How to shorten MTH drawbar?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I remember several people mentioned that they were able to shorten drawbar on their MTH locomotives. I have Mohawk. Nice engine, compares well to my BLI Brass Hybrid Mohawk. One day I will post a full comparo. I’ve also sent an e-mail to MTH on whether they can supply me with a shorter drawbar - I know they offer multiple settings on the drawbar for their latest HO locomotives.

2

Well the first place I would start is with getting another draw bar just in case. Once you’ve cut and drilled it’s too late. It should be fairly straight forward deal/ cut it using a razor saw or dremel tool and drill the hole with either a dremel or a pin vice. In some cases I would imagine just drilling another hole will suffice and cutting off the excess wouldn’t be necessary. I’ve only had occasion to make two draw bars for the same type locomotive a Spectrum J class 4-8-4 and i just used a piece of scrap delran i had laying around drilled cut and painted with a Testors paint pen

3

Allegheny,

Thanks for the info. Seems like easy enough, I’ll wait until MTH responds on at least getting me a spare stock drawbar, if they don’t have for close coupling.

I also have trouble modifying acceleration on the locomotive. Setting CV3 does not seem to have an affect on how fast loco gets up to speed. Have you played with that?

4

Charles, doesn’t the draw bar conduct power?

Cuda Ken

5

Got a chance to play some more with the Mohawk

Anyone was able to set MTH CV3 value (acceleration) - I changed the values up to a 100 but didn’t notice any difference in how fast it gets up to speed. I use Digitrax Zephyr, and Mohawk double toots when I set the CV.

Also with Mute On (F6) there is a slight hum going off the speaker - is this normal?

6

I don’t know much about MTH, but from what I understand you cannot changing CV 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 with DCC. No speed matching to other engines.

Cuda Ken