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Traction Tyres

A number of folks on here have suggested removing traction tyres to reduce the crud left on tracks. Thinking about doing this, but don't want to take a loco semi-permanently out of commission, whilst awaiting new tyres.

I have two locos without tyres, and whenever they pull anything more than 1 wagon, they wheel slip all over the place. So, if I take the tyres off the other loco's, then i expect them to slip too. how can i prevent this from happening ? We are talking older hornby models (1980's, made in England) Also, are there any electrical considerations when removing traction tyres ? (I don't see this on my current set of loco's but I'm asking for future reference)

Reply to
Ian Cornish
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"Ian Cornish" wrote

Not much you can do with these I'm afraid. The traction tyres sit in grooves in the wheels and if you remove the tyres you will both lose all useable traction and end up with an unstable wheels due to the grooves. You could conceivably replace the wheel sets with groove free wheels which

*might* increase the available traction a little.

None at all as far as I'm aware, in fact with some of the latest Hornby tender drive units you would notionally at least improve electrical collection as even the wheels with traction tyres have current collectors wiping on the rear of the tyred wheels.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

This may not work for you but a friend of mine made some traction tyres for one of his locos. He used a slice from one of those soft rubber sleeves you find on some ball point pens. Just an idea.

Reply to
Les Pickstock

The tyres are there because the manufacturer wanted to save money by not putting enough weight in the right places!

A small correction to my previous comment - sometimes the tyres are there because there isn't room for enough weight in tender drive mechanisims. With single powered bogie drives in Diesels, additional weight needs to be in the 1/3rd of the loco that the mechanisim is in. Weight in the unpoiwered

2/3rds end adds more weight to be pulled around than it adds tractive effort.

The biggest consideration is that the wheel grooves left by the removal of tyres can catch on the rail head and derail the loco. More pickup points is always an advantage, especially if you run small locos at scale speeds. (unlikely with 1980s Hornby ;-)

With some mechanisims there are matching grooved and ungrooved wheelsets. It's probably worth buying spare ungrooved wheelsets and replacing the tyred wheels and then adding as much weight as you can inside the loco. Lead flashing bought from house dismantlers is cheap and can be cut with old scissors and shaped with hammers, files and a vice.

Reply to
Greg Procter

A further point - I've experienced the same problem and had excellent results from Marklin tyres. They seem to be made of a material half way between rubber and plastic, with the advantages of both and few of the disadvantages. They last for years!

Regards, Greg.P.

Ian Cornish wrote:

Reply to
Greg Procter

You can get replacement wheels from ultra scale that won't have the groves for the tyres. But the locos are never going to be great pullers with only one motor bogie and not enough ballast weight.

Chris

Reply to
Chris

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