Disconnecting the Consolidation locomotive from the tender

[FBGardens]

I recently purchased a Consolidation and am happy with it.  My problem arose after the first run when I attempted to disconnect the two leads from the locomotive that are joined to the front underside of the tender by white male and female connectors.  I spent twenty minutes attempting to disconnect them.  I fear that in the future the strain on the connector mounted on the underside of the tender will break one or both of them.  Any hints on how to resolve this issue???

Many thanks.

[Jon D. Miller]

FB Gardens

This doesn't answer your question directly.

Easy solution is to build a carrier for the Connie.  With a carrier there will be no need to unplug the tender each time you finish running. Constant pluging and unpluging will in short order cause wires to pull from the plugs.



While the locomotive pictured is not the Connie, I use similar carriers for all locomotives that have wires running between the engine and tender. Built the first carrier when the Spectrum American became available during January of 2000.

Possibly someone has a sure-fire method to unplug the Connie with ease and not risk damage to the wires.  If so, bring it on.

Here's a link to an article on building a carrier. In this case it was for a three truck Shay.

http://www.grblogs.com/index.php/2007/10/25/built-another-engine-carrier?blog=4



One of the "Enthusiastic Children"

JD

[jebouck]

I replaced mine, (before I converted it to battery/RC) with a "user friendly"
connecting cable. I knew those plugs would be problematic for my big fingers, and went thru the same thing you did.

[paintjockey]

I figured mine wouldn't last and I'd have to replace the plug or socket sooner or later, so I just grab the wires and pull. Looking back I've been doing that for three years now and they still haven't broken. I'm not saying to do this, only that they are fairly durable.

[Steve Stockham]

Okay, I'll give it a try. The first thing to remember is DON'T pull on the wires!!! If one of them comes loose you'll have trouble! Now, with that being said, use your fingernail and lightly work it under the lip of the tab. As you have already experienced, it is rather snug. You will have to "wiggle" it out of the female connector. Don't worry too much about breaking anything as long as you stay with the white plastic male connector and don't pull on the wires! (Did I mention that you need to really be careful not to pull on the wires?) The connectors should work free with a pop. Give it a try and let us know how it goes. Good luck!