Wow this threads origin is almost as old as Tyco trains
Anyway, I too have some Tyco on the layout.
Two piggyback trailers. I like the older silver painted ones that Tyco issued for Santa Fe. Sure they're not 100% perfect. But until I get around to decaling/detailing my own, they'll do fine in the interim on my late 50s freight.
(The Tyco trailers are the short doubles, the others are Walthers...on Walthers flats as well):
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
As discussed in a similar thread recently: I still have most of my old Tyco collection and just bought several more of the flatcars with the pipe loads because I think a train needs to have more than just one car with a load of pipe. Someone building a pipeline or sewer needs more than just three. All of my Tyco cars have body mounted Kadee couplers. My two favorites were the stock car with truck and loading ramp. I still have the cows. The truck got chopped up for parts to detail Athearn truck kits. The interior went into a cabover and the fenders on a conventional cab that hauls two bottom dumping trailers. The other favorite was the piggyback flatcar with loading ramp. The truck was chopped up for parts also. The ramp now serves as the loading ramp at Johnson Tractor, a dealer of construction and farm equipment. The flatcars had their trailer anchors removed and now haul tractors. An auto carrier was converted into a flatcar with a 5th wheel for hauling a single 48’ piggyback trailer. The lighted house from Tyco was the first structure I ever got. I still have it and think it looks nice. Even better once I added the swimming pool.
I own a shoebox full of the stuff that I started acquiring when my kids were old enough to start playing with them, and I certainly was not going to start them out with a $300 engine that at some point would likely take a header down the canyon! My first purchase was a non-set group of trains headed by a -- wait for it, Maine Central -- Santa Fe Alco 630 diesel that still runs beautifully many years after I bought it. Tyco's old freight cars are cheap and colorful and they make a nice parade around my little pike. My favorite Tyco offerings though, which I still collect, are their operating accessories - not too much fun stuff out there made like that anymore! I have the operating boxcar (both Burlington and US Mail versions), the pipe loader, the pipe unloader, and the gantry crane. I'm always on the lookout for a good deal on their other accessories!
This car stops at ALL railroad crossings!
I definitely buy unique items if I can afford them. You never know what might be collectible for my grandchildren someday.
I see nothing wrong with collecting things that bring back memories. No Tyco but I have several Child Guidance building with flat roofs that I enhanced by putting shingles and other details on. Why because they bring back memories of the city as we called it when I was growing. Not scale modeling but I like it.
Joe Staten Island West
tyco's best: the santa fe "super 630" (Alco C-630)
I had some Tyco stuff when I was a kid. 4'x8' pike and brass track no less!
But when I'm feeling nostalgic I head to the tycoforums website and see grownups still enjoying those same things I once had.Of course my adult train stuff is model trains not toy trains because I can afford more detailing and accuracy of my hobby. Both have a place in our free time to have!
Steve
I remember an all-Tyco layout, the equipment, the assembled buildings, etc. The trains ran quite well, if a little too fast. Tyco equipment was pretty rugged.
Reading through this thread, I just have to say if people enjoy collecting these older trains let them. My brother has a TYCO New Haven RR starter set from 1961. The diesel locomotive and coaches ran well into the late 1980s. I had a great GP20 (Penn Central) from TYCO which ran over 20 years. I currently do not have any TYCO on my layout but I do plan to retrieve my old freight cars from my folk's attic. I plan to display them in my freight siding. I fondly remember running them and having great fun. That maybe why others collect these models. Not everyone is super detailed orientated
Have fun with your trains
I have probably over 50 Tyco freight cars. I model a Southern Pacific flatcar train of thirty Tyco cars rebuilt with new trucks, couplers, paint and decals, wooden decks replaced the plastic decks.
http://lariverrailroads.com/flatcar.html
Tyco Operating Hopper cars are a very close match to the SP ballast hopper. ave 10 of those operating too.
http://lariverrailroads.com/gravel_pit.html
I recall getting an HO Tyco set for Christmas back in 1975 and I literally ran the poor cheap thing to death in a couple of months. That was my only experience with an Tyco product. And no, I wouldn't care to own any Tyco products today...
They collect it because they like it.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
I buy a lot of TYCO and Bachmann cars,notably Covered hoppers.I don't collect them because of who made them I buy them because they make great grain hoppers with a low starting price.You can replace the trucks or use a truck tuner on them and replace the wheels with metal ones,if you don't like metal wheels the truck tunner will make the cars roll a lot better.
I always body mount the couplers on any talgo trucked car that I rework.
Botton line. It's none of our business. Lets get back to our layouts. That is our business.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
emdmike Good for taking to the club or running on a portable show layout where cars must be handled constantly.
Good for taking to the club or running on a portable show layout where cars must be handled constantly.
I take my fragile stuff to our Free-mo setups. The cars aren't handled constantly. There's no reason. Almost all the time, I'm the one handling them. Officially, no one is supposed to touch your equipment but you. So, if you DO have a need to touch someone else's rolling stock, you know you really better be careful. Because not only did you damage your buddies stuff, but you broke the rules doing it.
I do not recall any rolling stock being damaged by "other" hands in all the setups I've been to.
