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 Posted - October 14 2006 : 12:45:58 PM
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I think there is somethin wrong with me, cuz I just blew $53 on Tyco stuff at railfair!!! It was insane!!! I got a Transformer switcher engine and matching boxcar, a CN GP20, an A-Team shark nose, and a rock island and silver steak caboose!! All the stickers and pieces on the transformer engine and car seem to be there except for the handrail on the engine. Everything works. Does anyone know who makes couplers that will fit on these engines and cars, because a couple of them are missing.
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Posted - October 14 2006 : 1:12:05 PM
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Cheez:
Good score at Trainfair! The GP-20 in CN is a particularly good purchase. They are excellent runners, offered in the transitional red box era (late 1960s), and rather scarce.
Did you get replacement bulbs at the show for yer Tyco Amtraks?
MagnoliaAcademy
enjoy yer goodies
ps: Tyco and Bachmann NMRA couplers interchange. Or, as recommended in other forum topics, just upgrade to KDs.
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jlong
Big Six
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Posted - October 14 2006 : 1:23:17 PM
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A Team Sharknose. You did well, dude. You did well.
John Long
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Posted - October 14 2006 : 2:05:48 PM
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No I haven't found a lightbulb yet for my passenger car. I didn't find any Tyco passenger cars either, but I haven't checked The source (used to be radioshack) or any hobby shops yet.
I found some old couplers lyin around behind my layout that fit fine, so I guess I'll go with those.
I'm not positive what kind of motor my GP-20 has in it, but I can see some gears like on my alco's power-torque. But this thing seems to run differently than my alco so I'm not sure.
I saw a brand new model of an Ottawa Central engine running on a layout and it was an Alco. I think the guy told me it was an Alco C424 or somethin like that. Not sure who makes it but I'm wonderin if a Tyco shell could be put on one of those.
-cheez
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Posted - October 14 2006 : 3:20:27 PM
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Cheez:
RoCo (Austria) sold some nice C-424s marketed thru AHM for several years. I use a couple MILW and CNW examples; they're pretty decent engines. Tyco 430s with the MU-2 power truck (pre-Power Torque) are also very reliable. Read the repowering Alco forum for other ideas.
Your newly acquired GP-20 has the excellent old-style mu-2 power trucks.
MA
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Posted - October 17 2006 : 01:55:59 AM
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Life-Like couplers swap over as well. I've also been known to swap Life-Like's nicely-rendered roller-bearing trucks underneath a few Tycos. I can't remember if you have to enlage the bolster hole though (I have been distanced from the lair for the the next several days).
Congrats on the Transformers bits! Be sure to keep an eye out for the caboose as it's a fascinating piece and the true keeper of the set, although the boxcar makes a believable and interesting "one-off" potential prototype - trucks notwithstanding. The engine? Take off hood topper and there's nothing special about it.
Those couplers, though - you have your work cut out. Those oversize psuedo-knuclkes are rare birds, and to make matters worse they are different on the engine vs. rolling stock. I can't for the life of me figure out what the heck Tyco was trying to accomplish with those; at first I thought they were onto an amazing Kadee/X2F "universal" coiupler, but they DON'T work well with horn hooks (they do mate with KaDees). Perhaps they were intended to be more durable than standard hornhooks but there too, they failed... and they are so oversized as to be comical.
Nice haul altogether - the A-Team shark is one I'd like to dredge up someday.
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Posted - October 17 2006 : 12:28:38 PM
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Circlz n' Cheez:
You guys want a hoot, vis-a-vis the transformer train's weird "over-size psuedo knuckles" as Circlz referred to their couplers?
They have a forbearer, as any fan of the original 1955 John English "HObbyline" trains knows. The two couplers, made decades-apart are dimensionally the same, almost dead-ringers, they mate together perfectly. I never owned a Tyco transformer set when they appeared but noticed the uncanny similarity to the Hobbyline patent coupler while looking at a loose "Transformer" caboose in a pile of debris at a train show. I've bought several cabbaged transformer cars since then solely to obtain the hard-to-locate Hobbyline originals. The Hobbyline couplers were replaced by standard NMRA couplers after one year, so they're pretty thin on the ground.
