tyco alco century's junk?

[cold steal]

I purchased 3 tyco's on ebay that I had to have because I had them as a kid. Yes they were pretty crappy runners then however my replacements are jems now that I went through them. I dont pull trains with em, just like to hear and smell em as they go around, Takes you back to being a kid!

[RDC1]

RDC1

Here's a 40 year old Tyco, Dual Power Torque driven, hauling 14 cars and a caboose up a roughly 4% grade. It out pulls every Athearn in the museum.

 

The locomotive above, which out performs every Athearn in the museum, is the junk and absolute crap being spoken about here. It was built the way that Tyco engineers meant them to be built, not the way that upper management dictated. It's a great engine. 

[rrinker]

cedarwoodron

First comment- these old posts from over a decade ago: why not put them in a separate sub forum category- call it "old chestnuts"

Cedarwoodron

 

 Because then they would ALL get new replies and no longer be "old chestnuts"

 

                                                    --Randy

 

[joe323]

I remember visiting a hobby shop in the early 80’s and he had a display of a Tyco engine and an athern engine shells removed to show why he would not sell Tyco locomotives I have exactly one Tyco item a Morton Salt hoppe.

[cedarwoodron]

First comment- these old posts from over a decade ago: why not put them in a separate sub forum category- call it "old chestnuts"

Second comment- my first HO train set was from Athearn but I was an avid TYCO aftermarket customer later on. Nowdays I will willingly restore old TYCO rolling stock with proper weighting, IM wheels and Kadee couplers. And..sort of willingly, repurpose old TYCO engines with better drives. It's junk to some, and a challenge to others !!!!!!

Cedarwoodron

[oldline1]

There were at least 2 versions of the C-630 by TYCO. Most were pure crap but they also made a very nice running engine. They had correct trucks and all the handrailsm and were similar to AHM products at the time. I bought 2 back around 1973-74 and they were nice additions to the Athearn & Atlas engines I had at the time. Good runners and powerful too.

TYCO was a sleezy company with some horrible business practices. I was working at a pretty nice hobby shop/toy store and we sold all the good quality stuff including brass and a lot of narrow gauge. One Christmas season on December 26th we were overrun with POed folks holding a dead engine in one hand and a dead transformer in the other demanding WE replace or fix them. After zillions of explanations that we never have carried TYCO as it was worse than junk, one fellow had the sheet they included in their train sets listing us as a REPAIR CENTER. HUH??? I called them and asked what that was about and they said they randomly select names of shops in certain areas so they can put them on that sheet. It seems that made them look more impoortant to have a repair center in all major cities. BS!!! So the final solution was they rushed a truck load more of their junk to replace transformers and engines people were irate about. The GOOD PART of this was we usually managed to get people upgraded to Athearn or Atlas engines and MRC transformers. Once they saw the difference most people were convinced SAM's, Woolworths and other crap stores had screwed them. The BETTER PART is TYCO sent a huge amount of steam replacement parts like drivers, cylinders, frames, etc for the TYCO (ex-Mantua) steam engines. Those proved useful. After Christmas our lawyer got them to remove our name and we had fun slamming all the remaining junk against the back wall. Stress relief after a terrible Christmas season thanks to TYCO.

oldline1

[Little Timmy]

WOW ! 

A Thirteen year old "Zombe" thread come's back from the dead !

My 2 cent's ( since I'm here anyway's ) my first locomotive was a Tyco Bi-centenial  ,but I couldnt tell you which one. I quickly learned that it was indeed "J U N K " ! It ran for about a year. After that I "Discovered" Athern Blue Box kit's and never looked back !

I now prefer Model die casting, and Stewart loco's ( still buy Athern when I find them)

[RDC1]

Here's a 40 year old Tyco, Dual Power Torque driven, hauling 14 cars and a caboose up a roughly 4% grade. It out pulls every Athearn in the museum.

[Budliner]

200 for all that tyco
25 years ago I had only tyco next to the models that I could get with the little money I had at 15 tyco was all I used I never had $200 for the big boys or brass and all the other models did not run as good as the tyco units true now we want so much more but back then they were the buchmann of the day fine models (not the steam) at a good price
tyco was the only trains I used all others were truly junk

[ICRR1964]

I don't know what the deal is but there are still people looking for it and want it. I have sold some on Ebay, some bring big $$$ others you cannot give away. But I look at it this way, when I describe the item in detail and tell them its old and they run up the bid to whatever amount of money! I say sold!

