Wireless Drawbar

No.  What engine?  All PS-2 are 10pin, with the exception of Slave units that are unpowered. In that case you may have 4 to dummy.

PS-3 steam are 6 pin.  Now I have not seen a PS-3 ABA yet, but I do believe that is 10pin also.  But I thought they were tethers not draw bars.

G

Bruce;

Are you perhaps confusing Premier PS2 wireless drawbar units with PS3?

PS2 Premier units had wireless drawbars VS Tether cables but they are 10 pins.

GGG and Russell.  I have 2 Proto3 steam engines.  The first is the Milwaukee Road Streamlined Hudson - it has a 10 pin connector.  The second is a SP GS4 and has a 6 pin connector.  That was my confusion.  Thanks Guys  Bruce

Bruce what is the model number of the Mil.  It must be PS-2 3V, not PS-3.  G

GGG The MR Hiawatha 4-6-4 is 20-3438-1 set.  This is the first or one of the first Proto3 engines.  Bruce

Bruce, Does this engine have the rectangular charge plug on the tender some where?

The MTH web does show PS-3, but when I called up the sound file it looked like a PS-2 3V file.  No zip with it.  Possible it was meant to be PS-3 but was made as PS-2.  Otherwise the 10 pin harness is an anomaly.  I may ask MTH about it next time I talk to them. G

George,

Very early O gauge PS3 steamers were not quite the same as today's PS3 steamers. MTH R&D referred to their boards as "hybrid PS2" boards, or something similar.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that early PS3 steamers used PS2 wireless drawbars.

Gents,

I just looked at the engine's instruction manual online and took a jpeg (below) that shows a 10 pin tether connector on the engine's wireless drawbar. Click on the picture it see a more magnified view.

Barry,  I did the same thing and the first few pictures show a European train, so...  MTH is know to copy and paste instructions from older engines.  Also page 9 shows a charge port.

If this is a hybrid it would be nice to know, but the very early PS-3 I saw always had 6 pin tethers, and all the MTH literature references 6 pin.

Take a look at the sound file though.  Looks like a PS-2 with no chain file. G

George,

 Looks like a PS-2 with no chain file.

That's another reason to suspect that it's a hybrid PS2/PS3 board.

Barry, the first PS3 school I attended a few years ago,  I got one of those Hudsons to work on in the shop.  I can not remember the drawbar pins but it used a standard boiler board and tender board.  We had to use both from stock. 

So what is a hybrid PS-2/3 and why would it be used in a production engine?

I guess they could have used a 10 pin drawbar and only used 6 pins if it was early and they did not have 6 pin tethers yet.  Would love to see a picture of the internals.

Back to Bruce's issue.  If it has a 10 Pin you can order one and it will work, they are a straight through design.  What length are you looking for? G

GGG I would like to run the Southern Pacific GS4 engine and tender closer together.  I measured the center of the screw hole to the center of the tender plug at 63mm.  I would like a 5 to 10mm closer, shorter length drawbar.  Per the MTH web site the 20-8902 has a 50mm length.  I do not know how they measure there drawbar lengths.  Thanks Bruce

Hello Bruce

I measured my draw bars and looks like they measure from center of hole to center of hole

Clem

Bruce, they are center to center, and you would also see the length stamped on the bottom if you remove the black cover.  I have a 55mm 10 pin if you need one.  These can also be ordered by part number vice product number.  G

Bruce, are you measuring with the engine and tender on a straight section of track or on the section of the tightest curve track you will run on????

Ron