Manuta-Tyco EMD GP-20

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

The Gerital Crowd, which I am one of, will remember this kit/ready-to-run unit, well.

This model, was released by Mantua (TYCO is Tyler Company), which was owned by the Tyler Family of Woodbury Heights, New Jersey. The first Tyler Company manufacturing facility was located in nearby Mantua, New Jersey.

Anyhow, this model was first released in late 1961 and or early 1962 and the tool and die makers did a excellent job in tooling, for the time, limited only by budget for project.

If you have this model, look at the workmanship closely. The only restrant from doing a through job, was the budget for tooling.

It would be interesting to know, how some with interest in this model, to have improved several things in running ability, which are:

(1) Improved electrical pick-up.

(2) Replaced traction tire wheelsets, with no groove type.

Once the traction tires go to the Mantua/Tyco Promised Land, the unit, whether the Powered EMD F-7, GP-20 and Alco C-430 will still operate and pull a modest size train on level track.

With good traction tires in place, but somewhat hard to locate, without paying a arm and leg per tire, these engines will pull and pull good!

Haven’t been able to locate rubber “O” Rings of 1/32" to diameter of groove wheel sets at this time, but trust me this size does exist. Just have not located a manufacturer (s). Takes time to research industrial supplier catalogs.

Mantua/Tyco traction tires were not made specifically for them as the traction tires are “Off the Shelf” item used in manufacturing and service repair industry.

2

These should work:

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/192-515

3

I had a Tyco F7 and when the o ring went, I filled in the groove with bathtub sealer.

4

I think I would MU two of these GP20’s together. And that includes the electrical pickup. With jumper wires. And a solid drawbar.

Ed

5

As OP said Tyco/Mantua used actual O-rings for traction tires. These have a circular cross section. O-ring traction tires increase the diameter of the wheel and reduce the flange depth, neither of which is desirable. The ideal traction tire for a Mantua locomotive would have a semi-circular cross section so it fits in the wheel groove and the tread surface is flat. How well did the bathtub sealer work?

6

I built three WP high nose GP20s using Tyco shells before the Proto 2000 GP20 was available.

Two of them are visible in this unfinished engine facility. All of these involved extensive detail upgrades and kitbashing, but they’re still identifiable as Tyco shells.

I made no attempt at all to use stock mechanism parts. Two of mine have slightly modified Kato GP35 frames, while the other uses a Front Range GP9 passenger unit frame (with the full-length fuel tank) with the drive from Kato/Stewart F unit dropped in (it fit with no modification to the mechanism and only a little to the frame). Most of the parts were scrounged from train shows, with incomplete or undecorated shells so they were being sold off relatively cheap. Athearn mechanism parts could also be cobbled together, and I’ve seen Tyco GP20s with modified Athearn blue box GP35 frames (incidentally that’s a blue box GP35 with a narrowed hood on the next track over).

7

You could probably glue a round cross section ring in the grove & shave off the diameter that protrudes past the wheel & finishing it up by holding a sanding stick to it while running the loco.

8

I had one of the Mantua’s in the mid 60s and I filled in the open pilot space and with a lot of work used a Athearn GP7 drive.

9

And I started a high hood GN GP20 from a couple of Tyco’s.

I am so glad I let that project slide.

Power was to be Hobbytown, with a dummy Athearn wide-body GP7 pickup unit MU’ed.

Ed

10

If you need to rewheel your GP20, I made a topic a while back that shows how to put on quality metal wheels and all wheel electrical pickup:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/195040.aspx

(you’ll probably have to copy and paste that)

For extra traction, you can use Bullfrog snot on a drive wheel or two. This way, you don’t have to cut any grooves for traction tires.

11

Here is a Tyco GP20 shell detailed for Burlington and mounted on a Hobbytown drive. … The U28B is also on a Hobbytown drive.

12

My Mantua GP20s have 8 wheel drive, heavy frames and flywheels and run great together or alone.The only real give away clue are the front lower corners of the nose which is squared up to clear the origonal motor/truck assembly,and of course the open pilots.