TYCO?

[choochin3]

TYCO RULES!!!!!!

 

Carl T.

[dinwitty]

Mantua was pretty much the kit line and Tyco the RTR so named.

 As mentioned earlier on these forums the manufacturers admitted to the toyish models with built in imperfections so they wear down and fail to run after about 40 hours of play time, as asssumed the playful tike will be tired of it and it gets junked as a broken down toy from christmas.

For the Tyco metal engines they were fine, the equipment was rather freelanced but represented a reasonable design for an engine. 

I repowered an 0-6-0 with NWSL gears and motor (mantua), crawls with power.

[chutton01]

Seems like a good point to (once again) link to this site about TYCO Resources (from the dark era of the 1970s to the 1990s)

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/tycotrains/index.html

[IRONROOSTER]

I have fond memories of Tyco.  I started with it in the early 70's and it ran pretty good on my brass snap track.  May not be the best stuff, but it worked for me.

Enjoy

Paul 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The old Tyco's with the Mantua drive were OK but not great. Anything with power torque drive, toss it. The body might be able to be mounted on another manufaturer's chassis.

[Darth Santa Fe]

The only part of Tyco that was really that bad were the "Power-Torque" drive trucks. They used a tiny 3-pole motor that drove paper thin gears. Their later freight cars weren't great either, but the rest of their stuff was pretty good. Unfortunately, a lot of people only remember the bad, and forget that most of their steam engines had reliable 5-pole motors, metal construction, and very robust mechanisms with thick gears. Their early diesels were pretty good too.

I believe the Tyco line (RC cars and that type of stuff) was bought by Mattel a few years ago, and the name has disappeared since then.

[steamage]

I really like Tyco freight cars. Here are several webpage's of how I detailed them to look more prototype for my SP equipment roster running on the layout.
Flat Cars by the Dozen
Operating HO Gravel Dump Cars, with Movie!
It just takes a little work to bring them up to todays standards and cheep fun too!

Tyco box cars had good paint and lettering, much better than some of our big model railroading companies were cranking out in the 70s-90s with washed out lettering.

[doctorwayne]

Nice work, Peter.  I have a Tyco Mike (in parts) that was given to me by a friend:  it'll be rebuilt, as these were decent locos.

Here's one that I built for my son quite a few years ago:

and another that I built about 30 years ago:

I also have one of those tender-drive 0-8-0s which I plan on re-building into a model of a specific 2-8-0 prototype, although the frame and drivers are all that I'm going to use from the Tyco.

Wayne

[Ibflattop]

Tyco wasnt a really good piece of equipment. If it was a Mantua/Tyco it was a little step up on the food chain. I would rather stick with Athearn Bluebox if ya want a decent rollingstock.

                                                                                                                KB

[PASMITH]

If you have an operating layout and need more cars to operate, then slip some Kadee couplers on those old train set cars and use them until you can afford some decent rolling stock.

You could probably buy them cheap at yard sales and swap meets, or buy cheap sets.

They look cheesy and won't operate as well, but if you check and adjust them to NMRA standards they'll fill the gap for as long as you need them.

Some Tycos take a little longer to fix than others.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[TomDiehl]

Tyco, a brand name of Mantua Metal Products, went through two distinct phases. The US produced phase, and the foreigh produced phase (after they were bought out by Consolidated Foods in the 70's). The US produced items were good quality for their time. The diesel locomotives were gear driven, back when Athearn was rubber band drive (identified by metal plates on the bottom of the trucks). The steam were the same ones that were marketed under the Mantua name. The freight cars had a cast metal underframe, giving them better weight and low center of gravity, which made them track well. The talgo trucks were a sign of the times. Layouts with tight radius curves were the norm. There were very few "whimsical" paint schemes, but there were some special sets lettered for department stores. I have quite a few of the Tyco locomotives and cars from this era, and even for their age, they run and track well.

When Consolidated Foods took over and moved the production overseas, the quality of the items took a severe nose dive. The were also geared more to the toy train market. Unfortunately, this is the Tyco most people remember, and also the ones that show up on Ebay the most.

[BRAKIE]

Trick question..The Tyco/Mantua steam locomotives wasn't to bad .The Tyco/Mantua GP20 and Plymouth center cab industrial switcher was ok but,nothing to write home about.

Tyco is no longer in the model train business.

 

Model Power has the old Mantua line.

Best to pass the Tyco cars..

[kcole4001]

If you have an operating layout and need more cars to operate, then slip some Kadee couplers on those old train set cars and use them until you can afford some decent rolling stock.

You could probably buy them cheap at yard sales and swap meets, or buy cheap sets.

They look cheesy and won't operate as well, but if you check and adjust them to NMRA standards they'll fill the gap for as long as you need them.

[moelarrycurly4]

Its not very well made. My first HO set was made by AHM and I also had some tyco cars. The AHM and Tyco stuff of the 70's was better detailed than the stuff they made later. The main problem with them are cheap wheel sets and they are not very detailed. ( and truck mounted couplers) Tyco also had cars that were not in prototype paint schemes, like a doritos box car. As a kid I always wanted a doritos box car and my brotehr would not let me buy anything that was not prototypical. Now I am clollecting these "billboard " cars for the heck of it. If you want something that small children can play with and you don't care if it gets destroyed tyco is the way to go.

[Been Nothing Since Frisco (BNSF)]

I've hered many things and I was wondering, how bad is tyco?