Don:
Tyco used to be no more than a name for Mantua's RTR line, I think. After it got sold to Consolidated Foods it gained its reputation of making stuff with the unique combination of badness, weirdness, and wide distribution to become a pop-culture collectible.
The worst mechanical feature of the line was the Power-Torque Drive. This one-truck sidewinder drive was quiet, smooth, cheap to make, easily adaptable to any length of locomotive, and easy to reach for service. It was also cranky, tiny-motored, hungry for carpet fluff, loose spikes, dirt, dust, cat hair, and any loose debris, underpowered, slippery without its gummy, out-of-round, dirt-collecting, wobbly traction tires, unwilling to swivel easily with the track, ugly when installed, and impossible to upgrade. DCC'ing it would be a near-impossibility, and please don't try to prove me wrong; I'd cry. Need 6-wheel trucks? Got 'em! Well, the drive was a bit short, but don't worry. Tyco gave us shortened, bizarre sideframes. Need 4-wheel trucks? Got 'em! Well, the truck was stretched a bit so it would work as a 6-wheeler, so Tyco gave us lengthened, slightly less bizarre sideframes. Oh, and the center axle with its gear is mechanically necessary so it's left in...as a flangeless dummy. Need a steam engine drive? Ohhh boy. Same old power truck, fixed in the center of a chunky tender, with 1-axled AAR-style trucks pivoted beside it, their unwheeled ends nestled over the sideframeless diesel truck, as camouflage. This pushed a dummy
0-8-0 or 2-8-0 steam engine with a mechanical smoke unit worthy of American Flyer -- the good old 'CHATTANOOGA' engine.
All that said, those drives do run quietly and smoothly when in working order; they just don't run very long, especially on the carpet. Their speed range is also somewhat better than the old Botchmann / Lifelike sidewinder trainset-line power trucks, so if you can find one for a couple bucks, what the heck. Run the wheels off it. If you want to stock a whole rail line with them, so be it. It takes all kinds to make the Usenet, mostly the wrong kinds, too...
Now, the old MU-2 power truck is also found in Tyco diesels, of older vintage, and is quite a bit more serviceable than the Power-Torque drive. It is also down by the trucks and out in the open, where it should not be, so it eats a healthy diet of loose spikes, dirt, dust, paper scraps, and dead spiders. Clean 'em out, and usually the thing keeps running. It's a bit fast (but Bud of
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succeeded in fixing this; read how) but makes up for this by sounding like a different 1950s-era small appliance at each speed range. Open the throttle and it will go from Singer sewing machine through Mixmaster, Kitchenaid mixer, Waring blender, and Norelco razor to a screaming Skil circular saw with worn and sparking brushes. An amusing contraption indeed. Everybody should have a few.
Cordially yours: Gerard P.