Toy trains of HO web site Tyco, Lifelike, Mantua many more. tycoforums.com I thought this is very interesting. I always thought Tyco, Lifelike and that type was cheap junk but I never owned any. Not sure how I got that opinion I guess people at HO swap meets I went to didnt like them. I have HO also and it’s not necessary for me to have extreme detail like I read about when I go to Model Railroader forum.
Dennis
I have owned Tyco trains when I was a teenager and always liked them very much. I have visited the Model Railroader forum on a few occasions when some “professional” scale modeler would be ranting about Tyco’s poor quality and lack of detail and how the world would be a better place if Tyco trains had never existed. It’s funny how, when I first got into HO, I was impressed at the realism of HO trains compared to 3 rail O. But that was back in 1962 and I have since repented of my misspent youth and returned to the O gauge fold.
Remember the “shake the box” Athearn HO freight car kits? They were relatively inexpensive. It would be nice for an O Gauge manufacturer to emulate this example for those of us willing to do the labor versus a Chinese worker who is probably being ripped off anyway…They were designed for easy assembly and were decent models, not fantastic, not terrible. I won’t hold my breath for this to occur, but it would be a great alternative…
Well, Tyco were far from being the best products made in HO, so I wouldn’t use them as a comparison with Lionel. The older Tyco were actually better than the later stuff, the pancake motors were pretty unreliable and short lived. I had quite a bit of tyco when I was young, the older stuff really could take a fair amount of punishment. Tyco were not very detail accurate, but a GP 20 looked enough like a GP 20 that I was happy enough with them.
As far as model railroading being better off if Tyco had never been produced, I would not only DISAGREE, but would also question the Inteligence of the person making that statement. Tyco were NOT marketed to the “Serious” or “Advanced” modelers, but many, many, many modelers got started in the hobby with Tyco sets when they were children, and as they matured, and thier interest grew, they advanced to more refined models. How many would never have gotten a start in the hobby if all that was available was the Highly Detailed, Blue-print accurate, VERY EXPENSIVE products. Not something that you are going to give to a 6-10 year old kid. In the end of Tyco’s train era, their quality had slipped enough to possibly turn off some new modelers, but the hobby would have been Worse off IMHO, if Tyco had never been produced.
Doug
Early Tyco followed the Mantua design and a small drop of oil would keep them running. Doug covered it quite well I would think and I too do not see any logic in comparing Tyco with lionel. Marx would be a closer likeness.
Tyco’s have NEVER commanded Lionel-esque prices new or used, they are more like MARX trains, made to be cheap & affordable but looked down upon as inferior to higher grade higher detailed and higher priced train lines.
Personally I am surprised that alot of Tyco stuff is even still running, not the Mantua based stuff that was better stuff, but the later really cheap stuff like that horrid tender powered Chatanooga ChooChoo thingfish.
FWIW for at least several years in the mid-1990s Intermountain made O gauge three rail freight car kits. Great car graphics but terrible plastic wheels. They discovered that the three-rail market really didn’t have many guys interested in making trains, just opening the box and placing the car on the track. We ran rolling stock/kit pics in 91, 92, 98, 2000 and 2002.
Atlas was/is to HO (and also N), like LIONEL is to 3-rail. Atlas engines and rolling stock have held their values fairly well. Atlas meant quality and reliability. Tyco, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. The packaging looked nice (like a sealed bag of potato chips), but how many HO sets wound up in the garbage can after Christmas. The Mantua line was a giant step up from Tyco.
As for the Athearn/ car kit discussion. I too would love to construct my own cars, at say 25% less than R-T-R…[2c]
Tyco HO got me back into trains in the early 1980s and soon after I moved to Lionel 3-rail where I am today. I never had anything against Tyco; for the money they were just fine and ran OK for me. I think Tyco played an important role in keeping model railroading affordable for the masses and so was a worthwhile player in the market. They were the “toy train” element in the very scale-oriented HO world!
Offered 10 for this Tyco lot but could not get 12. It runs after 34 years, barely. LOL.
Started my love of trains with Tyco.Santa would bring it every year when I was a kid.Dad could always find a way to fix them.Still have most of it stored away.
My first set was a Lionel scout from 65(?) but after that I got mostly Tyco sets at Christmas. Santa did bring us a Lionel CN geep, 76 Pensy car and an MPC drawbridge, but the first train I remember begging for was a Tyco. It was available only as a mail-in through Lipton soup and had a Soo line shunter diesel. I also remember the Tyco Golden Eagle set and the Turbo Train, which is the only one I still have.
