No, the correct answer is
"They are my trains and I do as I please with them." AND, brand new locos can and do throw tires off. AND, they are much more inclined to do so on a circle of track with no straights. AND, they come off much easier when pulling a heavy load. AND, they last a "minimum" of twice as long when glued on. As a wheel with a tire rotates under load it sets up two waves, bow and stern, much like a boat with a displacement hull which cannot plane. This flexing generates heat and the warm rubber stretches easier. Glue them on and much of this flexing is eliminated. Now if traction tires were only on one side of the locomotive you would not have two tires fighting against one another in the curve and that would help. Kusan / AMT made their traction tires around 1/8" thick and I have yet to see one of those tires come off a wheel without a great deal of effort. They look much like a washer from a faucet. Their your trains do as you please, but if you want to increase the ratio of run time vs tire changing time, glue them on. When I started gluing them on I used contact cement and it is indeed a chore to clean off when replacing tires. Somewhere along the way I changed over to water thin CA. I cut a X-Acto chisel blade down till it is slightly narrower than the tire groove on the wheel then with the loco upside down I run it with the edge of the blade facing against the direction of rotation and the dried CA flies off in chips. Takes about ten seconds of running per wheel to remove. Two rail scale trains have got along nicely for years without traction tires. Mr Manufacturer, how about an option, with or without ? Now if some entrepreneur wanted to offer spring steel bands which fit into the tire grooves and snap in place I'm installing them on every loco I own which has rubber tires now. As for you repairmen, just keep cursing. AND, I'll keep gluing. j
