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 Posted - May 20 2012 : 4:00:11 PM
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Here's an odd little Tyco accessory: a little lighted house adjacent to a grade crossing, with a picket fence around it, apparently a crossing-tender's shanty. When a train goes by, the door opens, and a signalman appears. I presume the accessory originally had crossbuck Railroad Crossing signs.
But wouldn't it be too late at that point? Maybe this is not an A-Team crossing tender.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - May 20 2012 : 4:27:57 PM
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hi bruceclouette,heres the link to tyco item ken
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/tycoactionaccessories/id97.html
Edited by - catfordken on May 20 2012 4:30:05 PM
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Posted - May 20 2012 : 4:38:15 PM
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That's it alright. Thanks for the link. My signalman looks a little different - probably replaced. Other differences probably due to artistic license for the cover illustration - door opens the other way, etc.
This was in the bottom of a bunch of buildings, but no crossbucks seem to have survived.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - May 20 2012 : 5:08:06 PM
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Nice CE&I BL-2 engine you got in the picture. One of my favorites. I have a few of these crossings myself. Those signal gates don't survive as well, easily lost or damaged.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - May 20 2012 : 6:29:59 PM
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I got one of these used in the box but never used Did test it & it works fine Tho I do hate the buzz it makes 
What you are missing is the crossing signs
Too late? yeah Lionel's had the same thing The guy pops out & train is instantly there
I would like to do Lionel's version full scale someday hehe
Edited by - microbusss on May 20 2012 6:32:22 PM
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Posted - May 20 2012 : 8:46:03 PM
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I think Life Like also either did the same thing, or somehow copied it. I wonder if your example is really a Tyco?
This is yet another example of how I've always though Tyco got product ideas from opening a Lionel catalog.
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Posted - May 20 2012 : 9:09:16 PM
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Definitely Tyco. Marked in big letters on the back, also "Made by Tyco in Hong Kong" in smaller letters.
My theory is that the signal man does some serious drinking sitting all alone in that shack. By the time he comes to and hears the train, he just makes it out the door as the train goes by. Too late to actually signal the crossing, so he just goes back to what he was doing.
Bruce Clouette
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Posted - March 18 2014 : 11:27:05 PM
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| Why did tyco have everything made from hong kong?
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Posted - April 05 2014 : 9:19:19 PM
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quote:Why did tyco have everything made from hong kong?
Originally posted by speedfreek101Â -Â March 18 2014Â :Â 11:27:05 PM
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Not EVERYTHING was from Hong Kong. They used to use American-made Atlas track, then they got their track from an Austrian company. Many of their buildings and building kits were made in Germany (mainly by Pola.)
The simplest answer is because it was cheaper to have stuff made overseas. I think Tyco, Bachmann and Life-Like all used to use the same Hong Kong-based factory. That may explain why Life-Like's switchman is very similar to the Tyco switchman. (It'd also explain why Bachmann, Life-Like and Pemco's crossing gates are very similar to Tyco's version.)
Of course by the late 1980s/early 1990s, they began using more Mehano-made products from Yugoslavia in their train sets. I noticed even their power packs in the early 1990s were made in Yugoslavia instead of Hong Kong!
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Posted - April 05 2014 : 9:32:07 PM
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Ya-kno, I never realized what nice watercolor paintings were used for the packaging art on the boxes of many Tyco accessories. Does anybody know about the whereabouts of the original artwork or who the artist was that produced them?
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Posted - April 05 2014 : 10:05:01 PM
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if anyone has this & is missing the roof I has a extra one for some reason
I still want the model to do a full 1:1 version of Lionel's signalman
BUT I'll be the signalman
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Posted - May 29 2014 : 09:11:44 AM
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quote: [quote]Why did tyco have everything made from hong kong?
I think Tyco, Bachmann and Life-Like all used to use the same Hong Kong-based factory. That may explain why Life-Like's switchman is very similar to the Tyco switchman. (It'd also explain why Bachmann, Life-Like and Pemco's crossing gates are very similar to Tyco's version.)
Originally posted by wiley209Â -Â April 05 2014Â :Â 9:19:19 PM
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w:
Infodump ahoy...
Bachmann and Life-Like were manufactured separately. Bachmann's products were manufactured by Kader Industries, a large toy company best known for surpassing Triangle Shirtwaist with their Thailand factory fire in 1993. They have actually owned Bachmann since 1984, and have since then systematically gobbled up most of the lower-end model railroad market worldwide. In the past, they had also acted as OEM for Lionel HO and AHM. They currently hold the patent on split-axle-gear technology.
Life-Like products were made by Sanda Kan, who also supplied Lionel, Hornby, Model Power, and others. They may have supplied late Varney plastic as well, as Life-Like was really a continuation of the Varney line. They also seem to have supplied some products to IHC, which would explain common weirdness like the Old Time Fatboy and the Pennsylvania Dutch 2-6-0. They supplied and later owned K-Line. Their designs were sometimes similar to Kader, but seemed simpler, maybe even cruder, but more rugged.
Sanda Kan, however, was owned by a company associated with JP Morgan, who dropped them during the stock market fiasco of 2009, to be picked up for only 6 million (or so I've heard) by Kader Industries, who therefore became the vast majority supplier to the World's Greatest Hobby (TM). Sigh.
I don't know who made HK Tyco. This is something I would really like to know. Does the fact that their tooling cropped up under IHC indicate that Sanda Kan was their supplier? Maybe. Kader's business model, by that time, seemed to be consolidation of all their acquisitions under their own line, but in the past, they did produce products for others, including AHM...and IHC is a continuation of AHM...
Edited by - Autobus Prime on May 29 2014 09:14:17 AM
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