Replacing traction tires?

[penlu]

How do you replace traction tires on "cheap" Tyco/Bachman locomotives? Just noticed yesterday that several of my locos have rotted traction tires. I bought em off e-bay in the first place, and then they spent 8 years stored in the crawl space under my house.

The funny part is, they work! Even without the traction tires! Course I don't have my track laid out anything but flat yet.

[Bucklaew]

Originally Posted by penlu

How do you replace traction tires on "cheap" Tyco/Bachman locomotives? Just noticed yesterday that several of my locos have rotted traction tires. I bought em off e-bay in the first place, and then they spent 8 years stored in the crawl space under my house.

The funny part is, they work! Even without the traction tires! Course I don't have my track laid out anything but flat yet.

The first thing is to know where to get traction tires. I found 100 of them on eBay for $2.99 including shipping. They are 1/4" and can stretch quite a bit. They are the same thing as the rubber band for orthodontal braces and the have all sizes. My locos are mostly Life like and there is space between the wheels and the out side trusses. I just have to slide it in with my tweezers and stretch it around the wheel.

[penlu]

Looking on the net, I find something called "Bull Frog Snot" (!) with lots of testimonials for it! Being a liquid, you don't have to disassemble the whole loco to get it on! Anybody used it?

I can't for the life of me figure out how to disassemble the loco wheels to get a tire on!

[tjcruiser]

We had discussions on Bullfrog Snot at threads below ...

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=4187

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=2919

TJ

[T-Man]

With Bachmann the sides and bottom are one piece and snap on.
The tire thread is here.


...

[penlu]

Well, it was running just great! Lil Trooper! Even without any traction tires.

But all of a sudden the other day it decided to just sit there spinning its wheels.

It's a strange little thing, in that the power is all in the tender. It pushes the loco! Or, in reverse, it pulls the loco. And since the connection between loco and the tender is broken, that means it only pulls by the two fine wires connecting them.

It will travel if I put my finger on the top of the tender, so I added weight, and it ran a little better, but not good. Added 6 pennies.

Soooo...... do I go for putting on traction tires? Bull Frog Snot? Or trash it and invest in some more expensive locos?

[T-Man]

Try again with the second picture. Turn off the flash . I prefer the dental elastics.

[jacketsfan]

I've found a bottle of "liquid electrical tape" works great.
You can buy a 4oz. bottle at Lowes for about $6.
much cheaper than "snot" lasts quite a while, when it wears off, add more.
It's cheap, and one bottle will last you forever.
I've noticed no residue left on the track.

[THE TYCO MAN]

If its 70's era Tyco, I use Calumet traction tires. They're meant for Chagganoota's wheels, box all 70's era Powertorque and MU-2's use the same traction tire. Only $7 and supplys at least 20 tires. For the Bachmann, try #6 O-Rings. For 60's era Tyco diesels, use #5 O-rings.