[Anonymous]

lots of stuff on that auction. Who'd pay $200 for TYCO? if he was only asking $50 he'd get lots of bids

[Bill H.]

Tyco? Hmmmm....

For all the Tyco fans, here's a deal!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tyco-Assortment-of-25-Old-Engines-Cars-Accessories_W0QQitemZ6024763198QQcategoryZ19140QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hmmm...6+ days and NO bids. No real surprise.

[Anonymous]

according to the "1976 TYCO pice list and order form" a C430 cost $19, a C630 around $20 that crap was expensive-- but you could have gotten an Atlas FP7 for less than $25

[Anonymous]

Still don't athrean's pull more ?

[BentnoseWillie]

I dunno - I haven't opened the set yet. I do know that I've seen newer Bachmanns run and wasn't impressed, and I know that I can get repair parts for the Athearn in a lot more places than I can for the Bachmann.

[Darth Santa Fe]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BentnoseWillie
[br

QUOTE: if you had to buy your children or grand kids a model trainset what would you buy

As a matter of fact, I have a set in storage waiting for my kids to be old enough for it - a Bachmann "Silver Streak" that I won as a door prize. When the kids get it the engine will have been replaced with an Athearn "blue-box". Economical, durable, reliable, and maintainable.

Is the Bachmann engine in the set a newer one with 8-wheel drive and a metal frame or is it an older one with 4-wheel drive and a plastic frame? If it's a newer one, it will run as well as an Athearn and be about as reliable, so there would be no need to replace it.[:D]

[BentnoseWillie]

QUOTE: when bachmann released the c40/8 it was one of the best detaild locos around ..

I beg to differ. I had one of the first run, and the only references to that model as "state of the art" I ever heard were in (poorly-written) Bachmann advertisements. It had a good motor, but that was about it. The shell was on a par with Atlas/Roco models from fifteen years earlier: crudely-rendered doors, oversized grabs mounted crooked, and no cab doors at all. Contemporary models from Athearn and Atlas blew it into the weeds on detailing and on reliablility, at a lower price in the case of Athearn.

QUOTE: if you had to buy your children or grand kids a model trainset what would you buy

As a matter of fact, I have a set in storage waiting for my kids to be old enough for it - a Bachmann "Silver Streak" that I won as a door prize. When the kids get it the engine will have been replaced with an Athearn "blue-box". Economical, durable, reliable, and maintainable. Non-Genesis Athearn are still the best value for a beginner, hands down, new or used.

[peterjenkinson1956]

JUNK...for us older people..49 yo..i remember TYCO, AHM RIVAROSSI, IHC, MODEL POWER, LIMA, MEHANOTECHNICA... now most of these brands are not regarded too highly... when bachmann released the c40/8 it was one of the best detaild locos around ..now lots of people regard them as junk... athearn blue box diesels.. now not the first choice of modellers.... if you had to buy your children or grand kids a model trainset what would you buy...lifelike.. kato.. broadway????????...peter

[Anonymous]

update: i removed the main drive gear form my dead tyco alco century and cut the wire that goes to the motor(to make it a dummy) those gears are so narrow it's no wonder they had problems the gears on my athearn GP38-2 are 5 times wider than the tyco's this obviously means tycos are cheap and athearn's last forever.

[CANADIANPACIFIC2816]

TYCO does have ONE redeeming quality. You can take the shell of a tyco locomotive, modify it cosmetically to make it look like it was in a head on collision and then stage a wreck scene on your layout. Otherwise nothing TYCO ever produced ever amounted to more than a piece of CRAP.

CANADIANPACIFIC2816

[Anonymous]

Only a mother could love that Tyco high hood warbonnet Alco in the toy set.[D)]

[trainfan1221]

Just one more thing to add to this topic. The huge Northlandz layout here in New Jersey proudly ran later model Mantua diesels as they were a local company (track was Atlas) and apparently ran forever. Didn't know what happened to them since then. I don't know if these are the trains still running there.

