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 Posted - May 29 2012 : 10:27:13 PM
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Friend picked up some trains over the weekend and I grabbed this engine for parts, but... is it an oddball?
The die of it originated as the AT&T FT with the too-short nose, it was redone as an F9 but still looks wierd. This version has the same drive as the AHM GP18, which was also retooled into the Mehano-made RS2, RS11, FM C-liner and even either the Tyco or Pemco C430.
What's odd about it is it's in Rock Island red and yellow and there was a matching Tyco-style streamlined caboose - which has me wondering if it's from a really late (like early 1990s) Tyco set, when that stuff began to get substituted for actual Tyco items. I'll have to go up and look at the stuff again to see how they're marked (seems like Pemco also cloned that caboose).
I'm not sure who else sold that loco; Model Power had the Cox F3 dies, and most Bachmann stuff had a pancake motor by then - this one, the trucks will snap right into either an AHM or Bachmann GP18, in fact that's what I got it to do - power up a dummy GP18 I have in decent shape. Seems like I had a version of this shell as a kid sold as Model Power on a wierd drive that had a small, cheap can motor mounted on the rear truck assembly -
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Posted - May 29 2012 : 10:59:07 PM
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| got pix?
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Posted - May 29 2012 : 11:01:24 PM
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If it has 8 wheel drive, then it's probably a Model Power issue. Those F9's weren't pretty, but they are a huge improvement over that FT.
Mehano's new motor and drive first showed up in the AHM GP18 around 1975 with great fanfare about all 8 wheels being powered. Then they put the same motor in the Alco switcher and SW1 and only powered one truck. 
The Tyco Depot
Edited by - NickelPlate759 on May 29 2012 11:01:43 PM
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Posted - May 30 2012 : 11:26:23 PM
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| While not in the original box, it was clearly the remains of a set. I'll have to check out the caboose. I know some really late Tyco sets got a Mehano C628 instead of the Super 630 in them - the only two companies big on this Rock Island scheme seem to have been Tyco and Bachmann. And that I know of Model Power never sold the streamline caboose, either - I have tons of late Model Power cabooses and they're based on the Cox dies before they went to the Marx dies.
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Posted - May 30 2012 : 11:28:43 PM
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| In fact, what I suspect is this set or an equivalent may have gotten the Mehano F9 in place of the Shark: http://www.tycoforums.com/tyco/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11659
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Posted - May 31 2012 : 10:28:33 AM
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That Mehano F-unit is an official substitute item in several late Tyco Rock Island train sets. These usually pictured the shark on the box, but instead included the F-unit. What's strange is that Tyco had their own F-unit.... but this shows they were well and truly out of the train business by then. I'd date these sets to around 1991 or 1992, when much of the tooling (what IHC and Mantua didn't get) was transferred to Mehano. If the freight cars have roller-bearing trucks, these are Mehano-produced versions of Tyco tooling. The caboose that came in the set with that F-unit should be equipped as such.
Other subbed "Tyco" locomotives include the Mehano 628, Mehano 430 (with its stylized fuel tank), Mehano Davenport (in GI Joe sets), and Mehano 2-8-0 (in the last Chattanooga sets).
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Posted - May 31 2012 : 7:53:06 PM
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Usually these seem to be missing the front pilot or cowcatcher on the front of the loco when you see the on the Internet. I had one and it was intact but I left it slip through my fingers cause I didn't think it was a Tyco. :(
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Posted - June 01 2012 : 7:24:05 PM
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| I'll get the caboose and rebuild it as a dummy then just for the conversation piece.
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Posted - June 01 2012 : 8:31:11 PM
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hmm come to think of it I may have that loco in my boxes someplace 
I'll get a pic this weekend
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