hate to spend my money on a new engine and have silly problems. I want to take my engines out of the box and run them, hooking up the draw bar could be a problem for me because of my eyes.

All my Lionel engines with the wireless draw bars, never given me any problems.

Maint,

IMO, there isn't really a problem for MTH to fix. I own a dozen or more PS2 and PS3 steamers with the wireless drawbars and mine have been, with one exception, trouble-free. The one exception was self-inflicted when I forced an out-of-alignment plug on the tender into the socket on the drawbar, and cracked the socket.

It was my first wireless drawbar steamer and I was careless. I've since repaired it with an O-Ring and it continues to work fine since the "repair". I've also found that if the drawbar tends to loosen over time, an O-Ring or similar device will serve got keep the connection solid, yet may be easily removed and then replaced if necessary. I have yet to find a similar device to keep a wired tether that works loose, tightly connected.

I like the wireless drawbar for its clean, uncluttered look and the ability for MTH to manufacture their Premier steamers with deck plates. I don't find it any more difficult to connect the tender and engine than doing so with the wired, "anaconda-like" tether.

Further, the drawbar tether tends to stay connected even in the face of a derailment, where the tender and engine wind up at 90 degrees to each other. With the wired tether, when the engine roles onto its side, the metal drawbar tends to flip the tender off the rails, as well.

That's my 2 cents. Admittedly, your mileage may vary.

Barry Broskowitz posted:

IMO, there isn't really a problem for MTH to fix.

I'm shocked to hear you say that!  Not really.

I have 2 MTH Tinplate steam engines and at first I did not have any apparent issues. Now both units after about a year do not run well if they even run. I ran the 249e Red Christmas engine at the Muzeo museum this Deember until it started not running and it is due to the wireless drawbar and now at any turn it now stops or becomes intermittent. I do not see any loose connectors and now it is a shelf queen since there is no one around my area that could fix it. My second is a 263e in two tone blue that the plug from the engine side disconnects on curves and it was only run on O36 and larger curves. Terrible design. I am very careful with these engines and these things should not randomly disconnect or short from proper running. Worse is being on the West Coast since there is almost no support here and shipping these somewhere risks either one becoming a door stop. I am not impressed and since I am 0 for 2 in success you can imagine what my thoughts are about these drawbars and it is not good in any way. 

An interesting post so far. 

I only have two MTH Proto-Sound steam engines at this time.  One PS2 upgraded engine and one PS3 engine.  The PS3 engine is a recent item, the WM H-9 Consolidation.  With the exception of not completely locking in the drawbar into the tender receptacle the first time(which is an operator error), the engine has been flawless.  I am currently waiting on a drawbar kit to use one of the shorter drawbars and will see what happens at that point.  The other engine is a SGL Reading G3 Pacific upgraded by JDS Limited.  No issues with the wire tether at this point.  Originally the tether had been installed in typical loop fashion.  Always looking to learn something new, I opened up the tender to look at the electronics.  The tether had a straight connector at the board end.  In my case, I simply swapped ends.  Now with the straight end connected to the engine, the cable looks more like the stoker as someone else stated.

Now I will throw this question out there to the members who repair and upgrade locomotives, does MTH use a connector at the board end of all of their tethers?  Or, are some soldered to the board?  (Here's where I get to learn something!)  For those operators with large radius turns, they might be able to do the simple swap that I did, if the straight connector exists at the board.  The next question, when MTH introduced the 'wireless' drawbar, was the tender connection the same as it is now?  The drawbar pin on my H-9 tender is long, were they shorter initially?  I kind of remember a 'torture test' being done to the WM M-2 Challenger when it was introduced back in 2006/07, were the 90 degree flex of the drawbar between engine and tender was actually part of the review.  They said it stayed properly connected and when the tender was turned upright, the engine performed without any problems.  Yet, some consumers have had on going problems. (Maybe goes back to QC at the factory???)

It does seem a shame that both methods of connecting the engine to the tender have issues.  One would think that the technology changes would provide a more consistent and positive result. 

Again, I only have one of each type. But, I am impressed with the 'wireless' drawbar.  So far. 

Thanks Barry for letting me know that.  Is it an easy swap for a non-technician person like me????  I've had so many shorted boards that I'm paranoid about things at this point!!!

Heck, I should have the LHS just do it, which I will.

As for the drawbar disconnecting at the tender, I just have tied it up real tight and it holds.  But the point is that it does take something to hold it in place.

