For Tyco haters, move along, for those that fondly remember these trains of our childhood, here is my mint just out of the box Royal Blue 2-8-0. A few upgrades have been done, adding nickle silver wheels to the middle 2 axles(the driven ones). I salvaged those from my other nearly new Royal Blue that had zinc pest issues with its tender drive. I just swapped out the non geared plastic wheels for geared ones and set them with my NMRA gauge. I also serviced the motor while it was out of the tender. These motors are based on a slot car design, which was the rage at that time instead of trains. Upgrade magnets are available online, and this one will get those in time. She runs excellent on my rolling road. The other RB is going to get a Bachmann 44 ton diesel power chassis put in its tender. She will truely run as good as she looks. I myself love the gloss paint and colorfull advertising cars from that era of Tyco trains. The drives can be managed and made to run decent pulling short trains and electrically MU'ing diesels like my Sharks. This fixes the power pick up struggles. I am building a layout with mostly Tyco equipment as its a trip down memory lane for me, and one that I enjoy. Mike the Aspie.
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
Forgot to put, the layout is going to take the whole Royal Blue fantisy railway and run with it with custom painted AA Sharks and a pair of GP20's, pulling unit trains of the RDG Anthricite Blue Coal cars offered by Tyco. The 2-8-0 is the heritage power and will come out on special occasions for both passenger and back up power for freight duty. The whole this is taking what I wanted to do as a 5yr old boy and going hog wild.
Never hated Tyco. Their stuff has lots of possibilities and the RR club I belong to has a number of modified Tyco on the layout and folks including some members have no idea of the rolling stock heritage.
Looks good Mike.
.
I have a scene planned on mt railroad that will include "Ma's Place", "The Ramsey Journal", and the Atlas Passenger station. I chose these buildings because I had them all on my Tyco layout when I was a little kid.
Memory lane is a nice place.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hello all,
If it weren't for Tyco trains I would never have gotten into this great hobby!
And if not for the fond memory of the working crane and the unloading two-bay hoppers I probably wouldn't be in this great hobby today.
Great job!
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
SeeYou190 ....I have a scene planned on mt railroad that will include "Ma's Place", "The Ramsey Journal", and the Atlas Passenger station.... Kevin
....I have a scene planned on mt railroad that will include "Ma's Place", "The Ramsey Journal", and the Atlas Passenger station....
Kevin
The warehouse in the photo below was built from either the Ramsey Journal or the Drugstore version, and the Gruesome Casket Works...
...and the blurry-looking 36' reefers in the foreground, with radial roofs and truss rods, were built from Tyco's 40' wood reefers...
As for the Atlas station, it just happens to exactly match my railroad's blueprints for their "#3 Small Town Station"...
Wayne
jjdamnitIf it weren't for Tyco trains I would never have gotten into this great hobby!
I also started with Tyco trains - the Santa Fe 4-6-0 and an 0-6-0 switcher with slope back tender. Add some Tyco cars, Atlas track, and Atlas buildings and you have my first layout.
I have very fond memories of that early layout even though it only lasted 6 months til the birth of my first child.
Paul
I have a royal blue as well. Bow funnel and original smoke fuild bottle as well. All mint
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
The latest Tangent Scale Model of a Covered Hopper cost $45. They are beautiful.
I haven't worked with Tyco but other less expensive, less detailed hopper cars can go for maybe $10. The less expensive models have more opportunity to detail and that's why I enjoy model railroading. So, I add about $20 bucks of wheels, couplers, handrails, etc. The final product is my work, not Tangent's.
If memory serves - and man, is THAT ever getting to be a dubious proposition - there was an earlier Tyco "Royal Blue" trainset in the 1960s, with their metal 4-6-2 Pacific (essentially a B&O prototype) in a handsome dark blue paint, and lettered Baltimore & Ohio with a train of their shorty streamlined passenger cars, with blue letterboards and lettered for B&O.* The real Royal Blue was of course the premier passenger train on the B&O for years and years.
That Tyco trainset was not prototypical by any means, but it was a handsome looking model to be sure. That was back when Tyco trainsets were durable enough to become hand-me-downs from brother to brother to cousins.
When I was a boy the next door neighbor had an American Flyer S gauge Royal Blue steam locomotive that was actually a fairly close replica (by toy standards) of the bulletnosed streamlined steam locomotive that pulled the real Royal Blue.
Dave Nelson
* The HO Seeker website under literature /Tyco shows this Royal Blue trainset in the 1965 catalog, which I recognized from the cover. Try not to let the prices depress you - it sure seemed expensive to me at the time!
It WAS expensive - $44.98 in 1965 would be $503 today.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
IRONROOSTERI also started with Tyco trains
I don't remember what my very first trains were, but I sure remember getting a lot of Tyco train sets as Christmas Gifts!
This was my first Tyco locomotive...
...and a couple of others...
I had a couple of diesels, too, but have no photos of them.
I still have that 0-6-0. Wasn't originally mine, my parents had a room-filling layout in what ended up being my room after I came along. Not sure how they actually accessed anything, it was an island layout bigger than a 4x8.
I also had the similar 0-4-0 but it disappeared after I had it in the showcase in elementary school - they had a large (and locked) showcase inside the main entrance and for a month or so at a time each grade got to do something, I think I was in first or secod grade and the theme was hobbies so naturally I brought some train stuff (with permission). The 0-6-0 I got back but somehow the 0-4-0 was lost. Those pieces are from the days when Tyco and Manutua were one and the same - Tyco branded stuff just being factory assembled versions of the Mantua kits. I know they go way back, along with some of the cars I have, as I have a jar full of Mantua couplers for when they all got swapped out for X2f types. (all before my time).
But my first train set that wa truly mine, was a Tyco set with the blue and yellow Santa Fe F units, flat car with culvert pipes, Dairyman's League reefer, and caboose. Might have been one other car, if so I've forgotten which one it was.
We weren;t prototypical modelers back then, we ran whatever we wanted - the pride of the fleet was a Rivarossi streamlined Hudson that usually pulled a string of Tyco Sante Fe streamlined cars. I had two Tyco operating accessories, the log dump car (same as the gravel dump except for the actual car), and the piggy back loader, that had the control box with two sticks so you could pull the trailers off the flat car with the giant forklift.