I have been out of the hobby for the past 30 years and last weekend I pulled out my old Tyco engines from the 70’s. I have six, two of which have never been run. They all look suprisingly good and I am ready to set up a new layout. My question is…I cannot remember where to oil the engines and what else I should do before I run them again. Can someone direct me to information that will show me where to oil. I would prefer to see a picture if that is possible.
[#welcome] to Forum and back to the hobby.
What type of locomotive do you have, steam or diesel? There isn’t much info available for Tyco, especially for something that old. There is however a book available called Maintaining and Repairing Your Scale Model Trains by Jim Volhard
I’m sure you get some responses like throw them away and buy something that cost a hundred bucks. That’s because they don’t run very well unless you have the ones made in Austria. Being that old they might be.
There are basic oiling points on such as the axle bearings, gear box, motor armature and the side rods on locomotives. Be sure to use plastic compatible oils and greese. Cleaning the wheels is a must for good electrical pick up to the motor as well as cleaning the track. If you have basic mechanical skills you shouldn’t have any problem doing it yourself. However if you don’t want to work on them for some reason, call around to hobby shops near you to find out if they do repair work on trains.
I recommend reading
Tips for beginners: jumping the track
Banish Derailments, 12 ways to get smoother operations by Jim Hediger.
And since you have been out of the hobby for quite some time, you might want to get up to speed on a few other things.
HO magnetic couplers
[url=“http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/002/380vxgan.asp”]Fine-tuning HO knu
I don’t oil tyco locomotives…i throw them in the trash because that’s what they are…sorry i’m so blunt about it, but I’ve never met a tyco locomotive that ran worth a hoot…chuck
The reason for the hostility toward the Tyco engines is that the technology has advanced so much it’s like comparing a black and white TV with rabbit ears to an HD satellite system. Tyco had their day, but if you take the time and expense to build a nice layout, you should have engines and rolling stock that perform up to today’s standards.
Depending upon the time period you wi***o model, people here can help you find a few good deals to get you started.
Keep the Tyco memories, but display them on a shelf and run the new stuff.
“Thaaaanks for the memories, da da, da da, da daaaaa…” That’s my Bob Hope impersonation.
Mercme, as stated above, you may find that Tyco performance does not live up to today’s standards. But, Tyco models provide good practice for kit bashing, detailing, weathering, etc. As you get back into the hobby, you may eventually want to upgrade your locomotives (plenty of threads on this forum will give you direction). But by removing the motors and with a little painting/detailing, your favorite Tyco locos can live a new life as dummies!
Good luck,
Ort007
A couple of them may have merit as retired from service and qualify for the grave yard.
If so, you may have to fade them, peel the paint , weather them up, add rust/mud
You can oil and weather Tyco engines in one step. Dunk them in a 5 gallon can of used motor oil and set them in the sun to dry. (note- this is ONLY recommended for Tyco engines. If they do not run well after this procedure… uh, did they run well before the procedure?)
Welcome back to the hobby. Ignore the elitist attitudes you’ve encountered. A Tyco locomotive is what you have to work with & if tossing it in the trash or drowning it in 5 gallons oil or any of the other unhelpful “suggestions” means that you have nothing, then you are back out of the hobby.
Would I suggest that you go out & buy a new Tyco as an investmnet in the hobby? No. But making do with an old one is better than having nothing. The elitists here are too short-sighted to see that.
Wayne
WOW, I didnt think there were any left.I remember when I was a kid I had the spirt of 76 engine Red, White and Blue.Man I wore that thing out ,had a 4X8 sheet of plywood in my bedroom.
Anyway it was Tyco that drug me into the hobby.
Actually, from what I read about some of the BLI’s they too would make a pretty expensive head stone.
Here are some better places to get info on Tyco trains.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tyco_trains/?yguid=190990278
A great place to discuss Tyco trains without the atitude.
I apologise if I came off as elitist. I was sincerely trying to save someone else the misery I endured in trying to make chicken soup out of chicken sh**.
They say that being smart is learning from your mistakes. Being intelligent is learning from the mistakes of others. Most of us who sound off about Tyco are merely smart; we’re trying to help others move up.
