Traction Tyres

[lukee]

Hi,

 

I own a couple of locos (Hornby Virgin 125 and a Lima Class 47 railfreight) with those pesky traction tyres.

Is it wise/safe to remove the traction tyres so that I can clean the wheels properly and avoid the grime from the tyre dirtying my rails? If so, how should I remove them?

 

All help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Luke

[walkingthedog]

Remove them and replace with new ones. Slip a pin or small screwdriver under the tyre to remove it.

[lukee]

Hi,

Thanks. When you say replace with new ones, do you mean the wheels? I more meant, can I remove the tyre and still keep the wheels?

Thanks,

Luke

[walkingthedog]

The wheels have grooves to take the tyres. You either need to remove the tyres, clean the tyres and wheels then replace them OR, remove the tyres and replace with new tyres OR, replace the wheels with wheels without tyres. 

[The Doc]

I have a couple of Hornby Railroad diesels and when they shed a traction tyre they lose a lot of pulling power, make more noise on the track, wobble and sometimes derail on points.  So you either have to put up with the traction tyres or look out for those ultrascale replacements.  However, The types of diesels you refer to, with only one powered bogie, will not pull very well without traction tyres, so the ultrascale replacements aren't ideal.  When Hornby first re-introduced Lima models such as the class 59 and 73, they didn't use any traction tyres and had quite a few complaints about lack of pulling power - which certainly didn't suit the class 59.

[lukee]

Thanks for the help everyone.

I know that in real life locos like these are more powerful, and I'm more a steam person than a Diesel/electric. But I have 0-4-0s that will pull massive rakes of wagons and coaches without needing tyres. So why is it these models will struggle? Do they have smaller wheels?

[Jimbo1707820979]

Surely traction tyres are the most hated feature on model railways. Closely followed by tender-driven locos ?  Another contender might be the insecure draw bars of certain designs  (giving worries about decoder ables coming adrift).  Does anyone have other particular "hates" ?

[walkingthedog]

As above

[flyingfox4475]

I have never found tender drive or traction tyres to be a problem.  My tender drive models seem to need much less maintanance than the new loco driven loco's. Also will pull more coaches and trucks/wagons. true you have to change traction tyres now ad then.

[old acho]

More Tyres! Probably been asked before, but anyone know if there is a current equivalent tyre for the Joeuf 8252 4-6-2 Pacific, 38 A Tender drive? A 1979 diagram lists the part number as 18-5019. The wheel is 13.15 mm at the tyre seat, and 13.65 mm at the wheel edge.

[delboyjames]

A couple of maintenance  videos on Youtube differ in their advice, one states that Hornby traction tyre should be cleaned with IPA, the other video states that IPA should NOT be used as they can cause damage to the material.  which is correct?

[96RAF]

Depends upon the traction tyre material, rubber or neoprene. Who knows these days what they are made from.

The only safe way is to drop an old tyre in a pot with some IPA and a lid and leave it for a long while. If it turns into a gooey mess, then maybe IPA is not the best cleaner.

Try the same thing with meths and any of the specialist track cleaning fluids.

[ColinB]

As I have found with my classic bikes, rubber is not what it used to be. According to the motocycle sellers they use plastic in the rubber, how I do not know, but it means the rubber seems to last only about 2 years. As to tender driven locos, I hate them, I still have a few I converted to DCC. They seem to run tons better if you put in extra pickups. It took me ages to get the locos to not slide on its wheels, it appears any slight fault with the valve gear and the wheels don't turn properly and of course adding extra pickups doesn't help. I suppose it is a bit like pushing a carriage in front of the loco all the time. If I can I try wherever possible to avoid locos with traction tyres, so in the case of diesels that usually means buying from some other manufacturer.