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Z Scale Layout – Akia 485-Series Traction Tyres

Just for a lesson in complete-failure, I attempted the fitting of traction tyres to an Akia 485-series EMU powered-car. The train couldn't get up gradients and so I thought I'd see how it went with traction tyres from Rokuhan.

Rokuhan provides both 4mm and 5mm tyres, and I purchased a bunch of both sizes as I know I'll need them in the future. The power car in question is a standard 485-series passenger car and the shell comes off once minimal force is applied to separate both walls from the chassis. From here, you then need to remove the top circuit board by inserting a flat-head screwdriver in the 4 holes in the chassis, two on each side.

Once that's off, remove the two weights.

It gets a little tricky from here. The bogies are attached via drive-shafts with lateral pins. The chassis is a single unit, so you actually have to spread the frame to get the bogies out. Make sure to allow space for the drive-shafts when doing this, otherwise you might snap them.

With the bogies out, you can grab a flat-head screwdriver and press down on the clips next to the power pick-ups. Pushing down on these will push the under-frame of the bogie onto the table. Once it's separated enough, you can flip the bogie over and lever the frame off.

With this finally off, you have full access to the wheelsets and you can install traction tyres.

Unfortunately, these wheelsets don't have the grooves for tyres and the trains run erratically once installed.
So don't do it! The end.