This review is on Tyco’s older version of the Super 630, which is also better quality than their later production 630s in the 1980’s.[:)]
Some of you may be thinking, “Why Tyco?”, but with a few adjustments this isn’t a bad engine. The shell is pretty well detailed for an old train set quality diesel. The castings are smooth and when you take a close look, the detail is as good as or better than the Athearn diesels from the same time. The shell’s only problem is the open pilots for the truck mounted couplers. They did mold the lift bar in a way that makes the middle stick out like it should, but it’s done poorly and isn’t recognizable unless you look closely. The older models (like the one reviewed) come with metal railings installed all the way around. The newer models don’t have any railings, making the older ones look better. The paint is better quality than what you’ll find on old Life-Like or 1980’s Bachmann diesels. The seperation lines are a little sharper and the paint is coated smoothly. Mine came decorated in the Santa Fe Warbonnet, and they were also sold in Delaware and Hudson, Chessie, Illinois Central Gulf and a couple others. For some reason, Norfolk and Western was the only railroad that owned any high nosed C-630s and Tyco decided not to decorate them in N&W![%-)] The trucks are undersized and obviously have completely made up sideframes.
The 630 test ran a little wobbly, but it ran pretty well overall. It runs best when it’s warmed up a little,
This reminds me of the old Tyco GP20. The drive was a joke, but that body had potential! Some of you may remember that Model Railroader had an article back in the 80s about sprucing the Tyco unit.
This Alco C630’s body definetly has good potential. Nothing that parts from Details West and a little patience couldn’t cure! Junk the drive system and replace with a newer drive. If you’re modeling the prototype, the shell would have to be stripped and repainted to the Norfolk and Western scheme.
For me, if the southeastern railroads I"m modeling had owned 630s, I’d buy one since these show up a lot in model railroad flea markets and swap meets down here in Florida.
I love the high-nose ALCo 630s. I hope someone makes an affordable one in N scale soon, maybe an expansion of the pre-existing Atlas C630 runs, I’d buy one in a heart beat.[:D] But then…the low-nose ones are good looking too.
50 cars? Impressive. But I wouldn’t run that many even if the gears are stronger they’re still skinny. It’s odd TYCO only offered ALCos in roadnames that didn’t order them (in most cases). They offered the C430 in- rock island, Santa Fe, IC and others. none of these RRs ever purchased C430s.
I still have the Rock Island C-430. It’s been converted to the 5DCC control system (see April’s MR for the system) and can now pull ever car in my fleet. Smooth AND quiet! i haven’t invested in the 5DCC sound system yet, but the kids have.
Seriously, this loco (the RI c-430) is the reason i now have a layout. so tyco isn’t all bad…
If you get one of the early C430’s (pre-Consolidated Foods era) with the older style MU-2 power truck (metal plate on the bottom), you have the potential of a good running loco, too. The later plastic drives, like the one shown for the C630 in the opening post, IS a prime candidate for conveson to 5-DCC operation.
I have 5 that I’ve had since the early 70’s and they run great.
Something I’m not clear on from the initial review regarding the handrails, the Tyco’s always came with the handrails in a package with the loco, I don’t recall them ever being installed from the factory. The ones that don’t have them may simply have had the handrail package lost.
I still have a bunch of Tyco C630 shells, from when my era of interest was much longer, and quite a few Mehano C628 models. There are at least two versions of the Tyco C630 shell after the initial ones sold only by Sears - which had scale length tri-mount trucks. The earlier ones have the fuel tank wieght held in by two screws, and the wieghts are castings. On later ones, the fuel tank wieghts are a bunch of steel plates in a plastic box that snaps into the shell.
Using a Mehano C628 chassis is not difficult. A couple other uses for this shell include adapting the hi-nose to a C628 (Mehano - IHC, AHM, Model Power) - useful for both N&W and C&NW, or to a C425 (Atlas) for N&W. For a low nose C630, use the C628 or C425 cab and nose.
Then the Stewart model came along…
Stewart (Bowser) has hand rails and other details that will work.
With all this talk about thw TYCO C630, I had to post this up.
This was my favorite engine when I was a kid. Ironically, turns out it is pretty rare. So, when I got the train bug after bringing out all of my old trains to share with my new (step) son, I got the fever and wanted to return this bad boy to its former glory. I can say, this engine is what got it all started for me. Planted the seeds but took 20 years to come to light
Well, I trashed it as a kid. So, I got new hand rails from a Silver Streak hi-nose, did a little trimmin, and shoved it on a Athearn BB GE U-33 frame. Some detail painting and he was better than new And bam! Old Glory returns to the rails!. Turns out, I “kit bashed”, even before I knew the word. This picutre was taken on my old layout 1.5 years ago in honor of the 4th of July… This engine is first on the list to be converted to DCC when I start my summer indoor projects.[:D]