I suppose other clubs and organizations could do the same, if they wished. It ain't "rocket science".
Anyway, back to collectors. Some people collect brass locomotives. Some collect Tyco. Some collect American Flyer HO (I've got their 0-6-0 switcher which has a smoke unit that puffs, and their C&O DL600B, with the dinging bell that won't stop. Ever.).
You might think collecting Tyco is strange. Ya know, there are people who think grownups playing with trains at all is strange.
Ed
I agree, they filled a void in the market back then. Were they the best on the market, no, but they had some decent models thru the years. The engines that have the Mantua style drive like the wild west engines, the earlier diesels and such can be made to run very well. Nickle silver wheels, extra wheel wipers or rail wipers fix power pickup issues. The freight cars look great once weathered and Kaydee #5's body mounted are installed. Some metal wheel sets finish them off. And you will still be cheaper than a new RTR freight car and a lot less fragile. Good for taking to the club or running on a portable show layout where cars must be handled constantly. The new RTR stuff is so fragile, its almost a "hands off" model once out of the package. Tyco has always gotten bashed, but I have seen some really nice layouts built around the whole Tyco line of trains. To each his/her own! Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
I collect and run old Varney, Mantua, and (gasp), Lionel trains, and think it's kind of pathetic to see others bashing someone's choice of what makes them happy. Not everyone in this hobby enjoys it the same way, and there is no right or wrong way to participate. TYCO trains were the first experience with model railroading many had, and if they want to re-live that long ago experience, who are any of us to knock them for it? In the final analysis, they are all just toy choo choos, and we are all just playing pretend when we run them, whether you want to accept it or not.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
IRONROOSTERYou need to clean them
.
My wife still gets perturbed when I ruin a "perfect" model with weathering.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190Nobody cared when I had nicely weathered scale models
Or as my grandson said "Grandad, these cars are dirty. You need to clean them"
Paul
I had a Tyco train on Bachamann track under a plexiglass cover on display in my office for about 5 years. Customers loved it. Everyone had memories of Tyco trains. Most of the comments were silly, like "wow, wonder what that is worth now ($0.00)", or "wow, you took really good care of your toys (nope, bought it at a train show for next to nothing).
Nobody cared when I had nicely weathered scale models in the same case. People like nostalgia, and I suppose that is what fuels Tyco collectors. They are trying to get back something from the past.
I went and found mint examples of my childhood Tyco engines, the Royal Blue 2-8-0 tender drive and the Silver Streak diesel. Both run but spend thier time in my display case now. I did pick up a second Royal Blue that I will remove the smoke unit and install a NWSL gear box on the driver axle that has the smoke cam now. Then a nice little can motor and weight in the boiler where the smoker used to be. Then I can have a nice RB 2-8-0 that runs as good as it looks! Its not that a truck mounted disc style motor is junk by nature. Marklin has done this well for decades. My digitaly controled DB V160 diesel w/sound will just crawl or scoot along at passenger speeds. Tyco just went way to cheap with paper thin gears, a micro cast metal pinion gear on a super tiny motor shaft. I have seen zinc pest infecting some of the truck castings now. Both of my 2 mint engines were locked up when I got them. Between dried grease and some corrosion on the gear stub shaft had locked them up. But a good cleaning, polishing the stub shafts with a wire wheel in my dremel motor tool had them both running like new in short order. I get them out of the case and lay a piece of track next to the my Marklin C track layout to run them. Just like mint in the box Lionel, Tyco can command some silly prices when its mint and unrun. Certian pieces that are easily damaged with handling really fetch some serious money when in mint shape. Any of the chrome engines/cars are this way. Mike
ICRR1964Does anyone remember the Chattanooga Choo- Choo set? I got one of these for Christmas when they first came out when I was young. It ran for about 2 days and died from a burned up motor. I had it repaired 2 times, the motor! Gave up on the third repair and put it back in the box! These seem to bring top dollar on ebay now.
really? I got a "chattanooga Choo-Choo" 2-8-0 loco a little while ago from a very respectable, (though now out of business :() train store. I've had this connie for about a year now, and although I dont use it much, it is a great little consol and lots of fun to run!
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M+R Railroad, since 2008 "Through heat and cold, we beat the bold"
My bad... Guess I misidentified the model. Still can't believe it's TYCO, though.
tinplatacisNot gonna believe this, but I just found out that the mystery SD-40 that serves as my main motive power is train set TYCO from the early 80's!
Your right, we won't believe you.
Tyco did make a SD 24 but never made a SD 40. AHM / IHC had one and it was a step up from Tyco.
But then again almost every brand was a step up from Tyco.
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/ahmhoscalelocomotives/id15.html
Jim
Not gonna believe this, but I just found out that the mystery SD-40 that serves as my main motive power is train set TYCO from the early 80's! Runs great too, is the funny thing.
Just something else to collect, like stamps or bottle caps. I went and found near mint examples of the Tyco I had as a young child. Not to run(although they do run) but to put in my display case for the good memories they bring back. To bad the originals didnt last long as did most other Tyco. That being said, my father's Lionel set from 1948, which I also ran to death as a child, still runs under our Christmas tree to this very day! Mike