Old Lima & Mainline driving tyres.

Don't know about Mainline spares, but for Lima spares, try

M.B. MODELS

32, Conery Gardens, Whatton, Notts. NG13 9FD.

Tel/Fax..: 01949 850063.

Airfix Class 31 traction tyres will fit a Mainline/Repclia or early Bachmann Class 45.

HTH's

Wilson

Thanks for that Wilson.

regards

Peter A

If you want to try something different, fill the grooves for the traction tires with epoxy. File smooth after setting. May not have the same amount of traction as the tires, but that won't matter unless you run really, really long trains on really, really steep gradients.

Worked for me. ;-)

For anyone looking for Lima traction tyres (and possibly other traction tyres) I think I have found a solution based on suggestions from this group and de.rec.modelle.bahn. The Hornby and Wrenn traction tyres seem to be too thick for the grooves in the Lima wheels, but the Märklin tyres are thinner. The Märklin tyres also seem to have been successfully used for Roco, Rivarossi and Bemo.

Unfortunately Märklin do not give out the dimensions of their tyres (which are readily available in the UK from Gaugemaster). I have, however, managed to glean the following information (TD=tyre/tire diameter, WD=wheel diameter)

7151 - TD: ?, WD: 9.6 mm? 7152 - TD: 13 mm, WD: 22.5 mm. 7153 - TD: 11.5 mm, WD: 14-16 mm. 7154 - TD: 8 mm, WD: 12 mm.

7151s are apparently rarely used and hard to get hold of.

I have just put 7154s on my Lima Class 50 and Class 73's and so far they work great, better than the Lima originals. I hope this helps, but you may want to verify this information before you buy. Use them at your own risk. I have no connection with any of the companies mentioned by the way.

Thanks for the responses chaps ; very interesting! I will give the epoxy a try.

Regards

Maerklin - theirs are the best I know of. There are (I think) four sizes ranging from about 10.5mm to 23mm. They are quite elastic, excellent wearing and grip well. There was a period in the 1970s when their tyres were clear plastic tubing and rubbish. Roco - they have a similar range but also do smaller section tyres for smaller groves. Fleischmann - suitable sizes for Diesels etc Bearing in mind that their steam locos are tender drive.

Regards, Greg.P.

I recall on one forum someone suggested using thin slices of plastic tubing as used in fish tanks. You would need the larger diameter tubing but I am not too confident the smooth coating would offer much grip .... but as I have not tried it I don't know !

I surpose you could use rubber tubing like that used for car radiator overflows etc. but cutting it thin enough may be the only problem.

For ex mainline you can some of them from Hornby as spares for the models that they re-introduced such as the 56 not the new one that came out last year, tyre size the same for the old mainline 45.

Chris