I know, I know... just file it under "useless trivia from old farts."
MagAc
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Posted - October 17 2006 : 2:00:49 PM
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MagAc - Wow. I never cease to be amazed at the self-effaced "useless trivia" you've amassed over the years. You shoudl write a book - it would keep "useless trivia-nauts" like myself entertained for hours!
Not surpisingly, I never heard of John English HObbyline before. Were they by chance based in Europe? Just wondering if the lineage of the HObbyline - TycoTransformer couplers would also partly explain the Transformer cars' odd Euro-style trucks (although I already have my own theory about those).
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Posted - October 17 2006 : 5:36:28 PM
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Circlez:
John A. English, Morrisville, PA, USA, is thought by a cadre of old farts, vintage train collectors and all-around triv-idiots to be the father of the ready-to-run train set. Their "HObbyline," getting off the ground in '53 and really hitting stride by 1955, was quite complete and rather popular initially. They hit a few marketing home runs including, as they like to crow in their ads, being "the first HO electric train set to be awarded the PARENTS Magazine famous Seal of Commendation."
The initial English offerings were the classic die-cast 5000 series Pacific, a Mikado, the ubiquitious "Yard Bird" 0-4-0 and tender, an excellent die-cast Alco FA and B diesel and diecast heavyweight passenger cars.
For "HObbyline" the Alcos, Yardbird and the shorty heavyweight shells were molded in plastic. A 0-4-0 tank steamer with plastic shell and a very popular FM diesel switcher rounded out the engine line. Streamliners were added as well as a complete freight car line.
There were a number of freight and passenger sets. 1955 passenger offerings were in PRR, B&O, Western Pacific, Erie, even obscure lines like Wabash. Everything was equipped with that weird English patent coupler, replaced for 1956 by standard NMRA couplers (perhaps because of complaints by owners of HObbyline incompatibility with other makes.)
Hobbyline began feeling the crunch from stiff competition pretty early from fellow Pennsylvanians Penn Line and the likes of Aristocraft, Herkimer, Custombilt, Athearn, and the Tyler clan from Jersey with their ready to run "Little Trains."
When companies like Louis Marx, Distler, Fleischmann and their comrades entered the fray it was just too much for HObbyline. They briefly launched a line of injection-molded car and locomotive kits, the Berkshire steam locomotive kit being, perhaps, the best known. RMC (as I recall), ran a series on motoring the static Berkshire model and the tender served as the basis for many a build-up behind Varney's excellent Berkshire kits (sold sans tender).
After they closed their doors their tooling became the basis for Lionel's FA diesels and the Lionel plastic 0625 Pacific and its companions is just a cheapened-up 5000 series English Pacific. Other Lionel offerings as well were derived from old English tooling and everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY) used their streamliner tooling: Penn-Line, Varney, Life-Like and others ever since.
Late Mantua tooling, in fact, (some of the foreign-made "heavyweight" offerings) are obviously derived from old Hobbyline patterns.
There is some possible connection between the Tyco Transformer couplers and the old HObbyline patent couplers but I'm not at all aware of what it might be. The Mantua/Hobbyline tooling connection dates from the late-eighties, long past the exit of Tyco Transformer trains I'd guess.
there you have it: more than you ever wanted to know about yet another late-lamented and all-but-forgotten dead American train co.
MagAc
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Posted - October 17 2006 : 8:52:18 PM
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Well...ya...uhhh...very interesting. How many steam engines are there that have the word "yard" in their name, cuz I have a 0-8-0 yard bull.
How much would you say a "Canada Dry" ginger ale car is worth? I saw a couple of those for $6.95 cdn. each. There were rows of old Tyco billboard cars and cabooses at the show. But I still could not find even one Canadiana box car or shark nose.
I'm definitely gonna watch out for more Transformer pieces. I wouldn't mind gettin any duplicates, cuz that way I'd be able to make a train usin the Transformer engine with more than one car. I don't know what Tyco was thinkin puttin those couplers on. I never actually watched the show transformers, but from what I could see and from other ppls opinions, it was a crappy show. I guess Tyco wanted to make its train like the show...crappy. Oh well...atleast it runs.[:D]
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