Tyco Trains

The Official Goingincirclez Tyco "Power Torque" Drive Rebuild, Upgrade, and Identification Guide

by Tony Lucio

Is your Tyco train barely able to get out of its own way? Does it squeal like a pig, stutter like a drunkard, or just sit there and buzz like a child sticking out her tongue? Does it run for a minute or two and then stop like an office worker coming off a caffeine high? Or are you already certain there's something wrong because you can see cracks, missing parts, or a small poodle sucked up into the motor?

It's been a few years since I wrote the original installment for the GIC Guide to Tyco Trains, but I finally managed to dig out the camera, snap some updated pics and update the text for the Piggyback and Trucks guide.

Text has been revised and added to cover:

At long last: a gallery of nearly the entire Tyco Trains Brownbox (1971-1993) production run*! My goal here is to create and share a comprehensive photographic resource of value to both the new and seasoned enthusiast alike. There's no published book on Tyco Trains, so in the meantime this will have to do.

Global Covered Wagons: Tyco’s F-Units

Among the smallest groups of cars offered by Tyco are the 62- and 40-foot High-Cube boxcars. Oddly, they also represent the balance of “real railroad paint scheme” boxcar production. As such, both groups, plus a related accessory car, will be covered in the same post here with 62' cars first up.

#356 62-foot High-Cube Boxcars

[Author's Note: This was originally posted at the Tyco Collectors' Forum in autumn 2006, long before I developed the "GIC Guide" format. As the information is pertinent, I opted to turn it into its own guide, but haven't yet revised it into its own format. The text below is from the original Forum post]

A Tale of 630's

Tyco 62’ Triple Dome Tank Cars

In 1972, Tyco introduced what must be considered among their most (in)famous freight car offerings: the 62-Foot Triple-Dome Tank Car. The prefix in - as most anyone who ever tried to operate these may tell you – is surely warranted!

BOXCAR BONANZA!
from their earliest days in the blue-box era, Tyco kept a 40-foot sliding door boxcar in its line – tooling that survived with few modifications right up to the “new Mantua” split in 1978, and beyond.

TYCO Trains 358-Series Center-Flow Hoppers

The Tyco Trailer Jet

It’s no secret that I love piggybacks. As a kid I discovered early on that while HO scale automobiles were hard to come by - and expensive - the trucks sold alongside HotWheels in the toy aisles almost anywhere were almost perfect… and cheap…

…I had lots of HO scale trucks!