Hum, I know I should have not bought it and more than likely it will be junk. I have been wanting steam power for a while. I thought I had a deal with a site member named Al, but seems he ships real slow or is walking over the engine to me.
More than likely I will get some stuff on this buy. All I am looking for is it to pull between 5 to 10 cars, smoke with out frying the motor. I am new and this is the first step in steam power.
All I am going to say is that I personally think you may be very disappointed with a Tyco Steam engine. I have about fourteen steam engines but they are all Broadway Limited, IHC and Mantua. I like to pull longer freights of about 20 to 25 cars and need the better engines to do that. It may work for you with just 5 cars or so and on level track.
According to the Tyco trains resource website, that’s a 2-8-0 Consolidation that was offered from 1975 to 1977. It’s powered by a traditional worm gear like most steamers of the time, and you actually picked it up for less than the MSRP back then which was $33.00, nice. It should pull the 5-10 cars (no promises, it is a Tyco) but not too much more. The roadname is also interesting as it was one of Tyco’s fantasy roadnames. There’s also a very simmilar 0-8-0 (with a less quality tender-mounted motor) that was offered in 1975 and a GP20 that was offered in 1977 in the same road name. Your model could actually be one of the better Tycos, and will run on curves down to 18" radius (as all Tyco steamers were designed to.) Good luck with it! I started out with quite a bit of Tyco equipment myself and while many would bash it, that company got many many people into model railroading. Cheers! ~METRO
It may pull 5-10 cars, but it looks suspiciously like the first “CHATTANOOGA CHOO-CHOO” set engine TYCO produced at the time. If it is, it will have a tender drive consisting of a three pole “pancake” motor, with the locomotive just being along for the ride. The quality was such that people called them 40 hr trains. After running for ~40hrs. they quit, never to run again.
However, there is a friend of mine, who bought one when they first came out, and his still runs to this day. Even he is surprised by its longevity. Who knows you may have actually got a good one.
I have the Chattanooga Choo-Choo that I bought at a train show for $12.00.It has the tender drive and actually still smokes. But it likes to derail and has 2 speeds, “fast or nothing”, so now it sits in a display case as a museum piece.
Hello Cuda Ken, I bought my Tyco Chattanooga Choo Choo bach when they were making them new (my first turn in the hobby back in the 70s), the smoke is a gimmick (still is) that amounted to little better than what you get from a cigarette, it had a tendency to spit unburned smoke oil leaving an oily residue on the locomotive,cars,track and pretty much anything else within three feet of the track.They pull worse than a Lifelike P2K steamer(the first run non traction tired versions), my Chattanoga still runs slooowly, likes to lurch alot, considering when I bought it and the price at the time I still like it. If it runs and you’re happy with the price enjoy yourself ,it’s a hobby it’s supposed to be fun.
I’m afraid I can only echo cjcrescent’s comments. Most examples of Tyco’s Chattanooga Choo-Choo were indeed of the tender driven variety (via a single diesel truck). Can’t quite tell from the eBay image of the tender if this is one of them. Their reputation is such that Tyco honestly should have paid their customers just to take then away! For most longterm hobbyists, this item is regarded as, by far, the worst locomotive ever issued by Tyco and was intended specifically for the toy train market, has little speed control, and a brief anticipated lifespan. Sorry, Cuda.
It definetly is the tender drive model. You can tell by the open space under the boiler and the filled in space under the tender where the motor and gears are. It has a vertically mounted 3 pole “pancake motor” and drives only middle 4 of the 8 tender wheels. They have rubber traction tires. The tender is sort of like a 2-4-2 arrngement as the 2 front and 2 rear tender wheels are free to pivot around curves, while the middle 4 wheels are rigid. The drive is an adaptation of their diesel truck design.
Here’s another hint for the new folks to the hobby: NEVER EVER buy a used Tyco, Bachmann or Life-Like locomotive. Not on eBay, not at a train show. Just say NO no matter how good the deal sounds. Bachmann Silver or Spectrum, fine. Life-Like Proto 1000 or 2000, fine. But stay away from the toy train set junk.
