tyco alco century's junk?

[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

[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.

[Darth Santa Fe]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BentnoseWillie
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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]

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.

[Anonymous]

Still don't athrean's pull more ?

[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

[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]

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

[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!

[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

[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.

[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)

[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

[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

[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.

[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

 

[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. 

[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!