Thanks for responding Mike. Excuse me for being so naive. I'm new to everything but I'm eager to learn and come to understand the world of  train modeling. The engine and tender I'm asking about is HO scale. It's a Bachmann 4 8 4, grey black and silver with a gold accent stripe running the length of the engine. The number 806 is on the cab. On the bottom the only markings I see are "Bachmann, China". I know it's a smoker because I can see the element in the stack. The tender is  grey with black and silver accents on the side and New York Central printed on it. OK, I've just discovered that the tender is a Rivarossi made in Italy! So this is a mismatched set. I suppose I should do some research and try to find what type of tender really goes behind the engine. To someone like me, the engine and tender appear to go together by just looking at them. 

I do know that if the trucks on the tender had some way of conducting power to the stiff metal wire inside, it would short out the tracks because there's nothing inside the tender to make use of the power being supplied to it.

First I would like to say howdy from Texas! I'm the latest "newbe" and just as I am new to this board I am equally as new to model railroading. Please have patience and try to over look my ignorance . I just purchased a used 4 8 4 New York Central steam engine. The lady I bought it from hasn't a clue as to the function and accessories of this engine. I have discovered some thing I am very curiuos about and would like some help in understanding what I have. After pulling the tender body off the frame I found a bare wire running from one screw to the other that hold the trucks to the frame. Inspecting the (metal) trucks I found that they are equiped to pick up voltage from the track. But there doesn't appear to be any way for the wire that runs from the two screws to become "hot" from the trucks. I have seen the undercarriage of cars that have search lights and what not  and they all have a copper or tin strip of metal that make contact with the axles of the trucks to activate the equipment their supplying voltage to. The pin that connects the tender to the engine is steel but the connector on the engine is plastic. That tells anyone with a little common sense that the engine doesn't have any thing to do as far as supplying any type of power to the tender. SO, can anyone tell me if there is something missing on the tender that would allow it to receive power from the tracks?