[BentnoseWillie]

You're kidding, right? That's a whole different company. The Tyco toy company has been gone for some time. For a history of the train offerings and an overivew of models se http://tycotrain.tripod.com/tycotrains/id1.html

[grayfox1119]

Guys, do you read the papers or watch TV news at all? LOL The CEO of TYCO just got "sent up the river" for all sorts of bad financial doings, not the least was his big birthday bash , Roman style, for his wife. Millions of $$ were spent on himself. Something had to give, and it is called quality/cost containment. I sure hope the new leaders of TYCO can bring this company back.

[Don Gibson]

I GUESS the term ''JUNK" applies from WHO made it , and WHO bought it.

[AztecEagle]

The First Train Set I Ever Got Was In 1968.I Got A TYCO Santa Fe Freight Pulled By A GP20.it only lasted about a Year.But still,in 1968,very few Partental Units were about to buy their Kids a Brass Locomotive!!Come to think about it,very few still do!!But for 1968 Standards,it was okay.I think they sold in the Sears&Roebuck/MonkeyWard(montgomery ward)Xmas Catalog for $20.00 Tops!!of course,it's amazing how such "Toy Train"Manufacturers like Bachmann and LifeLike(And to an extent,Model Power)have completely done a 360 Degree Opposite and started making excellent models like Bachmann's "Spectrum"andLifeLike's"Proto 1000/2000"Series.of course,they still have their low price equipment,but imagining 35 Years Ago that Bachmann would come out with reasonably priced RTR DCC Equipment woulkda been a Pipe Dream at most!!

[trainfreek92]

i have one tyco desiel ho it is about 25 years old. i got it from my grandfarther about a year ago,ran ok at first then nothing. the loco just reved up and shock. it turns out one of the gears had vibrated out of position. then it ran good for about 2 months, then started barley being able to move 3 cars on level track!!! the layout was torn up in march. now getting into n scale. soon to sell my large ho scale lot on ebay[^] Tim

[breinke]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TomDiehl

QUOTE: Originally posted by Darth Santa Fe

QUOTE: Originally posted by Don Gibson

TYCO (a Conglomorate) purchased MANTUA (a maker of quality product's to the hobby), sold off all the 'Mantua' product's, and started making TOY product's - one's that weren't expected to last - and were cheap to buy. IE: (disposable train's)

Actually, Mantua started Tyco and owned them for about 20 years before selling them to Consolidated Foods around 1970. Mantua also shut down for ten years right after selling Tyco. Tyco continued making most of the Mantua products (2-8-2, 4-6-2, 4-4-0, F7, GP20...) until they started having trouble keeping their business in the model railroad market. I believe Roco made all the engines for Tyco for about a year before Tyco stopped doing trains in '93. You can still find Tyco doing other toys now, like R/C cars.[:)]

Mantua opened back up around 1980 and made trains for another 20 years before nearly going out of business. Thanks to Model Power, Mantua is still in business and their engines are better than ever.[:D]

Capsule History

Mantua Metal Products started right after WWII near the town of Mantua, NJ in Woodbury Heights (suburban Camden). The name "tyco" comes from the founder John Tyler, as in TYler COmpany, and was used as their brand name for many years. They were bought out in the '70's by Consolidated Foods and went to junk at that point, working from a warehouse in Morrestown, NJ. John Tyler's son was working for them and was given the job of selling off the old plant in Woodbury Heights. At this point, he bought back some of the moulds and started producing the original line under the "Mantua" name again. Around 2000, this line was sold to Model Power.

I asked the question a year or so ago if the TYCO from the old model railroad company was the same as the TYCO conglomerate that was having all the trouble. All I got was a bunch of BS how people were PO'd about losing all their money with them.

Never got an answer to the question.

No, Today's Tyco conglomerate is not that same as the old Tyco toy company. Tyco toys was sold to Mattel in the 90's. You can see whats left of Tyco Toy's at www.tycorc.com .

[ShaunCN]

ah yes old tyco, i thik that most people still like to se eold stuff going, i do for one, and rebuilding these old tycos to look and run better is just more fun (to me) then buying a superdeaitaled unit.