mobilman44 For an HO newbie with money constraints, I would strongly urge them to pick up Athearn BB kits off Ebay or at shows.........
For an HO newbie with money constraints, I would strongly urge them to pick up Athearn BB kits off Ebay or at shows.........
I love the Athearn BB kits! My LHS has tons of these kits in stock, and seeing as how I seem to be the only one interested in them, I don't have much competition for them . Heck I often get a buy one get one discount. Can't go wrong with that .
Happy modeling!
Don.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."
Or try adding some brass parts & detail it.
microbuss thank you, GS Who are you again?
thank you, GS Who are you again?
GS (Geared Steam) is the Ruler of the Forum. Be nice to him!
Rich
Alton Junction
Me too!! I want to put my,penny's in....I have a late 50's Tyco,0-4-0 slope back tender,with added valve gear,that stills run's...
Cheers,
Frank
Hi,
I've stayed away from this thread long enough - but now I need to put in my nickels worth.........
The Tyco of the 70s/80s was almost toy like, and relatively inexpensive. But an awful lot of folks bought their sets for kids, which started many of them off into the hobby.
Put another way, to a much lesser extent, Tyco was to the kids of the latter part of the 20th century as Lionel/Flyer was to the kids of the mid 20th century.
Today, you will find some of those Tyco pieces on some nice layouts - but of course they have had KDs and wheels and other modifications to bring them up to a higher standard.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
My only experience with Tyco was when I received a Spirit of '76 train set for Christmas. I enjoyed the set, and didn't care about how unprototypical it was.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
SteamFreak GS, I've been away from this forum for a few years, so it's good to see that nothing's changed. And seriously, send all of your junkers to Microbuss... he'll take anything! ( Ben.)
GS, I've been away from this forum for a few years, so it's good to see that nothing's changed.
Hey SF!
Good to see you...
Can't take this stuff to seriously, everyone else already does !
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
yeah I will take anything hehe
& thanks
Geared Steam There's your challenge Rich, to find the oldest thread possible and revive it (for a short time anyway) I would be willing to bet it is one of these following subjects 1) The high price of the hobby 2) The hobby is dying 3) This internet thingy won't last long. 4) Still waiting on "fill in the company name" to release the "fill in the model" , anyone else heard anything? 5) Brass track is better than nickel silver. 6) DCC is just a phase the hobby is in. 7) Sheldon just started refurbishing his house. 8) Model Railroader will never release the entire collection on DVD.
There's your challenge Rich, to find the oldest thread possible and revive it (for a short time anyway)
I would be willing to bet it is one of these following subjects
1) The high price of the hobby
2) The hobby is dying
3) This internet thingy won't last long.
4) Still waiting on "fill in the company name" to release the "fill in the model" , anyone else heard anything?
5) Brass track is better than nickel silver.
6) DCC is just a phase the hobby is in.
7) Sheldon just started refurbishing his house.
8) Model Railroader will never release the entire collection on DVD.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
Geared Steam richhotrain OK, that's it. I am going to find a thread from 1999 and reply to it. Rich There's your challenge Rich, to find the oldest thread possible and revive it (for a short time anyway) I would be willing to bet it is one of these following subjects 1) The high price of the hobby 2) The hobby is dying 3) This internet thingy won't last long. 4) Still waiting on "fill in the company name" to release the "fill in the model" , anyone else heard anything? 5) Brass track is better than nickel silver. 6) DCC is just a phase the hobby is in. 7) Sheldon just started refurbishing his house. 8) Model Railroader will never release the entire collection on DVD.
richhotrain OK, that's it. I am going to find a thread from 1999 and reply to it. Rich
OK, that's it. I am going to find a thread from 1999 and reply to it.
9) RTR is killing the hobby
10) Real model railroaders build kits
Enjoy
Paul
that one yeah But there is also tycoforums.com too
I'll get DC locos no one wants & repair them I did that to my Tyco UP City of San Francisco E7
The problem was the tiny Pinion Gear slipped & caused the motor to race Oops
microbussyeah me too I do the same & there is a website dedicated to Tyco as well
What, this one that I mentioned 5 years ago? Tyco Brown Box resourcesActually, if you hunt around that site you'll find links to AHM, LifeLike, Revell and others resources too.
Do not throw away DC trains! EVER!!!
I always had a soft spot for Mantua loco kits.
As said, the cars are fine, just do whats been recommended (couplers), if you get some real ugly dogs at a swap meet always remember you can alway just weather them or graffiti them to cover all the age related blemishes that come with being old as dirt.
I had a Tyco Burlington GP20 set as a kid, was my first HO train, ran OK (either stop or 70mph IIRC) then ceased to work when lint from the carpet the track was laid on got into the engine works. I remember it had one motorized truck, only had brass pick up wheels on ONE side of either truck and those lousy NMRA hook couplers.
Personally I would collect maybe the kits as they were cool, and a few of the passenger cars, but if I was to geek out over my favorite childhood toys I'd rather collect the old Hot Wheels Hotline trains, those were awesome looking.
