Farish N class throwing off traction tyres.

[Cowley 47521]

Evening everyone.

 

It’s actually my friends loco and at the Exeter show it threw one of the rear traction tyres off a couple of times and they’re not easy to get back on when you’re busy trying to run trains…

 

I guess it must have stretched slightly but I’ve got a couple of questions for those in the know:

 

How do you change them anyway?

Is it possible to do away with them altogether?

Has anyone else had the same problem?

 

Any advice much appreciated.

 

Nick

[Roy L S]

I have a large number of Farish locos with traction tyres and over quite some years can measure replacements on the fingers of one hand. There are some absolute "no-no's" in my experience: -

 

1. Under no circumstances ever push a loco with tyres along the track "dead" (i.e. no power) this stretches the tyres (pretty obviously as there is no wheel rotation and a lot of friction). If you MUST move a without power, lift the tyred wheels clear of the track.

 

2. Do not clean track with isopropyl alcohol. Although this largely evaporates it appears to leave a caustic residue on rails which attacks tyres and weakens them. Just use a good old track rubber.

 

To change you will need to remove the crankpin from the rear axle (Farish do a little tool for this). You should then be able to slide the old tyre out between the wheel face and inner face of the coupling rod. The new one goes in the same way and carefully slip over the wheel tread and into the groove in the wheel.

 

Theoretically you could replace the rear wheelset with one with no groove for the traction tyre (Farish do spares) but I would expect haulage to be compromised a fair bit, it just depends what length of trains you run, but also worth remembering that the loco is designed to run with them not without.

 

Do others have problems? It seems some more than others and that is why I am strict about my "do's and don'ts". With care they cause few problems in my experience.

 

Roy 

[Cowley 47521]

1 hour ago, Roy L S said:

I have a large number of Farish locos with traction tyres and over quite some years can measure replacements on the fingers of one hand. There are some absolute "no-no's" in my experience: -

 

1. Under no circumstances ever push a loco with tyres along the track "dead" (i.e. no power) this stretches the tyres (pretty obviously as there is no wheel rotation and a lot of friction). If you MUST move a without power, lift the tyred wheels clear of the track.

 

2. Do not clean track with isopropyl alcohol. Although this largely evaporates it appears to leave a caustic residue on rails which attacks tyres and weakens them. Just use a good old track rubber.

 

To change you will need to remove the crankpin from the rear axle (Farish do a little tool for this). You should then be able to slide the old tyre out between the wheel face and inner face of the coupling rod. The new one goes in the same way and carefully slip over the wheel tread and into the groove in the wheel.

 

Theoretically you could replace the rear wheelset with one with no groove for the traction tyre (Farish do spares) but I would expect haulage to be compromised a fair bit, it just depends what length of trains you run, but also worth remembering that the loco is designed to run with them not without.

 

Do others have problems? It seems some more than others and that is why I am strict about my "do's and don'ts". With care they cause few problems in my experience.

 

Roy 

That’s really useful and makes a lot of sense Roy thanks for that. I think it may have got a bit of alcohol cleaning fluid on it unfortunately.
The loco generally only pulls about 6 coaches at the most but I don’t think he’s going to want to change a wheel set for the sake of just changing the tyre (or possibly both just to be on the safe side). 
I’ll pass this on now.

 

Thanks again.

 

Nick

[Les1952]

the other thing I would add is never use any call-on system that has the train stopping by running into a dead section.  That causes wheel skid and deforms tyres.

 

One fine analogue layout I've operated ended two day shows regularly with the back of the layout littered with dead traction tyres.

 

Les

[Cowley 47521]

12 minutes ago, Les1952 said:

the other thing I would add is never use any call-on system that has the train stopping by running into a dead section.  That causes wheel skid and deforms tyres.

 

One fine analogue layout I've operated ended two day shows regularly with the back of the layout littered with dead traction tyres.

 

Les

Yes I could see that causing a problem!

 

Well we ran the layout at the Bridport show yesterday and did our usual steam in the morning and 1980s diesels in the afternoon, but despite us having a spare loco on hand in case of traction tyre problems the N performed faultlessly all morning.

 

I think the tyres probably have stretched a tiny bit but with careful handling maybe they’re fine for the moment. Paul did actually book the loco into Bachmann for them to change them but now he’s not sure whether to go ahead or not.

[Les1952]

1 hour ago, Cowley 47521 said:

Yes I could see that causing a problem!

 

Well we ran the layout at the Bridport show yesterday and did our usual steam in the morning and 1980s diesels in the afternoon, but despite us having a spare loco on hand in case of traction tyre problems the N performed faultlessly all morning.

 

I think the tyres probably have stretched a tiny bit but with careful handling maybe they’re fine for the moment. Paul did actually book the loco into Bachmann for them to change them but now he’s not sure whether to go ahead or not.

 

I always get tyres changed if they start to become a little oval- in the case of my Dapol locos it means they've worked up a large mileage - often 20 or more days show running - and could do with a service.  I tend to send Dapols to DCC Supplies and Farish to LP rails (Lee Palmer).  

 

Les