I've seen some scathing hate towards Traction Wheel Tires. Is this hate undeserved? Does anyone care to defend them?
Me? Not me. I'm not a fan of traction tires. I will be selling a Kato Daylighter because I refuse to put new traction tires on it. I hate those confounded traction tires. The worst curse out there is putting them on stoves (steam locomotives). All those things you have to remove and then put back together. Re quartering. Not for me. I discovered to my dismay........... my Bullfrog Snot dried up on me and is useless at this point. I'm tired of messing (the nicest way to express what I'm really thinking) with them. Thinking morons invented them and well I think you get my drift. But others will give you flowery reports about how well they pull, until they loose traction, break and fall off. Glowing reports of how many cars they can pull on a flat. A flat. I want to hear about how many cars they can pull up a 2% grade. Flat? I can go on with my hate relationship with them but most of the time the traction tire lovers thinks it's the greatest thing since apple pie. Not me! LOL that should spark and drive a lively discussion LOL.
Well..........how well would your car get around if you drove on the rims? Same thing in principal. And just like your car, the tires can have problems. The big difference is with your car you go to the tire shop and they fix you up. There is no tire shop for your model locos (maybe there SHOULD be). Traction tires make a BIG difference in the pulling power of locos. I have several "pairs" of locos (same model/same manufacturer) and the loco with tires always does better. The biggest example is my Model Power 2-8-2s. The non-tired loco reaches it's limit at around 15 cars.....the newer model with traction tires reached 75 cars at a recent club layout which still wasn't a maximum, but I ran out of cars. I totally agree that when they come off, it's a MAJOR headache to get them replaced, but I've had locos with traction tires that have never given me any problems. DCC locos have given me way more problems than traction tires.
It all 'pends on. I have some locos I am glad have traction tires and some I'd rather have without traction tires. Doug
1. Traction tires mean that many less electrical pickups. 2. Traction tires usually are mounted on locos that are insufficiently weighted (and more likely than not really, really El Cheapo). Decently weighted locos don't need traction tires. 3. I've never seen rubber traction tires on 1:1 stuff, except for the Montreal subway trains - actual tires mounted on rims, and they're not for traction, but noise. And even those have standard gauge railway wheels as backups in case they have a flat. Conclusion: I'm not a fan.
The only real problem with traction tires is the material from which they are constructed. It's crap. It dries, cracks, and stretches, and that can all be apparent within the first couple of minutes of trying a new engine....previously NIB. BLI includes a free replacement pair with their new locos, but if the ones installed are defective, and relatively useless by the time you purchase the loco, how utile will the replacements be? Other than that, I do like traction tires for their intended purpose. I haven't noticed any problems with electrical pickup except on a Proto 2000 SW8. I acquired mine shortly after Walthers bought up the stock and company, and they very nicely shipped me an all-metal axle right away, free of charge. Bull Frog Snot works really well, but I hear it will not stay liquid for long after it has been opened and applied more than a couple of times, even if really well sealed. At $30 a pop, or whatever it's going for these days, it's hardly a bargain.
I'm not sure if this applies to any locos out there, but manufacturers could make things a lot easier.........on my Model Power 2-8-2, the back 3 sets of drivers are all geared together, with the front set attached by the side rods. The middle driver (of the 3 geared together) is NOT hooked to the siderods. If that axle had the traction tires, all that would be required to replace them would be to drop the cover plate, pop that axle out, replace the tires and put it back together......no quartering, no removing side rods, ect. Of coarse MP chose to put the tires on the back axle. For the same reason, traction tires on diesels are easy to replace....pop off the sideframe, pull out the axle and replace the tires, and put it back together. Mike.......not sure what scale you model in, but in N scale, EVERYTHING is under-weighted.....and not because it's "cheap". Traction tires are much more benefit in N scale than the larger scales. Compound that with the fact that N scale allows for longer trains in the same space. I routinely run 75 to 100 car trains at our NTRAK setups. I would agree that the larger scales don't benefit from traction tires very much.
