The metal wheels probobly look much more realistic, since they ar not elevated from the rails, but the 'rubber wheels' or traction-tires greatly increase the pulling capacity of the locomotive. It ultimatly depends on what you want to do with the locomotive and the space you have. Most BLI locomotives will pull 20 or more cars without the traction-tires, and depending on the size of your layout that may be enough. If you want to run really long trains of over 50 cars, and over tough grades, the traction-tires will help greatly!
Ghonz
PS: I have a BLI Pennsylvania M1-b in HO Scale that didn't come with traction tires, but it pulls good enough for my requirements as it is.
- Matt
I have two of the BLI Hudson locos. Without the traction tires, they do pull about 20 cars. But I have a couple grades on the layout, and my 20 car coal trains were stalling on the grades. So I installed the traction tires that came with the locos. They will pull many more cars and have no trouble with the grades, but there are two drawbacks.
1. The traction tires increase wheel diameter just enough to rub on the plastic brake shoes, and create drag. I had to trim the brake shoes with a hobby knife, to clear the wheels.
2. Because the rear wheels are not gear driven, and are driven only by the connecting rods, there is a wierd looking, side to side, up and down movement of the rear end of the locomotive, as the connecting rods push the wheels around in a circle. It is most pronounced under load.
I run the traction tires on mine. When I first got them, I put a tiny bit of superglue under each tire at 3 places on each driver. None of mine "stick up" above the rails, and you have to have pretty good eyes and light to see them at all.
I don't have any BLI Hudsons, but on the Class As and Class Js all the wheel axles have bearings and that prevents the wheels moving as popeye described them. Some old Rivarossis used to do that if you didn't make some axle bushings to hold them in position. The Y6bs would do it on both engines !
If you live in a dry climate like Arizona, traction tires are bad news because they dry out, crack, and dissentegrate within a year. I'm careful to never buy a locomotive that has them.
I have several BLI heavy Mikado and 4-8-4 engines without traction tires, and they all pull long-enough trains up a 2 percent grade with no wheel slippage.