Just to set the record straight, I also begged for the MPC James Gang set but Santa brought the Tyco Golden Eagle instead!
Becky
A little OT, but just yesterday, 10/26, I had the opportunity to visit an electronics manufacturer called Ellenby Technolgy: http://www.ellenbytech.com/.
They reside in the building once used to manufacture Mantua and Tyco trains. They have a showcase in their conference room filled with Tyco and Mantua memorabilia and a few pictures from when those trains were made there.
Hi!
Having had Lionel in the '50s and having a postwar collection today - as well as being in HO since the '60s, I will say that there is absolutely no comparison of the Lionel “pre MPC” of my youth to Tyco or the like. Perhaps a better comparison would be with Marx, but even then I would question it.
The Lionel of the postwar era was built to last - and they were not cheap in any way. The Tyco of the '70s and '80s was inexpensive, and needed care to keep them going and not falling apart.
Perhaps a better comparison - if one is even possible - is with Lionel and Athearn. For the money, the made in California Athearn of the '50s thru '80s was a huge value, and frankly made the Tyco/Lifelike stand out as toys.
Sorry to sound so opinionated, but having been a train nut for over 50 years, I was there when a lot of this evolved. Frankly, I would keep the comparisons of Lionel vs. Flyer OR Tyco vs. Lifelike.
I can see the point about TYCO being an introduction to trains, at least in the past. After having an American Flyer set as a tot, I did Tyco for a few years in my early teens, it was my introduction to model railroading. However the brass track eventually meant nothing ran and I switched to Lionel for 15 years before going back to HO in 1988. By then some Mantua stuff was actually pretty good, with Sagami can motors and improved boiler shells. Many “serious” HO modellers used their 2-6-6-2 for example; there was even an MR cover story on adding details to it.
However as has been noted, Mantua / TYCO isn’t really all that “collectible”…or if it is, it would be their very early stuff from the pioneering days of the hobby.
Maybe we should refine the argument to Tyco vs. Lionel post-war scout sets?
If you look at it in that context, then both companies were striving toward getting toy train sets in as many kid’s hands as possible due to their lower price points. The “scout” cars had fixed couplers and non-operating doors on the boxcars. So I’d say they’re more in league with the cheap HO starter sets than the 700E or GG-1.
Becky
When I first read the title of this thread, I was sure this was a Troll Post.
Having jumped from American Flyer directly into N-scale I managed to avoid the Tyco phase of the hobby. But I was familiar with the company’s reputation, and it wasn’t good. A friend of mine who was into HO ran Athern and Rivarossi (AHM) exclusively, and he was constantly putting Tyco down.
Like Lionel I do remember that Tyco made many “action” accessories, and sold them as part of their train sets. I think this also reinforced their image as a “toy train” manufacturer, rather than a serious “model railroad” manufacturer.
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I started with Tyco in 1971 and had a lot of fun with it. It was better than the entry level Lionel set I bought my son in 1977 - that was truly bad.
Paul
I received a Tyco train set for Christmas in the early seventies. To be honest, it was actually a pretty good set. The locomotive was the 4-6-0 Pacific which was a very good model and could be found on layouts of “serious model railroaders.” One of the cars in the set was the crane and boom tender which was well detailed and comparable to the Athearn crane car. Of course by the late seventies, some of the products were indeed of lower quality in order to be affordable. I agree with Becky regarding some of Lionel’s offerings. We tend to have a romanticized view of postwar trains and sometimes forget that not all of those train sets were top of the line products. They were however, designed and built to meet a certain price point. This allowed people to have a train set who might otherwise not be able to afford one. I think Tyco served this market very well. Of course many of these trains did not last through the years, but for many of us, it was a doorway to a lifelong hobby.
Karl
When I was in the “HO” world, I tried many different brands (Tyco, Bachmann, Lifelike, Mantua etc.) and found that all the manufacturers reasonably attempted to copy the ‘real’ stuff. The difference lay in the detail and quality. Most of the Tyco stock that I had were decent “toys” if handled properly.
I, however, don’t think they are the Lionel of the “HO” world when one compares the “customer service” aspect. (Based only on my experience with product questions directed to each)
Side Note: I grew up with Riverossi and Varney so I may be partial to them.
Thanks for asking.