new collector in need of help

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Hi everyone,
Recently I inherited a full set of 1919 tyco Lionel Electric Trains. The trains are in mint condition and in the original packaging. The trains have been used but I am clueless on what kind of maintenance needs to be done to the set. I’m also not sure whether or not I should keep this set or perhaps sell to someone who might appreciate and maintain it better than I. If you can help me out or if you are interested please reply. Thank you.
Tim

I can be reached at h20devil@hotmail.com

2

Tim,

Try a local train club for help lubing your trains. If I inherited a set I would keep it. A toy with a history is more fun than one you just buy.

Jim H

3

Don’t do anything hasty that you’ll regret later. Do some research on what you have before anything else – google the internet, contact Lionel for info, check with local train stores for the Greenberg book on toy train prices, check e-bay to see if anything similar is on there, etc. Make sure that you know what a fair price is for what you have so you don’t get taken. If you decide to keep it, then decide if you’ll operate it or display it. If you operate it, O Scale train clubs or train stores can help you with maintenance. If you display it, get a nice case for it and be sure to include any history that you know about the equipment. You may also want to display the orginal packaging with the equipment tp add provence.

Poppyl

4

The words Lionel and Tyco just don’t go together. Tyco was a line of bottom-of-the-barrel HO trains, not directly connected with Lionel (though I believe they may have provided some trains for Lionel’s failed HO attempts)…

Could you be more specific as to what they are? What are the numbers on the equipment? Are they O gauge? HO?

5

Bob,
Maybe later day Tyco is bottom of the barrel, but please don’t confuse it as junk when connected with Mantua. Many a model railroader and collector got their start in Model Railroading a Toy train collecting with a “Tyco Mantua” set or locomotive kit.
I still have a Tyco passenger set I’m very fond of. It’s a chrome Santa Fe “El Capitan”. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t “American Flyer” use the same cars in their HO sets?
I agree the Lionel and Tyco name don’t belong together. However, Tyco has a very proud history and amount of collectabily too! I bothers me a little to thing that some toy train folks think the only true toy trains out there are traditional Lionel and American Flyer “O” and “S”. To me their are “Toy trains” in every scale that are worth collecting. Perhaps Tim needs to look at little closer to what he has.
(Off soap box) [soapbox]
Dave

6

If it is Tyco in “HO” , but in the year 1919 [?][%-)]

7

Or is “1919” the model or set number?

8

Good point Bob, I don’t think that even O gague was around in 1919, but I don’t have my history book here with me. [;)]

9

Hello everyone! Lionel came out with O Gauge in 1915 and Marklin started it around the turn of the century. I bet that Tim has a Tyco Set with a General Style steam Engine or similar type with the number 1919 on it.

10

Check the back of the box for copyright dates–there won’t always be one but if there is, it’s probably near the firm’s address or patent data. If there’s a zip code, it dates from later than 1963.

If it has three rails and no imitation cross-ties, it’s probably a Lionel.

If it uses any plastic, it’s going to be a post World War II release. (I’m not sure about how early Bakelight would have been used, if at all.)

If it has photographs on the box showing the set in action, happy kid under Christmas tree or that sort of thing, it is almost certainly later than the mid-1950s, when Tyco sets and such were marketed to self-sell; that is, they sold more as impulse purchases at toy or department or discount stores than as “carefully considered purchases” from a hobby shop.

If the “1919” is stencilled anywhere on the locomotive, that’s just a historical detail, not a release date.

If it’s a freight set and the locomotive and caboose belong to different railroad lines (Santa Fe vs. B&O, say), then the set was definitely marketed toward kids. Real adult hobbyists are driven to distraction by that kind of mixing because it almost never occurred in real life.

I agree with the earlier post about the durability of Tyco trains. Obviously, the kits weren’t up to the standard of hobbyist equipment, but they sure ran better HO than the later Bachmann or Life-Like IMHO and experience.

You could probably avoid all this sleuthing by taking a picture of the box front and back or of the set laid out on a towel, digitizing the image, and posting it back here.

It’s best to assume you have something worth hanging on to unless experience tells you differently.

11

Assuming that what you have may be an HO set, you might want to post on the model trains forum. Just give us the dimemsions of a loco or car and we can determine pretty quickly whether it is HO or something else. IMHO, if it is HO, disregard my previous comments. It probably isn’t worth much and its play value would be in operation, not display. When I was in HO I avoided Tyco like the plague.

12

My first train set was an HO Burlington passenger set pulled by a silver F unit. It was by Tyco. Boy, did I run that set into the ground! Broke the tinly horn-hook couplers with my ham-sized fingers, burnt up the motor - running it round and round a figure 8, I liked to cra***he train a la Gomez Addams through a wall of Matchbox cars or small figurines…

13

It all depends on what you are willing to spend and given time. For an amazing layout for o gauge, expect it to take 10 years. Very nice ogouge locomotives, an amazingly high $1,300. But thats o gauge. I kind of suggest oguge for very detailed trains. the price may be high but is pretty much worth it.
Monto3