Lionel scale f3 traction tires

What do you mean by the tires being attached to the wheel? I don't think any manufacturer does that. They were probably glued on by the former owner.

Four different spots separated by 90 degrees on the wheel next to flange, where the wheel casting has a hole that goes through to the back side of the wheel.  The traction tire appeared to be molded to have 4 nubs on it where they fit into these holes.

Mike: That is the strangest thing. I had Lionel’s Santa Fe scale F3s, Cab #s 17, 18, and 19, until advancing to the TMCC F7, Cab #332. All of them had the standard tires that you could slip off and replace. None were attached to the wheel. Unless this was peculiar to Lionel’s first scale F3s. 🤔

Just now realizing I was looking at one of the separately available b units for the set (6-14539).  This was the one I removed the tire off of because it was also bobbing up and down.  I assumed the rest of the trucks for the other power units would be the same.  The cast wheels on the b unit definitely have the four holes in them.  Trying to determine if the the rubber migrated in these holes over time, or they were intentionally placed there to accept a special traction tire.

A photo of the wheel and tire would be very informative Mike.  I have minimal experience with this generation of Lionel diesels, as Lionel quickly progressed to the LionDrive motor and truck.  I do think that Lionel designed yours intentionally to prevent the tire from slipping on the wheel.  Browsing parts lists on lionelsupport.com, it also seems that they abandoned this approach pretty quickly.  The tires with nubs are shown as not available, and I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Lionel to reproduce them.

Assuming that the groove is the same width as on later diesels (or MTH diesels for that matter), I don't see why you couldn't just replace it with a standard tire.    If the holes in the tread still cause bouncing after the tire is installed, then I suppose you could fill them with JB Weld, or even modeling clay.  Interesting find!!

I decided to move on and replace with standard traction tires.  The A unit and B units both used this same type of tire, wheels from A unit shown below with the holes as well as part of the old tire I removed. I have changed my fair share of traction tires over the years and I had never seen tires having these attachment points before now.  

I can honestly say I've never seen these, I can't imagine they used them on many models!  I see there are actually holes in the wheels, very odd.  An experiment that went horribly wrong!