If you want a good quality steamer at an affordable price, try the Bachmann Spectrum line. Make sure it’s the Spectrum series, not a regular Bachmann. They are nice.
Take heart. Even a Tyco that runs is a good first step.
I have one of these, bought on e-Bay for something cheap. I’m in N scale, but I wanted an HO scale loco for display. I’ve never run it, so I can’t say how or if it works, but it looks nice on the shelf.
Buying on e-Bay is a real crap shoot. Sometimes you make your point, other times you crap out. You pays your money, you takes your chances! I’m always a little wary of buying engines off of e-Bay unless I have experience with the seller. Often, I check the other items the seller is offering. If he is offering many items other than trains, he probably has little or no idea about trains and is just selling it, possibly for someone else. He may or may not have the ability to test the engine. You are really on thin ice if you buy from that kind of seller (no offense to the seller). The seller who has a lot of train items listed usually has some interest in trains other than selling them. He often has the knowledge and ability to test them and usually describes them fairly and accurately. He’s the guy you want to buy from!
I hope you have a good experience with your new Tyco. If nothing else, you will have the opportunity to tinker with it and learn the mysterious workings of a steam loco. And it WILL look good just sitting there!
One of these days, I’ll actually run into you at K-10’s.
Early TYCO may be OK. MANTUA products was purchased by TYCO, and Mantua’s were solid runners in their day.
Now that the Mantua line/ products has been reincarnated, you may see something you’d like to have. First off, they were all metal. 2nd, Tyco’s ownership is gone. 3rd, they were mostly eastern RR’s
That’s definitely the tender drive version. At least it’s a 2-8-0, they had at least one version that was the exact same loco minus the lead truck. And of course those silly GG1’s and plenty of other absolute junk at the end - was anyone wondering why they couldn’t sell anything at the time?
The truly old stuff can be decent, with maybe a motor replacement for better running. Early Mantua was often Reading prototypes, with a few other liek the Belle of the 80’s thrown in there. Later they went to more of a ‘prototype of nothing’ approach and made lotsof generic locos that got whatever road name slapped on. Once the Mantua name was brought back, they did better, far superior to the last of the Tyco junk. Still had issues, but they went back to Reading prototypes for several locos, including the Shop Switcher (#1251) and the little camelback switcher, although in the caseof that one they were hamstrung by the sizeof their motor, to make it fit the boiler sits WAY too far above the frame, giving it all a jacked up appearance. But int he same time period they satrted producing models with betetr quality can motors in them. Go figure. Too little too late I guess, as Mantua finally failed. I haven’t seen any of the new Model Power pieces produced under the Mantua name. They do seem to have revived a lot of the Mantua line.
It looks like that one’s still in pretty good condition, so maybe it’ll turn out to be a good runner. I bought a Tyco Super 630 with a similar drive, and it’s an OK runner. If yours ever burns out, you may be able to repower it with an Athearn truck and a smaller sized good quality motor.[:D]
I’ll add to the “had one of those list”…my dad got it (gulp) used at a flea market when I was 6 or 7. Today it resides in a box somewhere in my garage.
I couldn’t agree more. I have two Mantua Davenport siderod diesel switchers and they run very smoothly. They are Mantua only, though. Very impressive for their time.
Don’t feel to bad. I bought a Life=Like diesel loco at a show last year. Good price, joke of an engine.
It has one drive truck with rubber tires and a motor like the Chat loco, the other truck is a dummy, used for elec. pick up. The only thing on it is the shell… It will sit on the rip track till I get sick of looking at it.
It is unfortunately, that except for METRO, none of the posters took a very close look at the photos.
The model in the pictures is NOT tender drive, it has an open frame motor driving the 2nd driver axle, and you can see the armature between and above the 3rd and 4th driver axles. In addition, on the tender drive versions (not desireable) there is a big lump underneath the tender between the tender trucks, where the motor is located on those units.
The model is basically a Mantua locomotive. Most likely it has a traction tire on the 4th driver axle. The shell is plastic, with a hefty boiler weight.
Like many other things; you can NOT make generalized statements about Tyco (or Mantua).