[#welcome]
yeah TyCos’ aren’t up to modern stuff, but I still use mine regularly and will do so until I can get the layout done enough to worry about using some of the modern olling stock. But the question was about oiling wasn’t it? If your TYCO stuff is 30 years old it is right at the transition from Made in USA to Made in China. the 4 locomotives i have are very different in construction with the two USA made being most useful. The US locos use an inline motor and need a drop of oil on the axels and a vacuum if they weren’t stored in a dust proof environment. The later chinese locs haave a modified race car motor in a sidewinder configuration all assembled on a fine grain iron base. These gave me trouble as both had siezed the gearsets onto the cast in posts of the motor frame and one snapped both drop gear posts trying to free them off. I salvaged the other by dropping some penetrant on the shaft/gear assembly and waited a day to try to move them(i used ZEP45 w/Teflon, but a good penetrant for rusted car parts from Wally World will do) You will have to pry the drive train out of the shell to do all this, and it is a pain, but with patience it will work. Make sure you clean the wheels as they will be corroded!!! (Out of the 4 i ended up with three that work and two that work as well as my later Lifelike (my one upscale attempt before I put them away 30 years ago). I haven’t checked out the other referenced sites, but recommend you do, and also suggest you spend some time here and read a lot as you get your stuff up and running again. There is a wealth of knowledge even if some of these guys are grouchy and out of sorts (forgot their Geritol?)[:D] Good luck, regards, J.R.
After all is said and done, less is done than said
Gsetter!
Guy, I’m stumped! How did you do that? Those links? Great job in posting them, but how did you manage not having to write in “http://www…etc” ?
That’s really good! Can you please share your secret?
BTW: Great links!!
yep…i’m a short sighted elitist all right…I sighted in on a tyco locomotive once and it was a real short while before the locomotive either A: wheel slippage B: wheels fell off and C: wheels roll no more…motor burned up…please!..for decencies sake!..get rid of the tyco, go out and purchase at least a Blue Box Athearn locomotive…you’ll thank me for it later…[:D] Chuck
Thanks Antonio. I think it looks much neater than a long url.
It’s shown “how to” in the FAQ section under Creating a Hyperlink in your message.
If you use this tag: [url=“linkto”]description[/url**]** you can add a description to the link. (as a short cut, I copy and paste the url address from the Windows address bar)
Example:
blah blah blah [url=“http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic”]This post[/url**]**
Outputs This:
Go to This post
Before you oil, you have to clean them. Tycos are best cleaned with gasoline or kerosine, liberally apply the cleaner all over the motor and body, to remove cleaner simply apply lit match.
[:D]
Oh, well, I give up. Throw your locomotives away, mercme & go spend your time in a bar or something.
At least you got a few thoughtful responses to your question. Try posting where Ray suggested. Or find another forum where you can ask a reasonable question and get responses without the attitudes. There are a few smaller forums where you will get more civil replies.
I hope this experience doesn’t sour you on the hobby.
Wayne
Stick around mate. Sooner or later someone is going to post “Tuning Tyco Engines”, and then things will really go amok!
Seriously, you are obviously interested in model trains, and we would all like to see you prosper. Get one Athearn Blue Box loco so you will have one that will run and not get discouraged.
yeah mercme…wev’e been real bad…we’re sorry…it’s just that tyco is kind of a “dirty word” around here…seriously…tyco locomotives have run people away from this hobby because of their really bad quality, lack of pulling power, and they don’t last very long…we want you to stay with us, as suggested above,…try and start out with a relatively inexpensive blue box Athearn locomotive for a starter engine.they are fairly well detailed and they are very strong pullers for grades and all…there are also a lot of other good locomotives…even Bachmann and Lifelike that once was considered junk are some very nice locomotives these days, there’s also proto 1000 and 2000, BLI, Atlas and a whole lot more other locomotive manufacterers that left Tyco in the dust years ago…if you have a question we’ll be glad to try and answer it for you without all the sarcasim…just please…try to keep the “T” word to a dull roar…tyco has driven more people from this hobby than have stayed with it…all because it is a totally inferior locomotive that causes more frustration to the owner of it then enjoyment in this hobby…chuck