traction tires!

MONK posted:

I'am sick of them, what do we do?

Monk

I've gone to the extent of replacing the traction tire wheels with solid wheels that have NO groove for traction tires. I certain cases I have even added weight to the locomotive for extra traction. In both cases, I have done away with the traction tires.

Chuck, I don't think it's traction tires that cause your Atlantic to "wiggle and bump".  My MTH PRR E6 does the same thing.  I think the short wheelbase of the Atlantic, with only four driving wheels, allows more lateral movement as it goes down the track.

I've noticed the tracking ability of my steam engines improves with the number of drivers.  My MTH WM Russian Decapod tracks straight and true all the time.

As I said previously in this post, I still don't understand the furor over traction tires.  I'd conservatively estimate I haven't replaced tires on 80% of my engines, with some lasting ten years or more.  To me, the improvement in traction is easily worth the inconvenience of  occasional tire replacement.

John

Popi posted:

I've gone to the extent of replacing the traction tire wheels with solid wheels that have NO groove for traction tires.

@Popi how did you do this, and which locos did you do it to?

One of my chief objections to traction tires is that they prevent the wheels from skidding in sharp curves.  The sudden increase in friction causes most locos to suddenly slow down, which looks very unrealistic.  Speed control is like swallowing a spider to catch the fly, when you really shouldn't have swallowed that fly in the first place.

Going to ONE tire on a steam loco, and two tires on the same side of the truck (for diesels) would solve this problem by allowing the opposite wheel to skid, while retaining some of the benefits.  Lionel did it this way during the MPC era, and so did LGB in G-scale.  If a diesel has two trucks, normally they are oriented in an opposite fashion (i.e., the geared wheels will be on the engineer's side of the loco on one truck, and the fireman's side on the other.)  Installing an insulated control rail right before the switch will allow the remaining metal wheels on both sides of the diesel to bridge the circuit and actuate the switch.  For steam locos with lead and trailing trucks, there's no problem.

The best resolution would be to redesign the locos, allowing the wheels and axles to be replaced as a unit.  A select few O gauge locos are already designed this way (1946 version of the 726 Berkshire, K-Line train set Pacific, Atlas SW switcher, JLC series Y6b, LionChief Plus Mikado, some versions of the Legacy Atlantic, etc.)  It's the standard approach in 2-rail O scale and almost every other scale where the trains are intended for adults and not children.  Including an extra wheelset in the box would allow the user to decide if they want tires or not.  MTH did this with their HO scale locos from day one, but so far they haven't redesigned their O gauge locos along these lines. 

There are other benefits to this type of chassis design which I've mentioned on other posts.  It doesn't happen in O because the manufacturers presume that O-gaugers don't know any better.  We aren't a demanding audience, we'll buy anything, so they won't spend the money to retool.  I reiterate my first post on this thread:  Be discriminating in your purchases.  Reward innovation and demand better!!

OK. My Traction Tire Friends,

Is there a TRACTION TIRE CONVERSION CHART? that can be used to find Traction tires for older Locomotives or other, older Traction tire using trains? At this time I can't find tires for 6-28086 cause Lionel don't stock them anymore

K.T.,

Try the TheTrainDoctor.com.  Go to the "Technical" page.  Look down near the bottom of the page when you get there.

Mike

@Kaytown posted:

OK. My Traction Tire Friends,

Is there a TRACTION TIRE CONVERSION CHART? that can be used to find Traction tires for older Locomotives or other, older Traction tire using trains? At this time I can't find tires for 6-28086 cause Lionel don't stock them anymore

Forum Sponsor @S AND W lists the 6SP-8036-206 traction tire for your locomotive:

http://www.sandwparts.com/Parts%20List/10%20Digit.htm