Traction Tires, Making Them Last Longer

George,

I have many brands of locomotives such as Lionel, MTH, Weaver, Williams, Custom Trains and they all have traction tires. Of all the brands, I believe the material used by Lionel for traction tires is by far the worst of the lot. I recently took some new Legacy Geeps that I bought about four years ago, off the shelf and opened the sealed boxes for the first time and ran them! The traction tires were literally crumbling as I rubbed them between my thumb and index finger. They also leave a lot of black residue on the rails requiring frequent cleanings. On the other extreme, the Custom Trains FM units that I own are about 20 years old or more. Have never replaced any of the traction tires on the FM unit I've run a lot. My equally old Weaver Alcos have the original tires and I've run one of them a lot over the years and still have the original tires on it.

The traction tires on the Weaver and Custom Trains locos were made of a much more durable neoprene like material that you might see in plumbing "O" rings and they just don't seem to wear or shred easily. The only recommendation I can make is to try if possible, to find other brands of traction tires that are more durable and will fit the Lionel locos. The newer Lionel tires seem to be very mushy and soft to me. And that is a great annoyance because I like to run the locos for long periods of time also.

How I solve the problem is kind of radical. I've been buying more postwar locos at auctions. They don't have traction tires and don't leave a residue on the tracks as quickly as the newer traction tired locos. But they lack the slow speed running abilities and the authentic digital sounds available today. So I bounce back and forth between the old and the new for variety.

Anyway, that is my experience with traction tires. I like the pulling power of the newer command control, DCS, TMCC, Legacy locos, but there is a downside too.

Ken

Depending on what brand of track you use, you may want to check all of the rail joints.  I've got MTH Real Trax right now, both older solid rail and newer hollow rail, and I had to give it a pretty thorough work-over with pliers, files, and sanding blocks at a fair amount of rail joints.  After first laying the track and running some trains, I knew that those joints weren't going to do the traction tires any favors.  I've got it all smoothed out now, and my trains run much better without all the clacking and bouncing caused by rough joints.  Hopefully this will help with traction tire life-span.

Traction tires, another reason for manufacturers not to use them.  

When possible I use MTH Traction tires,they are a better quality.

Mikey

Agreed Mikey.

In a pinch, small rubber bands will serve.    

FWIW, I replace any tires with MTH tires as well.

how does one cross reference mth tire part number to the lionel tire part number? is there a cross reference table somewhere?

Just measure the diameter of your wheel and buy one that will stretch to fit. No part number needed. Just keep it undersized but not too much. While I have not done it, a bicycle tube could be cut for short term use. Some of the racing tubes are pretty small. They may actually last quite a while.

tncentrr posted:

All,

I have four Lionel Legacy diesel locomotives down because they need new traction tires. I have the part numbers and I plan on calling Lionel to order them. It seems like I replace a lot of these. It makes me believe that I am doing something wrong that is shortening their service life. I do run my trains, especially my Legacy trains a lot, sometimes for hours at a time. Is there something I can do to make them last longer? Thanks in advance.

George in Murfreesboro TN

George,  I did a test some time ago on a MTH F3 set that I run a lot. I read all the pros and cons on glued vs not glued so I though I would run my own test. I glued the tires on one unit and not on the trailing unit the glued tires have not been changed since I glued them on three plus years ago the trailing units tires lasted a little over a year. So the set on now is glued as well. And to add to the opinions that MTH tires are better than Lionel I would say that has been my experience as well.  Someone a while was talking about making their own tires out of silicone sealant I have not tried that but I bought a can of Flex Seal a couple of months ago and the next tire I change I plan to try the Flex Seal.  Never the less I am a devout member of the "Anti-Traction Tire League."  j

Any experiences with using the Frog Snot, the green goop stuff,  instead of tires?

Kerrigan posted:

Any experiences with using the Frog Snot, the green goop stuff,  instead of tires?

IMO it's crap.  I have seen people talk about it, but my experience was less than stellar.  First off, if the wheels are grooved for traction tires, the frog goop won't fill it, and you'll have them sitting at an odd angle.  The snot is not easy to put on without some mess, and it didn't last for me.  I tried it on a couple of locomotives that didn't have traction tires, but I was not impressed.

If a wheel has a groove where a traction tire is supposed to be I would not try the frog snot "UNLESS"

I could get an even layer in the groove so that it effectively formed a tire.  j

You can actually get your traction tires to last longer by not storing them on rails.  I've noticed flat spots (thinning) when a loco with traction tires has been "stored" on track versus say, flat tempered glass.

Fred

Is the frog snot like a silicon rubber type of material?

JohnActon posted:

Ever put an AA Centipede on the track ? So OK I'll buy your premise, some of us have 20 or more locomotives on the layout at any given time. By the time I get them all on the track and again off at the end of a session I've cut my running time by 50% so long as I don't include the centpedeeeeeeeeeeee.        j

     

patternpilot posted:

Is the frog snot like a silicon rubber type of material?

A semi-transparent green one.

It was made for smaller scales where it has a fair amount of success.  I think we push its limits in O.

Lionel's traction tires are wider the MTH's, so size is important when experimenting with various brands. In 2011 there was a survey about traction tires and I summarized it in the chart below.