- walt

Henry J. posted:

"Now I will throw this question out there to the members who repair and upgrade locomotives, does MTH use a connector at the board end of all of their tethers?  Or, are some soldered to the board?"

Have an early Proto 2 SP GS locomotive that has the cord soldered directly to the board which is a poor design. Sadly it has developed intermittent sound issues and now with this design there is no easy way to swap the cord out to see if it is bad or the plug.  

Walt,

Heck, I should have the LHS just do it, which I will.

A good idea!  

looks like this has been discussed for a few years.

https://ogrforum.com/t...mth-wireless-drawbar

Time for me to join this party;

     I was a loyal fan of MTH trains, and got to know them real well as a service tech when I was in college. I bought the MTH Premier J-class (2004 Edition) that had a I wired tether; directly out of the box, the locomotive ran fine, for a while. Then a few months down the rails, it suddenly stopped responding. It was completely dead on the rails, and I feared the worst: bad board. So I took it to the shop and put it on the test track, we found that "tweaking" the tether at the connecting point (locomotive) would bring it back to life, so the locomotive wire harness was replaced. The locomotive ran smoothly again, until the locomotive died mid-operation at a train club function, and once again went back to the shop. This time, it was the tender harness that was replaced, and once again the locomotive worked flawlessly after it was replaced. I've had to replace BOTH harnesses AGAIN since this happened. So altogether, 4 HARNESSES have been installed on the locomotive and tender since it's delivery in 2004, all because the connections seemed to go bad after a while. You can probably imagine... I got frustrated with this; in short, it SUCKED! 

(Old corny joke) So I RE-WIRED IT!

My solution: Cut out the plugs and semi-permanently wire the locomotive and tender together. So, the 90º plug was cut off and so was the female connecter on the locomotive. After cutting the plugs, the black insulation was peeled back so the wires could be soldered together on the locomotive end. The wires were CAREFULLY matched, soldered together, and the locomotive shell was put back on top.

The problem with the poor connections had been fixed, along with the aesthetic improvement of not having a long "umbilical cord" between the loco-and tender. The locomotive runs beautifully on the home loop and my modular club layout.

The disadvantage to this is also pretty obvious: the locomotive and tender are now SEMI-permanently wired together. They can be separated if need be, the easier way for me to do it is to remove the tender shell and unplug the harness there. There is also a plug connection in the locomotive as well. So I can still work on the locomotive and tender separately, it just takes a little more time and patience. As far as transporting the loco & tender, a simple gun case with some custom-cut foam will do the trick so I won't have to break out tools at every train show I go to.

So that's how I resolved my tether harness problem, both functionally and cosmetically. The loco and tender now move as one unit, just like a real steam engine!

Hope that helps some people. I have some thoughts on the drawbar tethers as well, most of them not good, but I'll share that in another writing.

Happy Railroading & New Year 

CRZY, did you slot the hole in the tender to give it a larger range of movement, to limit the amount of bend in a curve ? I feel if this was done the tether would bend very little.  

   With electronics getting smaller and smaller, the only thing to put in a tender would be the speaker, which could be much larger then (better base sounds). Only two wires would be needed ( no charging port anymore and switches could be mounted in the cab or under the engine). A simple male mono 3.5mm plug and female receptacle on the tender, could be used between engine and tender. 

Dave, you forgot the electrocoupler, the tender reverse light, and the tender markers.

Dave,

      I did not modify the slot hole in the tender. I left some slack in the tether so that the locomotive can move freely around a curve. I rarely (never) use curves less than O-72 (club is 72 minimum) and if I noticed an issue I would consider a modification.

     I did install a Peerless 8-Ohm speaker in the "J" as well... Doesn't make it louder, but the labored chuff will shake the table. Definitely worth it!

Oy vey, this could get interesting...

I happen to have 3 engines by MTH with the new drawbar. One is PS2 from 2007, a light Mikado, the other 2 are PS3 - both Blue Comets, one scale and one tinplate.

I've had the first two for quite awhile. Both are flawless runners. Only once in awhile did the connection get lost, and that was because of a bad derailment with the Blue Comet and I didn't check the connection properly when rerailed.

I have yet to see any issue with my tinplate Comet, but I run the engine on somewhat wider curves anyways (at least O-36), so it hasn't run into any issues.

Sure, the tether isn't the easiest thing to pop in and out, but for people who aren't putting these engines away and taking them out over and over, just be careful picking them both up at the same time.