Trying to help someone in another thread. I don't have any locos with traction tires.
Are traction tires on one side of one driver, both sides, multiple drivers? For example the BLI Pres. Washington.
https://www.broadway-limited.com/5592heavypacific4-6-2bando5300presidentwashingtonolivegreenparagon3sounddcdccho-1.aspx
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Generally they are applied to a pair of drivers, although I know of know hard 'n fast rule that they must be on one axle. In many cases of steam locomotives, they are applied to the main driver pair, the one with the main crank, but that again is not an industry standard. For example, a 2-10-4 locomotive would have its main axle 'blind', meaning no flange, and there would be no traction tire on that axle.
There would be no advantage to multiple pairs of traction tires because such tires cannot pick up and pass on electricity from the rails, and our locomotives suffer enough from this problem.
You could check Walther's and Bachmann. The loco diagrams at the Bachmann forums I believe show some of the locos with tires.
Some use Bullfrog Snot on the loco wheels rather than tires.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
BLI's PRR I1 2-10-0 has traction tires on the rear most flanged #5 drivers both sides. This driver is not the geared axel.
BLI's PRR H10 2-8-0 has traction tires on the rear most flanged #4 drivers both sides. This driver is not the geared axel.
BLI's PRR M1 4-8-2 has no traction tires at all.
But I need to find the box's for the M1's, I remember seeing extra drivers with traction tires in somebody's box that could be switched out, installed by me the owner.
Thanks
Traction tires are "bilateral".... that makes sense. My interest in not so much traction, but electrical pick up.
Can I assume trailing trucks are not involved in electrical pick up?
BigDaddy Thanks Traction tires are "bilateral".... that makes sense. My interest in not so much traction, but electrical pick up. Can I assume trailing trucks are not involved in electrical pick up?
On the BLI M1 4-8-2 the ''2'' being the trailing truck, the frame is plastic so I see no electric pickup at that point from the trailing truck wheels. I have even added a flat piece of lead screwed to the bottom for added weight and better tracking. (I must of had a problem at one time with that one tracking). I'm sure on other brands you will want a meter to check for electrical pickup just in case.
richg1998 You could check Walther's and Bachmann. The loco diagrams at the Bachmann forums I believe show some of the locos with tires. Some use Bullfrog Snot on the loco wheels rather than tires. Rich
Bachmann?
I have quite a few Bachmann/Spectrum steam locos, no traction tires on any of them.
Sheldon
The Roundhouse 'old-time' 2-8-0 has traction tyres on the rear driver. I replaced mine with Bullfrog snot for durability when I used one of these as the basis for an On30 kitbash.
In this case, it was a tender engine which had power pickups on the tender trucks, too. Originally, each truck only picked up from one rail, but I upgraded this to two-rail pickup on both trucks when I did the kitbash. If you do use traction tyres or equivalents on tender engines, then it's worth adding pickups to the tender.
The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, OregonThe Year: 1948The Scale: On30The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com
I have one engine with traction tires it came with. It's a 4-axle switcher, and I had to be careful about dead spots because I was missing a pair of wheels for pickup.
I think they put on traction tires because they removed so much weight for a sound decoder and speaker.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL richg1998 You could check Walther's and Bachmann. The loco diagrams at the Bachmann forums I believe show some of the locos with tires. Some use Bullfrog Snot on the loco wheels rather than tires. Rich Bachmann? I have quite a few Bachmann/Spectrum steam locos, no traction tires on any of them. Sheldon
Simon
snjroy ATLANTIC CENTRAL richg1998 You could check Walther's and Bachmann. The loco diagrams at the Bachmann forums I believe show some of the locos with tires. Some use Bullfrog Snot on the loco wheels rather than tires. Rich Bachmann? I have quite a few Bachmann/Spectrum steam locos, no traction tires on any of them. Sheldon My old time Bachmann 4-4-0 has a traction tire. Simon
My old time Bachmann 4-4-0 has a traction tire.
Yes, but only a very few Bachmann locos have them.
ConCor's Aerotrain has an unusual set-up: Only the front truck of the engine is powered (in the rear there is only a single axle). The front axle of the truck has the traction tire on the engineer's side, the second axle has the tire on the fireman's side. I have no idea if this presents an advantage over having both tires on the same axle.
JW
A friend has a BLI Dreyfus Hudson, brass hybrid, which has traction tires on one axle. The pulling power is UH-MA-ZING. It will take a 14-car passenger train up our 2% ruling grade (and the 2.5% "eliminator" grade) without heating up. Though I don't have the numbers off hand, it pulls way better than my plastic BLI Hudson with no tires -- dunno how much of that is weight and how much is the tires.
The downside: It wobbles like a drunkard. Can't see it at a distance.
I used to think traction tires were for cheap-crap locos but that Hudson is my hero.
I have bought my first bottle of Bullfrog Snot. Even after watching their video several times, I have had little luck getting the same application results they had and did have to disassemble my Bachmann Mikado to clean up the mess. I got a halfway decent application (using a brush not a toothpick) on two axles and it did increase pulling power by about 50%... but this meant going from "very little" to "little". :)
I do plan to try it on my Bachmann Niagaras and Bachmann E60CP (do you see a pattern here?) as well as my BLI Hudson and am hoping for better results with practice.