Mantua Loco

Model Power has picked up at least some of the old Mantua line (Mantua is out of the train business now) and they should be out soon. I do know they planned to "upgrade" the mechanisms AND lower the prices. Could be good.

-John

I thought about that as well, but this was listed under Mantua Metal Products, mentioned the flywheel and made no mention of it being a logger model. It also listed five or six roads thea weren't logging roads at all. It really did sound like a totally different locomotive. But there's no way to know since there were no pictures on their website.

dlm

Dan posts -

Mantua's 2-6-6-2 was originally offered with and without a tender. Without, it was listed as a logger. With a tender (especially if the cab was swapped with one for their regular road engines) the model does to some degree resemble the so-called "pocket mallets" run on some western roads. I suspect this is not a new item in any way but just the version with a tender painted for some new RRs.

CNJ999

What was the relationship between Mantua Metal Products and Tyco? My first HO train set had a controller (transformer) made by Mantua while the rolling stock was Tyco.

Mantua Metal Products was the original firm. Basically the 'Mantua' line was 'kits', and the 'Tyco' line was the RTR version. 'Tyco' was an acromin for 'Tyler Company' - The Tyler family owned Mantua Metal Products. At some point the entive Mantua/Tyco line was sold off, but the Mantua line was bought back and produced RTR and kits of the steamers - this is what went out of business in the past year and was picked up by Model Power.

Jim Bernier

D&Hfan wrote:

=>What was the relationship between Mantua Metal Products and Tyco? My =>first HO train set had a controller (transformer) made by Mantua while =>the rolling stock was Tyco.

Mantua was IIRC the model rr section of Tyco. A fellow named Tyler started it, and TYco uses the first syllable of his name. Tyco made die cast parts for industrial custoimers - Mantua appears tpo have been an offshoot that eventually became the major business. There was some rebranding and.or restructuring, and for a while the Mantua name disappeared. Tyco expanded into other areas of hobbies and toys, and was eventually sold off by Tyler's heirs. These later bought back the comapny, and under their owenrship, the trains were neglected, so that sales dropped, and they closed that segment down.

I'm sure someone will correct my errors, and give us the True Facts now. :-)

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

Is the current Tyco Industries the same Tyco from model trains?

I don't think there is a current Tyco Industries.

The "Tyco Industries Inc." of model trains was shortened form of Tyler company, the person who founded the model train and toy maker. After a series of transactions they became a part of Mattel in the 1990s, but they had quit model/toy train production by that time.

If you're thinking of Tyco International Ltd. of the financial scandal, that is an unrelated company.