MTH "Wireless" Drawbar for Steam Locomotives

[Dr. John]

I received the MTH E-Newsletter and noticed that they have developed a drawbar made of a flexible circuit board, eliminating the need for a wiring tether to connect electronics/pickups in the tender. It is being offered on their newer Premier line of steam engines (except the A5) in the first 2007 catalog.

It certainly sounds like a good idea. I have always had trouble connecting the pin plugs on the wiring tethers - a combination of fumble fingers and poor eyesight on my part.

Your thoughts or observations? 

[ChiefEagles]

Patient infringement!!!!!!!!!   Sue Sue.  Lionel has had wireless teather for some time.  Copy cat.  Sue sue.    Well, Mikey boy would.  You are right about the teather.  Glad they finally came up with it.

[Bob Keller]

I've got one of the WM Challengers sitting in the workshop and the drawbar looks dandy and connects a heck of a lot easier than the drawbar on my Centipede. On that one you can have the drawbar connected and still not have a good electrical mating. This one is a little more foolproof, since you use your fingers to click it into place.

[Anonymous]

Could / should have been done a long time ago. Too late current owners of MTH products. I guess MTH was too busy in court to pay attention to product development or customer needs. I sold all 40+ of my MTH steamers except for 3.  I removed most of the tethers from my diesels when it was possible. Unfortunatly the MTH electonics package is not very flexible and requires a tether and oversized out of scale tenders in some instances. Next for MTH is to eliminate the battery and improve the 25 cent speaker which delivers 25 cents worth of sound. Maybe they can get some dollar speakers and purchase them in bulk for 50 cents each. This also could/should have been done a long time ago also.

Dale Hz