I got burned! Well okay, melted (just as bad). Read this...

About a year ago, I put my treasured C3 "Emergency Fire Station 51" on top of my collection display case. I had placed E51 and S51 side by side on the driveway.

Then yesterday I decided to rotate things around.

HOLY CRAP! The FREEKIN E51 truck wheels melted into the driveway and the FREEKIN driveway melted to where the tires where!

So now I've got E51 with grey thump wheels and a 51 House that needs a resurfaced driveway! S51 made it without any damage (different tire composite).

Yes I know that you don't display your C3's on Vinyl - but c'mon...gimme a freekin break! Isn't the firehouse designed for display?

All I can say is ---> *&%%F$@@$!

HOO!! Boy!!

Okay, so we then deduce that C3 firehouses are made of a petrochemical-based resin? 'Cause extended exposure of rubber to any petrochemical-based substance causes melting, right?

mjl

OK! I feel better now! It's the tires on the Ward LaFrance Engines-----I have E51, E16, Boston E20, and Chicago E17, E113 and the Christmas Pumper #5--ON ALL OF THEM, the wheels have turned gray! Thankfully they have not melted into the acrylic display cases, but it drove me CRAZY as to why the wheels went from black to gray. I have an extra BFD E20 still in the C3 box--never romoved--after reading this post, went to check it out, sure enough, dusty gray tires!!!!!!

Sorry about your loss Jeff, but if it's any consolation, you saved me from thinking I was going crazy.....

The late Jack Gerhart advied me of this problem with the Boston Ward a few years ago. Mine came clean(black again) after rubbing.

Isn't the gray wheels problem something different? Oxidation maybe or some other trait of rubber just left by itself?

The melting problem can also occur with foam rubber, like the packing of the infamous FDNY four-pack of years ago. If you left them packed in the foam, the rubber would eventually melt.

mjl

There is a reason why Code 3's models are delivered with the wheels off the display. Like you, I found out the same thing.

Darn, I knew it was hot in LA but didn't realize it was hot enough to melt tires on a fire engine!

Actually, I had one of those old Kim's Collectibles models of an FDNY Suburban a few years back. The thing sat on a wood shelf and the tires kept splitting in half. The darn thing cost $175 new and wasn't worth half of that once all the rubber tires split. Oh well, another joy of living in Florida.

Older Dehanes rigs had splitting tires as well. That's 1 of the reasons I only have 1. As to the Ward tire problem, my E-51 "glued" itself in quarters. The Crown & squad are fine. The 3 have been inside the house for a couple of years, with being touched only for dusting. I ended up using a bit of silicone spray on a Q-Tip, to coat the tires. So far it seems to be working OK.

I think the reason this occurs is because the tires are PVC or polyvinylchloride - hence the chloride, which is a acid. I think the reason the tires turn white is the chloride 'evaporating' out of the tires.

I have an Ertl Scraper that nearly melted it's way through the surface of a Lionel flat car once. I just place a piece of black paper under the wheels to prevent the melt-down

Spliting tires was a big problem on some A. Smith models as well -- a few years ago I got a plastic bag of tires from Alan Smith to replace some of the tires that had split. If anyone has this problem with a Smith model, let me know -- I still have a bunch of the tires that I haven't used.

Before we go blaming Code 3 and all the others. This is just a fact of life. This hase been going on for the past 35-50 years with models. Maybe even longer. Old Matchobx models will lose the o-ring style wheels because the center hub actually shrinks. Wheels will crack and split. The more modern ones will melt to other plastics/acylics. I have lost a couple older models to this. I made the mistake of using some of that rubbery shelf liner to prevent rolling. OOPS.

From now on, only glass shelves in a case with UV reducing glass.