Strewth, that's dedication to the extreme. Good job, but I have to ask, why? - what was the problem that led you down this path?

Normally the weight to tractive ratio is fairly good with Z, the rolling stock weighs hardly anything and the Loco's relatively powerful for their size.

On the other hand, looking at your hopper consist, I guess there's a bit of weight in those and if you have a climb perhaps it was a bit much?

Good effort all the same

I always love to see the engineering work some of you can do so thank you and good job! It became obvious to me early on (in Z) that my Rokuhan and AZL locos could pull much more than my Marklin ones so it makes sense to modify the locos, like yours shown, that can pull a lot of cars in real life. While a small steam loco with a few small cars also looks good on a tiny layout they don't need the traction. For me the one of the coolest things about Z is the long trains that can be run!

Thank you for the comments.

The tyres came about simply due to a comment. Why doesn't Z gauge have tyres like HO! Well let's give this a go. I thought it would be an expensive exercise as it would be a steep learning curve as there is a fair chance I would destroy a loco or two in the process. One never gets these things right first time. If you never give things a go what's the point of being here. Let's be honest, there are enough crap runners, so why not sacrifice them.

My Dad had a few lathes, but I ended up doing the wheels on a tiny desktop rubber band 3 speed lathe. It was the best solution for clamping the wheel with the chuck I had at the time. The bevel alone on the clamping edge of a 200mm chuck was larger than a Z wheel, so that was not possible to get the cutting tool in close enough. You are down to fractions of a mm to get clamping right. Often on these types of jobs you first need to design the tool so you can actually create the finished product.

It wasn't actually that difficult, but you have to be prepared to sacrifice things. I had a few locos that were crap runners, so I thought I would murder them for parts.

I have mostly bought 4 axle locos as they seem to run the best. 6 axles are ok with 4 axles actually driving. As much as I like steam locos I have avoided them. Probably also due to the fact that funds only stretch so far. We all know the cost of Z, but it is worth every cent.

I don't think steam locos would work that well with tyres. At the very least as only 2 axles actually drive, the remaining axles are a tiny bit raised, I think you would need to create electrical contact elsewhere, a bit like the ICE carriages and wire them back to the loco. Nothing is impossible. Diesel & electric locos have 4 driving axles, so you only loose 1/4 to electrical contact with tyres, and the bogies by nature give far more flexibility for movement for best contact whether it's traction or electrical.

Let's not waste offcuts after massacring wheels! With the loco "offcuts" I created a 6 pole twin engine loco. Motors are offset 60° as the 3 poles on each motor are at 120°. In principle turning two 3 cylinder engines into a straight 6. What more could one ask for, for ultimate torque and smooth running. Not only are there masses of silky smooth torque, the "six" pole motor is very nice at low speed. Z twin engine, traction tyres and lead, could it be improved... well I have got a prototype which could be merged.

The end of each motor's drive shaft was half filed away so they overlap. Then a spare gear clamping the two ends together. This is a very nice runner.