New to steam

[4311wade]

Team,
I bought my first steam loco a 2-10-4 Santa Fe. I'm afraid I'm going to break the thin wires from the tinder car. Should the two cars be connected together permanently?
Is that a thing? If the wires come out of the plug what can be done to correct? Please advise

[686 Shooter]

I have seen some folks remove the pin from the tender, drill & tap a hole, then use a screw to permanently attach it to the engine. I have never bothered with it. I just be mindful when lifting and or moving the unit.

Those little wires have proved to be remarkably resilient for me. From what I have heard, most of the wire damage comes from folks pulling on the wires to pull the plug out. Don't do that and you should be okay. When I need to pull the plug I use a hobby knife to gently pry the sides of the plug.

[4311wade]

Thank you sir.!

[trainman203]

I never, never, ever, ever unplug the locomotive/tender wiring. Why would you want to? If it's a storage issue, keep the engine on a shelf somewhere.

And if a wire pulls out of the plug, the only solution is to replace the plug itself. Professional techs who do this work tell me other aftermarket plugs are preferable.

If you replace these items, you have to know which wire is which. The NMRA has color coding guidelines, but Bachmann apparently does not follow them. So you have to backfeed each wire to see what is what on both engine and tender. If this is your first steam engine and you're asking these questions, you certainly will need to have plug replacement done professionally.

All of the above applies to engines equipped with DCC. If this model happens to be a very old with a single wire, it might be easier.