Why Trains don't use Rubber Tyres - Budd & Micheline Railcars

The most entertaining sponsorship spot I've seen! And a great video as always. In the last minute you mentioned what I had been busting to comment on from the beginning--that the Montreal Metro ran on rubber (at least when I visited in the 1970s!). Meanwhile, I lament the end of Budd car service on the BCR, and thought: those Coventry cars are exactly what is needed in British Columbia!

First thought - what about the taper cone requirement on train wheels to align bogies with the bends to avoid the flanges rubbing?

Now you need to have a talk with Hyce about the galloping geese from the Rio Grande Southern, because seriously, those early railcars seriously look like the geese

There are several designs of industrial hi-rail switchers that use road wheels directly on the rail and have drop guide wheels to negotiate curves. Shuttle wagon and pettybone are the two that come to mind most often in the states.

I vaguely remember seeing photos of some of these Michelin railcars but I never knew the reason as to why they looked so automobile-like or that they had rubber tyres. A very incredible design for its time!

🤣 i,ll bet the 13ltr V12 got great fuel economy, i think in some ways rubber tyres are a good idea but Only light use NOT heavy freight!! The BIG disadvantage of car tyres is when they Worn out the ADD to millions and millions of already DEAD car tyres dumped where ever, NOT enviromentally friendly and they can NOT be recycled to come back as New tyres!!

Do a video on the Santiago subway pls pls pls

hey congrats on the sponsor!

And that lost you a viewer , I am required to pay for a TV licence , thank you for diluting the value i get from it by encouraging people to lie to access a paid-for service.

Rubber car tyres existed long before these trains came along.

I figured the silver slipper looked familiar. Glad to see I was correct.

“Traction Tyre: The two center driving wheels are fitted with rubber traction tyres, to provide maximum hauling power.”

I would have figured only tiring the passenger cars would have been the solution, rather than the engines/railcars.

The Paris Metro uses rubber tires and is much quieter than either the London Underground or the NYC Subway trains.

The Montreal and Paris metros should keep rubber tyres to themselves

Why is this reminding me of when Top Gear cave a car train wheels

During my time with British Rail Engineering during the 70’s I machined many a steel tire to be shrunk onto steel wheels. Now I believe they are one piece units which can be reprofiled.

When your mother wants you to be a bus but you want to be a train:

Could you please stop mixing imperial and metric units in a single video

I would assume the rubber tyres decrease the amount of wear on the track. Underground systems must run constantly so minimising track maintenance is a must, have good acceleration and breaking as well as tackling steep slopes. Underground trains are never too far from maintenance facilities. Moving the maintenance burden from the track to the rolling stock could find some niche uses with underground systems but tyres do generate the most heat under acceleration and breaking. The tyre dust problem still may not be fixed though.

France loves their rubber subways

I love your video's

You missed the opportunity to explain that modern radial tires for automobiles came out of the development of the tires for the Michelines. These were the first steel radial tires, when automobiles at the time had bias ply tire cord. Radials lasted much longer.

Mexico literally has entire trains with rubber tires...

Ironically, the basic idea of using air pressure to improve riding quality is now widespread on passenger trains: Airbags as on an Amfleet coach, and pneumatic shock absorbers on nearly all modern passenger cars.

This kinda reminds me of the rubber rings some model railways have to enhance traction. Were rubberised driving wheels on an otherwise steel wheeled train ever tested?

recurring correction: while a wheel deforming generates more grip due to larger contact area, the grip is what effects rolling resistance. It is the not-100% efficiency of the wheel deforming and un-deforming.
If you think for a second, a non-slipping wheel would have 0 speed difference between it and the rail/road, making grip a non-factor.

Idea, other way around. Cat with steel tires.

My favorite story about these was the fact the pennsy's cars would "bounce off the tracks like a child".

You should talk about the Galloping Geese from the Rio Grand Railroad

Because then what you're looking for, is a bus


A bus limited to tracks

I think Australia tried this with hi-rail semi tractors a few times & they found out the tires wore out fast

How Micheline didn't consider that the higher friction is in the form of the heat on the rubber tires is beyond me.

Someone forgot to tell montreal about this….LOL

Austro Daimler is another manufacturer who tried this idea with their VT61, 62 and 63 series trains, but with the same issues and results as Micheline

Imagine if they made this in Modern Times using Airless or Nitrogen filled tires

And some hybrid vehicles use both to this day

see if it were me .. what i would do its use tracks embedded in a road way keep the steel wheels and bogies on the passenger and goods wagons and have the locomotive have powered rubber wheels and steel guide wheels that way you get the benefit of rubber on asphalt for the loco and steel on steel for the trailing load

I wonder if things would have gone differently if the tires were made of pure solid rubber instead of being inflated with air. It might not be any different but you may not have to replace them as often. As for the bouncing, perhaps that could be fix with soft suspension like a lot of off-road vehicles have.

Then again, I’m no physicist and I’m not a full fledged engineer (civil/mechanical/construction) yet, so I can’t predict how that would work out.

If i ever feel useless for some reason i remember there is a video on why trains doesnt have tyres😅

Of course, modern hi-rail trucks here in the US also use rubber tires to move, though they do also have separate raisable steel wheels for when being used on a rail line, mainly for keeping the trucks on the tracks and activating crossing signals (if necessary).

Not much good for operating track circuits !

It's not important, but the one time you said "steel tyre" instead of "steel wheel" (like the others) distracted me for a good minute! Haha

something similar i could already see coming with these was if tires went mainstream for railways, especially if they were put on rolling stock, would be the friction between tires and rails. it might work if it was the railcar situation where every wheel is powered, but if you put it on rolling stock or even just engines with bogie wheels, there's the possibility the tires might just not turn since it's a smooth, slippery material on smooth, slippery material.