Have fun with your trains
yeah me too I do the same & there is a website dedicated to Tyco as well
Plus my only complaint against Tyco was the crummy motors that Tyco used Otherwise its a nice train to start out with
trainfan1221 wrote:What amused me about later Tyco stuff was the complete lack of handrails, earlier models appeared to have them and apparently when they went more toy like I guess they decided not to bother with them. Also, the Century 425 or 420 or whatever they said it was had huge "Plates" on either side of the fuel tank, visible in MOPAC's picture, that served no purpose except apparently centering the fuel tank.
The earlier ones did. I have a Rocky Mountain Line SD-24 which has plastic handrails, and a Spirit of 76' C-430 which i got new (from a train show), and came with a metal handrail set that assembled like Athearns.
I think the plates on both sides of the tank were just to cover the repulsive gaps between the trucks and tank. What the heck did they do wrong? Is the body too long or the tank too short?
Here's my 3 (poor) runners:
Here's a photo of a Tyco US-1 trucking auto loader i modified to load a Life Like auto carrier. You back the car in and as it slides back the cars are loaded.
You probably will have to put some work into older, less expensive models, but if you're willing to do that, you might enjoy the result. Unless you're RTR only, you might even find some fun in it.
Tyco water tower:
Tyco GP-20:
Mantua Pacific:
_________________________________________________________________
TA462 wrote:Tyco should have just stuck to slot cars.
Good point (i wish somebody would bring back their US-1 Trucking slot car system ). But nontheless Tyco got me started in model railroading also. My first train set was the Rock Island express one with a Sharknose and 3 cars, which i got for my 3rd birthday (still have the engine shell and power pack, 27 years later, and i found the same complete train set on Ebay last year). I've had (and still have) other Tyco items since them. And the engines have always been low (actually the bottom) on the good runners list for me. The ones i have now seem to have pick up problems i can't solve, otherwise they'd run. The only one i had which ran good was a C-430 that came with a train set i got in 1990, and only because it was the Model Power one instead of Tyco's.
The freight cars were decent, though some were clunky (is the're a prototype for their caboose?). And it carried over into IHC. I have 3 of the PS-3 covered hoppers whose bays sit too high up and have flat ribs, and imagine my suprise when the center flow i got had both round and trough hatches! . Luckily i had some spare Athearn trough ones so i shaved off the round ones and glued them on.
Guess it's about time to pull out the US-1 stuff i got off Ebay earlier this year and my Tyco trains and set up a combined layout on the floor
My Chattanooga Choo Choo uses a Bachmann 44 tonner mechanism under a Roundhouse Oil tender for power.It runs great and there is plenty of room to add weight to both tender and loco.
IHC is now using the old Tyco cars with decent paint jobs and they still look decent to me.The don't need anymore upgrading than you would apply to an Athearn blue box.The trucks on these and the old LifeLike cars can be made to roll smoother than a KaDee if you use the the Reboxx or Micro Mark truck reamer.
SteamFreak wrote: Darth Santa Fe wrote:I just picked up one of the famous Tyco Chattanooga Choo-Choos at the Decatur train show yesterday. It's not in great condition, so I thought I'd see what I could do with it. Who knows!? Maybe it'll turn into a nice engine!I have one that I built up from junk parts myself. I've been telling myself I'll put a motor in the boiler one of these days, but I've been off on other tangents. They were good looking Consolidations for their time, but why they had to put that Powerpork truck in the tender is beyond me. Consolidated Foods = EVIL. IHC/Mehano now uses the boiler tooling for their 0-8-0 and 2-8-0.The steamers were great basic engines that could be detailed out the wazoo, as Wayne and Peter have shown. Consolidated Foods once again ruined something good by eliminating their brass axle bearings during the brown box era, so they would waddle like ducks.BTW, Wayne and Peter: Catt wrote:FYI- the two Tyco covered hoppers both used Athearn shells,The reason I know this is because I installed the Athearn floors in all 20 of my Tyco hoppers.(paid a buck a piece for them when K-Mart quit selling trains at christmas) Funny you should mention it. Someone just posted a comparison over on the Tyco forum.Bittersweet Behemoths: #358- CenterFlow Hoppers
Darth Santa Fe wrote:I just picked up one of the famous Tyco Chattanooga Choo-Choos at the Decatur train show yesterday. It's not in great condition, so I thought I'd see what I could do with it. Who knows!? Maybe it'll turn into a nice engine!
I have one that I built up from junk parts myself. I've been telling myself I'll put a motor in the boiler one of these days, but I've been off on other tangents. They were good looking Consolidations for their time, but why they had to put that Powerpork truck in the tender is beyond me. Consolidated Foods = EVIL.
IHC/Mehano now uses the boiler tooling for their 0-8-0 and 2-8-0.
The steamers were great basic engines that could be detailed out the wazoo, as Wayne and Peter have shown. Consolidated Foods once again ruined something good by eliminating their brass axle bearings during the brown box era, so they would waddle like ducks.
BTW, Wayne and Peter:
Catt wrote:FYI- the two Tyco covered hoppers both used Athearn shells,The reason I know this is because I installed the Athearn floors in all 20 of my Tyco hoppers.(paid a buck a piece for them when K-Mart quit selling trains at christmas)
Funny you should mention it. Someone just posted a comparison over on the Tyco forum.