Well, that was a trade name used by Lionel, (O and O-27), on some of their post-WWII era/1945-1969 diesels. If someone else is using it, I have no idea. Boxcab E50
As far as I know, yes. The old LL engines had a magnet disguised as fuel tank that should pull them to the track. Works only for ferromagnetic track, the only one I know is the old Arnold track. I have a F7 which has this magnet, might be useful to pick up "fallen trip pins".
I believe they coined that word to imply that the locomotives stuck to the rails like magnets. In reality there was nothing magnetic about it. The rails are non ferrous so what good would it do? I imagine if the wheels were somehow magnetic you would be collecting loose spikes and other metallic debris all the time. I never realized how much of that stuff is on a layout till someone ran an Aztec cleaner car around and showed me the magnet on it after.
The old Lionel locomotives in the 50's really did have electromagnets that held the locomotives to the rails. Here's a Lionel ad from that time. http://flickr.com/photos/mando_gal/724474779/ I had one and it worked great. But back then I wasn't concerned with track spikes, and there wasn't much ferrous stuff to pick up on my bedroom floor. I wish there was a practical way of including it in N scale steam locos. It would sure solve the traction tire problem, and probably improve pickup. Ed .
The one thing I've noted with the original O27 stuff and some of today's equipment Ie., three rail stuff. The rollers used to pick-up the current from the mid rail would be magnetized, holding the rollers to the rail. Other then that it was pretty much a whole lot of talk, to describe the action of the locomotive. Fun for most of us early O types.
A buddy of mine in 4th grade cleaned his tin plate track with steel wool once. The motor on his locomotive sucked up all the loose bits of steel wool and really messed things up. We used pieces of masking tape to pull all the magnetic debris off the motor and got it working again.
Actually,the wheels on old Lionel Magna Traction locos were,in fact,magnetized...If you see a loco without the netal tires,and plain black wheels,the wheels are magnetized iron..They started doing that after the Korean War..Hmm..Gotta wonder..some of those killer AlNiCo magnets,a continous strip of steel under the track..Could end up with 2-8-0 that pulls 100 cars..
The "MagnaTraction" slogan was also used by Aurora in the 70's for their A/FX racing cars. Same idea, the motor magnets were close to the metal power rails and the cars "stuck" to the track much better at high speeds. Looks like it might be an interesting experiment in "N" scale. Maintenance would be high as the wheels would pick up a lot of ferrous materials. Not a real problem in O scale or HO slot cars, but the fine precision of N scale locos could cause a problem. But then we really don't want rails that can rust, do we?
I think Tyco had a train that ran something like this, check out this video. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YngIuQoBRIs"]YouTube - Tyco Super Turbo Train w/ Daredevil Jump[/ame] .
Magnatraction was also the brand name used by British manufacturer Tri-ang in the 60's, and, I think, later after being taken over by Hornby, for the magnetic traction used on their HO/00 trains with magnetised driving wheels running on steel rails.
I won an N scale locomotive as a door prize at a convention years ago. I don't even remember what make it was, (probably Life Like) I gave it to a young modeler years ago to help get him started. Anyway, I remember it said it had Magnatraction on the box. For the life of me I could not find anything magnetic about it other than the motor.
MagNaTraction - NO! We don't need magnetic traction in N-scale - we've got SNOT! BullFrog Snot, that is. The glue-like goo that's good for your trains. Just remember to put it on ONE set of wheels, not ALL of them! Or, as those of us in the computer gig like to say, RTFM!!!
