A while back, I purchased a couple of steamers (DCC) and had trouble keeping the draw bar in place while placing Engine & Tender on the track.
Some good suggestions where given here (one was the Rix Rerailer).
But while at the Anaheim Convention a vistor was watching me struggle with this. There was also a rough spot on the track at the end of a bridge that each time the engine went over it, the tender can disconnected.
He suggested adding a small piece of soft rubber tubing to the end of the draw bar pin. "This worked great."
I have also "Carefully" bent the draw bar into kind of a Z or S shape. This raised the draw bar just enough to help also.
Thanks for all the suggestions and just wanted to pass this along.
An old HO trick was to replace the drawbar post with a screw. You could then put a nut under the drawbar to keep the engine and tender coupled. Alternately, you could thread the draw bar with a die so that it would take a nut.
it looked awful.
Putting the tubing on the drawbar post is another old idea which I haven't heard in years. And, as you mention, bending the drawbar itself is also a good fix.
I carefully thread the post with a small nut, usually a 4-40 or 6-32, held in a nutdriver, then slip on a short piece of 1/16" inside diameter silicone model airplane fuel tubing. It only takes a few threads to grip the tubing.
The drawbar should ride in the center of the post, so bending it is a good idea.