Lionel has the rights now to Pull-Mor and, since they no longer embed permanent magnets in their power trucks, they might as well replace "Magne-Traction" for good.
Pull-More Power was hyped as giving the ability to pull 40 or more cars. An elephant was used in the red circle logo affixed to each catalog page. Think of elephants, then think of Ferraris. Which one is faster? Which one can pull more weight? Side by side, my early die-cast 4 piece body 300 can run circles around my late, one piece plastic 303. But the 303 can haul tons of cars. Interesting, since the plastic engine is lighter, and should, therefore, slip easier. But it's the earlier engine that will do all the slipping under extreme load. Rubber tires were added to Flyer engines, not as a competitive edge against Lionels Magne-Traction, but as a solution to slippage under new conditions. For steamers, it was lighter weight and for diesels, it was the brute force of dual motors. The traction tire helped tame the tendency of kids to overpower their engines and slip the wheels. The motors themselves went through design changes at the same time, none of which materially affected pulling performance. Some, like the angle slant armature, were intended to provide smoother power application, but actually had no measurable effect. This next needs corroboration as it is a hypothesis I cannot prove with all my trains in storage, however, if the gear ratio were changed so that the engine did not run as fast, there would be a corresponding increase in torque, or twisting power. This would result in slower, more powerful locomotives using the same motors. To do this by changing the pinion gear, however, would have required a major chassis rework, since the tooth spacing is a constant as is the axle to worm shaft distance. Therefore, a different diameter pinion would be out of the question. However, a simpler rework of the worm gear to incorporate a double helix would halve the speed and double the power. This would also explain the appearance of rubber tires, since, with double the torque the engine would be twice as susceptible to slippage. So check this on your so called "Pull-Mor" motors. How does the appearance of the shaft worm stack up against the old "pre Pull-Mors". That would be the big difference. Chris Zizzo S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
