I am having a dickens of a time keeping my Marx tinplate locomotives from spinning their wheels. To keep from losing traction, I am considering using the product "Bullfrog Snot" liquid traction tire on my wheels. Has anyone used this product? If so, do you recommend "Bullfrog Snot"? Thanks!
No but some claim it works although it probably wears off onto the track. Oil the wheels/axles stick to short trains and the engines should pull them.
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Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
I suggest you clean the oil and grease off of the track. Here is my secret method: Take two or three paper towels and fold them up to make a pad. Fasten the pad to the bottom of a heavy car or a gondola that you add some weight to. It doesn't have to be too heavy to work well. I use rubber bands that are installed so they don't touch the track. Put some isopropyl alcohol on the pad and run it behind a loco. Change the pad frequently as it is going to get dirty very fast. You can add more cars behind the gondola so that the car wheels get cleaned, also. Do this until the pad shows only a faint trace of dirt. This approach cleans the wheels of the cars and the loco along with the track. If the track has any rust on it, just run the train and the train wheels will polish a narrow stripe on the top of the rails.
sir james I No but some claim it works although it probably wears off onto the track. Oil the wheels/axles stick to short trains and the engines should pull them.
servoguy I suggest you clean the oil and grease off of the track. Here is my secret method: Take two or three paper towels and fold them up to make a pad. Fasten the pad to the bottom of a heavy car or a gondola that you add some weight to. It doesn't have to be too heavy to work well. I use rubber bands that are installed so they don't touch the track. Put some isopropyl alcohol on the pad and run it behind a loco. Change the pad frequently as it is going to get dirty very fast. You can add more cars behind the gondola so that the car wheels get cleaned, also. Do this until the pad shows only a faint trace of dirt. This approach cleans the wheels of the cars and the loco along with the track. If the track has any rust on it, just run the train and the train wheels will polish a narrow stripe on the top of the rails.
Is Bullfrog Snot conductive for electricity? If it is not conductive, you might have some power issues. You could just put it on 1 or 2 drive wheels, but not all of them.
EIS2 Is Bullfrog Snot conductive for electricity? If it is not conductive, you might have some power issues. You could just put it on 1 or 2 drive wheels, but not all of them.
Have I used Bullfrogsnot?
Yes, I have.
It is a type of paint that you can apply to train wheels that dries to a plastic surface - it does not stay tacky but hardens, (within a few minutes of application, but when hard it is a tiny bit soft and "sticky" with much more surface friction than metal. Applied well to the drivers or a steamer or the powered wheels of a diesel loco, it increases traction.
I do not recommend it for Marx tinplate locos. I have four and have never used it on them. I will give you my thoughts and experience and let you decide:
It works. Locos with it applied well have noticeably more traction and pull more cars and slip less going up grades. It is not "traction tire in a bottle" - the increase in traction is not as good as if the loco has traction tires. Maybe half as good. But it helps.
It is not that easy to apply well. I turn my locos over and clip power leads to them to get the wheels turning slowly, and apply it with a small fine-pointed brush, and put on only a light coat.
It is remoevable. Turn it back over on the workbench, connect power leads to it and get the drivers going, and hold the tip of an X-acto or similar knife blade to the driver and you can shave it off.
It comes off over time anyway, in tiny flakes that don't seem to hurt anything, after two or three months or more. You have to renew it. No big deal.
It does not conduct electricity. Someone brought this up in this thread earlier. When you apply it to a wheel, that wheel is no longer going to contribute to electrical connectivity. It you have a loco with a limited number of wheels, such as a 0-4-0, applying it to one or two wheels means you may be trading traction problems for stalling-due-to-poor-connectivity problems.
Put it on just one wheels on any axle, so there is a "traction tire" on only one side of a powered axle, never one on both. Do this for the same reason that manufacturers put traction tires on only one side of a set of powered wheels: put it on both wheels on an axle and yes, you have increased traction, on both sides of a curve where the loco has to slip one or another of those two wheels on a solid axle, so the motor spends a lot more energy on its wheels fighting each other in a curve.
Once you open the container it will harden over time. Whatever solvent the paint uses evaporates quickly when applied and is so volitile it leaks out even when the container is re-sealed. What you don't use will harden in about six months or less. (this is a common problem I have been told, not just me). wrap it in plastic wrap or put it in another container to help seal it.
There is a cheaper and nearer alternative. Near as I can determine, bullfrogsnot is the same stuff as you can buy in a can at Home Depot and hardware stores - plastic coating paint made to dip plier handles and other tools in to increase grip. I just b ought a big bottle of it there after my first evaporated and hardened in its container and have used that ever since.
I don't recommend it for Marx tinplate. Mine, at least, are 0-4-0s so applying it to even one driver means cutting electrical connectivity drastically. The stuff does not seem to help lightweight locos much. Have you tried adding weight (I use the lead weights with sticky backings made to apply to aluminum and mag aftermarket wheels on car) inside the loco? And frankly, with my pre-and post-war tinplate, I just accept they don't pull much.
'Snot does work well on big, heavy locos with many wheels. If you have, say, a Vision CC2 (very heavy, 16 powered drivers) that has lost its traction tires, 'Snot or its plastic-grip equivalent appplied to one driver each on two or three axles will improve traction alot, and enough, so you can avoid a very lengthy disassembly of driving rods and all on a very expensive loco, yet get it to run and pull well.
If no one has ever done it that way, it might be fun to try.
I do something similiar to this but I use a Scotch Brite type of sponge instead of the paper. I buy the pads at a flea market for about $1.00 for six. The rough side of the pad can really remove grim as it rides the rails under the gondola. Three pads seem to do the trick for my 200' of track. (What ever you do, do not use steel wool or sandpaper.)
For those who are thinking that clean track and wheels do not make much difference in performance..............................
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
Thank you, Lee! Great information! I have decided to pass on the "snot" for now.
Buckeye Riveter servoguy I suggest you clean the oil and grease off of the track. Here is my secret method: Take two or three paper towels and fold them up to make a pad. Fasten the pad to the bottom of a heavy car or a gondola that you add some weight to. It doesn't have to be too heavy to work well. I use rubber bands that are installed so they don't touch the track. Put some isopropyl alcohol on the pad and run it behind a loco. Change the pad frequently as it is going to get dirty very fast. You can add more cars behind the gondola so that the car wheels get cleaned, also. Do this until the pad shows only a faint trace of dirt. This approach cleans the wheels of the cars and the loco along with the track. If the track has any rust on it, just run the train and the train wheels will polish a narrow stripe on the top of the rails. I do something similiar to this but I use a Scotch Brite type of sponge instead of the paper. I buy the pads at a flea market for about $1.00 for six. The rough side of the pad can really remove grim as it rides the rails under the gondola. Three pads seem to do the trick for my 200' of track. (What ever you do, do not use steel wool or sandpaper.) For those who are thinking that clean track and wheels do not make much difference in performance..............................
I have seen Bullfrog Snot for sale and it is very expnsive here in south Florida, about $25.00 for a 4 ounce bottle. Have not used it so I can't say either way but I would clen my track first before I would use the BF snot.
$25 a bottle seems to be the going rate wherever I've seen it. Haven't tried it yet myself but I'm thinking about it.
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