I applied BULLFROG SNOT to the Model Power American 4-4-0, to both driver sets. SNOT transformed into a great little puller, now hauling 10 car mixed trains up hill. This is a good looking and strong engine, with a major weakness. The tender pick-up design is many years out of date. It has wheel wipers like those on the early Atlas steamers, with one conducting wheel and one insulated. As a result, it would frequently stall over dips in the track, switch frogs, and other mysterious random spots. Tapping the tender generally got it going.

This was frustrating, since BULLFROG SNOT gave it great traction, but it remained unreliable for regular use. I tried soldering wires to the wipers, leveling the trucks, releasing the tender drawbar tension. Still had the stalls.

I had B-Mann canteen, the Norfolk & Western prototype, that had a working light. Why just a light? It has nice 3 axle side wiper trucks. These were removed an replaced by an easy rolling set of Micro-Trains passenger trucks. The six-wheeled trucks were migrated under the tender of the B-Mann 2-6-6-2, except that the conducting tab bumps weren’t quite a match and resulted in the same stalls. This was remedied by soldering wires to the tabs and hard-wiring the trucks to the tender conductor strips. If you try this, remember to disassemble the trucks and remove the metal tabs for soldering.

The 2-6-6-2 now has 6 wheel tender trucks. Combined with the tender doghouse, it looks like something a low budget shop, like my all steam fictional road name "SHORTBUCK" would do with their small fleet of hand-me-down steamers, as they are able to collect cast-offs from the anthracite roads due to diesel conversions.

Pondering another conversion for the 4-4-0, I purchased Mikado tender trucks from Kato parts. But now I had a set of B-Mann side conducting trucks which seemed better suited to the 4-4-0. I hated to remove the MP arch bar tender trucks since SHORTBUCK’s limited freight car roster has all arch bars. No interchange traffic for these clunkers.

Wire leads were soldered to the tabs, and holes cut in the tender floor. The leads were soldered to the proper connections, and a test run was made. Perfect. No stalls, no stutters, just smooth running lap after lap. Mixed trains are running again behind the 4-4-0.

It’s a bit of effort, but worth it for all of you that want more from the MP 4-4-0, and don’t forget the BULLFROG SNOT for your traction tires.