I have a Kato Mikado with no tender; should it run without the tender? The little thin brass wires from the drawbar are connected to the loco? I put it on the tracks and nothing happens.Any help would be appreciated.
I would rig up a 9 volt battery with a couple of wires and touch the drawbar wipers to see if the motor runs. I don't believe the Mike has pick-up from only one driver side but it may be an earlier version that has pick-up from one side and the tender supplies the other side. You stated that you have the drawbar but no tender so you can also touch the drawbar with one wire from the 9 volt and the other to either driver set to see if it runs if you only have one wiper on the drawbar. You can also see what Spookshow states about it and if there are other versions of pick-up out there.
Yes, the mikado will run without the tender, albeit not real well. It needs the pick up from the tender to run reliably.
