|
|
 Posted - September 10 2011 : 07:51:53 AM
|
Tyco Prototype U50C
/tyco/forum/uploaded/fritdude/20110910074723_U50CLeft.jpg
/tyco/forum/uploaded/fritdude/20110910074853_U50CRight.jpg
On September 14, Athearn will release their newly-tooled U-50B. In honor of this 8-axle beast, I wanted to share some details of the Tyco U50C, which was never released. Tony Cook has discussed this previously, and here is the link to his information:
http://tycotrain.tripod.com/tycoprototypes/id2.html
Recently I was able to add this to my collection, and here are some of the details of this monster. When it arrived, it was inspected and cleaned. The shell was a little dirty from storage, and the gears had some dry grease in them. Once the gearing was cleaned and lubed, it was tested, and (YAHOO!) the two PT motors that are wired in sequence ran beautifully. As you can see in the photos, these are the same trucks and assemblies from the Super 630.
There is no provision for lights; no wiring, no connection, and no brass clip nor mounting post (Which would make sense, since this was an Athearn shell to begin with) As for the shell itself, it is a combo of cutting and joining 2 Athearn U-boats together, and you can see a slight hint of the seam in the middle. There is no front pilot, nor are there couplers. The shell itself has been nicely done, but if you look at the side photo closely, you can see a little of the bow in the shell. Measuring this, the center has a droop of about 1/16" versus the end. Could be the length, or the weight. but there was no bracing inside the shell, so it may be just a little too much of a good thing.
There were two issues that needed attention. As you can see from Tony's original photos, the rear truck has had two mounting holes cut into the shell, to hold the Tyco yoke in place. The front, only had the front set of mounting holes, so that the rear of the front truck was loose. The reason for this is that where the rear tabs of the Tyco yoke were located, the shell was molded for the underside of the walkway/battery box. In other words, nowhere to go with the yoke tab. The rear tabs, though, are long enough to rest on this shelf, but that would make them out of level. The simple solution was to glue a piece of 0.100" stock under this rear yoke tab, then to the underside of the shell. Done, and level.
The other point of attention was the very massive center weight was detached, probably from a combination of the weight, and of the lack of a good mounting. No place for screws, and very little in the way of a contact point for adhesive. It had been glued in with an epoxy. I cleaned all of this up, and the contact surface on the weight. There are some raised, 0.060" points on the shell bottom where it had sat previously, so I inserted some shim stock in-between these points, and re-epoxied the weight in place. The idea was to give it more of a surface area to 'bite'.
I made a few laps with it at half-speed, and now it is time to give this monster a well-earned rest. Yet again, it is another one of Tyco's "what-ifs" that I enjoy the thought of.
/tyco/forum/uploaded/fritdude/20110910074950_U50CLeftFrontQtr.jpg
/tyco/forum/uploaded/fritdude/20110910075016_U50CLeftRearQtr.jpg
/tyco/forum/uploaded/fritdude/20110910075042_centerweight.jpg
/tyco/forum/uploaded/fritdude/20110910075104_U50CFrontTruck.jpg
|
Country:  USA ~
Posts: 46 ~
Member Since: December 11 2010 ~
Last Visit: October 16 2017
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 08:15:17 AM
|
Fritdude.
Nice addition to your collection. I missed the boat by not remembering to bid on the auctions. It is a piece of Tyco history for sure what you and spiderj have aquired, a "National Treasure" of sorts.
Good write up too.
Based on the single screw in the truck these motors are the early PT that followed the MU2s. Later trucks had the familiar 3 srcew set up. Yours would snap on then one screw was needed to hold in the middle alxe in place when under power.
Sweet loco.
Alco Fan
Edited by - Alco Fan on September 10 2011 11:01:14 AM
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 2496 ~
Member Since: August 03 2006 ~
Last Visit: December 06 2021
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 08:32:25 AM
|
neat loco Would like to see if this is shorter or same length as the Centennials by Bachmann 
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 14689 ~
Member Since: February 23 2009 ~
Last Visit: April 24 2024
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 08:57:56 AM
|
| Thanks, guys. Yes, it is the earlier PT, with the single screw in the truck bottom. As for length, the shell length, from tip of the nose to the rear pilot, is 10 3/4" on the U50C. The Athearn Centennial, for the same measurement, is 11 7/8". I would assume that the Bachmann is about the same as the Athearn. Weight-wise, and I don't have a scale, but the Athearn feels a little heavier, but not by much. That center weight in the Tyco is HEAVY.
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 46 ~
Member Since: December 11 2010 ~
Last Visit: October 16 2017
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 10:00:14 AM
|
Looks Nice!
Howd you Get it?
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1102 ~
Member Since: July 28 2011 ~
Last Visit: July 01 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 11:02:38 AM
|
Glad to hear it runs so well. Maybe you, and spiderj also, would honor us with a youtube video of it, them, in operation?
Thanks ahead of time:)
Alco Fan
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 2496 ~
Member Since: August 03 2006 ~
Last Visit: December 06 2021
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 12:02:25 PM
|
not to detract from the excellent write up and photos you might like to see the athearn one glad i did,ken
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg68qYwUlV4
|
Country:  United Kingdom ~
Posts: 8294 ~
Member Since: September 28 2006 ~
Last Visit: October 20 2021
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 12:13:25 PM
|
| Nice piece of history and great photos. I love seeing these prototypes. Thomas
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 1083 ~
Member Since: July 07 2011 ~
Last Visit: April 17 2024
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 12:15:42 PM
|
That's a face only a collector could love...woof, woof...
|
|
|
|
|
Posted - September 10 2011 : 3:31:11 PM
|
One! One wampire U50, ah-ah-ah-ahhh...
The Tyco Depot
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 3927 ~
Member Since: June 20 2007 ~
Last Visit: November 19 2015
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
|
|
Posted - February 24 2013 : 6:03:22 PM
|
| it looks like its missing something, OH YEAH, that plow thing that these had, and its missing some wheels, then again, its a what if. Where did u get this by the way, and is it the only one?
|
|
Country: USA ~
Posts: 91 ~
Member Since: February 16 2013 ~
Last Visit: September 09 2013
|
Alert Moderator
|
|
Home
Forums
Events Calendar
Forum Admins & Mods
Register
