Tyco Motor Question

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

First, I’m not a novice and understand that Tyco is a low end product. That being said, a neighbor got her dad’s old (relatively speaking) Tyco Silver Streak train for her son, it has sentimental value. She heard that I had trains and wanted to know if I could fix it. After checking the transformer, I checked the engine and it didn’t run, only the light came on. I pulled the truck and put the transformer leads directly on motor leads with no avail.

My first inclination is to get a donor engine and trade out the power truck. Before I do, are there any other option for the existing motor? I’m not going to repower this engine with anything other than a Tyco motor so that option is off the table

Thanks

Ricky Keil

2

The Tyco Silver Streak That I remember was produced late 70’s - early to mid 80’s and had the Power Torque drive which used a small pancake motor built into one truck. If memory serves these had soft plastic gears that had a nasty habit of stripping, if the motor lasted that long that is. The motor wasn’t of very good quality and tended to burn out quickly. Any Tyco loco of similar size with Power Torque drive will make a good donor provided the motor works. This is however only a temporary fix because as I said before they burn out quickly.

3

Those Powertorque trucks are weak. It doesn’t take much dirt or old grease to stop them dead, so disassemble the motor and gearing and do a general cleaning and relube sparingly. An alternative is to replace it with the earlier Tyco MU-2 truck, which had a 5 pole motor and was much sturdier. It’s a snap-in fit, and junkers are easy to find.

You should also ask over on the Tyco forum. http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/default.asp

4

The Tyco “Silver Streak” C-430 was originally designed with the MU-2 power truck SteamFreak mentioned, so that’s another option. Either way, you’ll probably end up with a donor engine, but you can get them for really cheap (I got my “Silver Streak” for $5, in decent condition).

5

Outstanding! I did not know about the MU-2 motor, all the Tycos of my youth were the flat pancake style (don’t ask how I know that!). There is a hobby shop locally that has all kinds of stuff, I’m betting he’ll have what I need.

Thanks again.

Ricky

6

There’s an online forum for Tyco collectors. CLICK HERE. Someone on there should have all the info you need and will likely have a good motor if you need one.

Todd