I can remember the commercial for that Tyco set,it was great for the promotion of model trains.Wonder if anyone has a download of the commercial ?Seems like they would show a little boy acting like a steam engine as it was going around the track or something to that effect.
I remember the commercial, but I don’t remember the little boy. The only thing I do remember from it was the fact that the engine smoked! Oh - and the whistling billboard! I think I was 7 or 8 at the time.
I’ve got one too, but mine is mostly hopeless! I just located some traction tires that fit it, but now I’ve discovered it’s got split wheels and gears 
I’d really like to get it running again. I’m not real fussy on how authentic it ends up looking. I’ve got my eyes open for a reasonably inexpensive engine that I might be able to steal the drive train and frame from to stick in the Tyco tender. If anyone has any suggestions on what might fit… The only thing I’ve really seen so far is a model-power switcher which is pretty small. It’s innards might fit under the tender. I’m just woried that it might be almost as crummy as the Tyco innards.
I’ve also got the Durango GP-20. I’ve decided I could probably fit an Athearn GP-35 frame under the tyco shell, with some modifications of the frame. Boy, that one’s got a lot of happy miles behind it!
Jim
Grandpa bought me a Chattanooga Choo-Choo for Christmas at pennys in 1976, unfortunately luring me away from my 027 trains for about 12 years. We had to return the engine twice till we got one that ran out of the box, but I still have most of the set’s pieces, all heavily modified (as serious HO model railroaders are expected to do). I bought another of those 2-8-0s, this one a later, plainer version, and detailed them both with lots of brass castings and piping. I have gotten rid of most of my HO stuff, though I have kept the kit-built Mantua Prarie and a few other nostalgia pieces.
I’m into HO as well myself and have a lot of Tyco. I have one of the later Chattanooga 0-8-0’s with silver and red as well as an identical tender-driven 2-8-0 painted for “The Royal Blue” (not B&O’s Royal Blue, a ficticious train of the same name). Both ran when I first got them a few years ago and I had them pulling a train double headed together for a time. However, the traction tires on both crumbled off due to age and they have remained shelf pieces ever since. I’ve often thought that I should get traction tires for them (and a few other HO engines I have) “sometime” but haven’t gotten around to it.
I’d have loved to have seen that commercial! It’s too bad the train manufacturers don’t advertise like that now. Mentioning that it was a great promotion for model trains made me think of an old Tyco magazine ad that I absolutely love. It reads, “There are plastic toys; and metal toys; and cardboard toys; and war toys; and noisy toys; and toys that self-destruct; and toys that need some help before they’ll destruct; and dull toys; and interesting toys for a weekend; and toys that don’t even last the weekend.
And then there are electric trains.” While it’s a Tyco ad, it really is a good promotion for trains in general. Innovative advertising like this for toy trains is something that we really need. I think a commercial with that same text as narration showing the various described toys would be a fantastic promotion for Lionel or someone else.
Gotta give Tyco credit for obeying truth-in-advertising laws on that one! [;)]
I found this link giving some history of the HO Chattanooga Choo Choo.
Actually I have a Video Rails VHS of old (60’s-early '90s) train-related TV ads, and one of them is the Chattanooga Choo-Choo spot someone mentioned. I have tomorrow off from school, so I’ll see if I can get it online for you.
I have the spot you mentioned on that tape, but it’s a pirated copy of a copy of a copy! You know, my friend Gary had this set when he was a kid, and I don’t remember the tender drive-system! I DO remember the whistling billboard(Maxwell House Coffee?) and how it sounded much like the tender for my #2046. For a kid growing up in the 1970’s it wasn’t a bad set. Remember that while I was struggling with PRR Baby Madisons with fixed couplers that would part at every low and high spot on my handed down fifty year old train table, and roller pick-up s that would drop into the gap on my scmattering of pre-war switches, this Tyco set didn’t seem too bad. After I finally invested in a 26 year old #2046 for my bicentennial Christmas, I started to feel the bug bite, and haven’t looked at HO again! Jon
Well, I ended up having more free time tonight than I thought, so here’s the spot in all its low quality, VHS glory. I hate having to use YouTube, but it’s all that worked with this forum. Anyway, here’s the address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKHHnNT7h8I