I too had Tyco’s in my youth - the Lionel I started out with in 1970s was too expensive for a teenager’s budget 10 years later, so I bought HO. Had two of the GP20s. They didn’t run all that well at first - off or lightspeed - but the problem was the powerpacks, not the locos. A good powerpack made them run well - no smoking engines or cab-melting headlamps.
You did have to keep the carpet fibres out of them.
It is curious that so many people responding have criticised the track - I still have a fair bit of late 70s Tyco brass track and I use it regularly, setting up a loop of track to entertain my four-year-old. Occasionally a spot of black crud appears (easily wiped off) but overall it is of better quality than the Atlas brass track of the same era that I also have a loop of. Perhaps the fact that the Tyco track is all marked ‘made in Austria’ makes a difference? I no longer have the Tyco GP20s, but the ‘four wheel pick-up, four wheel drive’ 1970s Model Power F9 works just fine on the Tyco brass track, as do more modern locomotives. Oh, and that Model Power F9 pulls a number of unmodified Tyco freight cars without derailments. Now I know why I kept them - the four year old enjoys ‘running trains’ and my more expensive models are kept out of his little fingers (he managed to mangle the door on an Athearn blue box once when my back was turned…)
I have a Tyco branded 2-8-2 thats die cast and while detail is simple it runs like a top and pulls like crazy. Tyco went through many hands (owners) and many cheapened the line and made big box store junk. The also started painting the loco’s and rolling stock in wild unrealistic schemes. That turned off many ‘model railroaders’. The deal is that did not have to make it so cheap…the owners at the time, many big non-hobby corps, just wanted the highest price for the cheapest stuff. We are lucky today as there is not much junk out there…even a $29 Bachamnn set I bought to put under the tree one Christmas (we were in process of moving and everything was packed) was a great little set with knuckle couplers and a nice running F-7 thats still in use on my current layout.
well i read the first few responses or so and most say the quality was bad. while that is true… I look back on my childhood trains (most of which I still have) with fond memories. It’s that now I understand why my tyco gp 20 (the late durango version) or gp 38 (sante fe) usually stalled through a switch.
keep in mind i didn’t know there was anything else beyond tyco LL bachmann until i stopped into a LHS and discovered Athearn. I asked if they were good runners and the owner replied they were the best. I bought my first Athearn loco (gp 40 BN) right then and when I got it home I was in awe!
so I can’t say I hate the old tyco stuff I’m just dissappointed I can’t run it with the quaility stuff.
EDIT: hey steamage!
I just took a look at your site about converting tyco cars… NICE JOB. I’ve been working on about 10 of those hoppers to make em stone cars for our club’s railroad… but I have 3 of those same flat cars you show!
I have a Tyco Amtrak set of 3 coaches and F7 from a disowned friend. The cars still work, they have a paper people windows with a backlight. But I recall the engine making an attempt at 2 inches before giving up, partially because the only thing attaching the truck to the body were wires to the headlight. for not having a chassis, it wasn’t bad. And the shell may live on.
Ironically, I had to take them out of the boxes beacuse the boxes were deteriorating around them.
I sort of super detailed one of those 0-4-0s. I epoxied brass detail castings to it and added the appropriate plumbing, Kadee couplers, and painted it. It looked pretty good. With a transistor throttle, it ran pretty well, too. I really think the power packs were as much to blame as the locos for the performance issues.
Time to lighten up and let this deceased company rest in peace.
Ummm…Tyco’s not deceased. They just quit making train stuff. Do a Google and see all the toy, medical and industrial stuff they still make. And their old CEO is still sitting in Federal prison…[:D]
Those operating hoppers were nice because they were made in the pre-Consolidated Foods era. They were very free-rolling for the time, and had RP25 flanges. The underframes and hopper doors were diecast. I built up a Renwal coaling station years ago that was designed to operate with these cars. The function was always a little bit dicey, but then operating accessories like that are better left to O scale.
There seems to be quite a demand for the old Ulrich diecast operating hoppers as well.
I don’t hate Tyco. In fact, I actually have fun taking poor quality stuff and making it work better. I may even look for the dreaded Power-Torque 2-8-0 at an upcoming train show and see what I can do with it.[:-,]
This is kind of a funny thought, but I always disliked even the earliest Tyco diesels because they didn’t have a frame. They were just trucks and a weight snapped into a shell, with those ugly locking tabs protruding through the sides. The F7’s in particular just didn’t have much substance, so I always felt like I was running a locomotive skeleton. It seems even funnier when you realize that you could hammer nails with their steamers.
I think your comment , “you could hammer nails with their steamers” really does hit the nail on thehead. I don’t hate TYCO, just ignoring their products and always have.