Modifying Tyco and other cheapies for regular running...

[shaygetz]

Just a short pictorial on how I modify Tyco and other cheapies to run with the big dogs:thumb: I first mount Kadee #5s and have found that they usually mount directly to the floor with no shimming---emphasis on usually ---. Then I snap out the old Talgo style trucks and file the bolster bushing flat. From my scrap box I pull out sprues collected from past kits 'til I find one that's a good snug fit. I glue it in with a good liguid styrene cement then set it aside to dry.

 

[shaygetz]

While the car dries, I modify a pair of Kadee Talgo conversion bushings by clipping the ears and filing them flat. Going back to the car I clip the sprue and file it flat to the bolster, then drill a 1/16" hole centered on the sprue for a short #2 screw. I then eyeball the modified Talgo bushing over the hole in the sprue filler and glue it in place with more styrene cement.

 

[shaygetz]

The Talgo bushing acts as a bolster pin that centers many popular trucks including Athearn and Central Valley, the ones in use here. They also accept Kadee shims easily. Now one more car pulls with the big dogs...:thumb:

 

[Gil Finn]

Great thread. I do much the same. It pays to get a lot of them on ebay or a show and paint and add couplers.

 

[ocalicreek]

Excellent tip using the kadee 'talgo' part as a bolster pin! I've modified other 'cheapies' to run with the big dogs, as you put it so well, but never with that particular modification. I'll have to give that a try!

Galen

Check out my progress!
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=24591

 

[toptrain1]

TYCO GG1 Athern drive

I placed a Athern U30C drive into a GG1 shell. And it fits well.

 

[toptrain1]

Tyco GG1 bottom view

Here is a look from underneath. even the coupler mountings line up. I guess Pennsy would call this a BB1

 

[Triplex]

The PRR did have BB1s (and BB2s, and BB3s) which were pairs of B1 electric switchers set up to run together and treated as single locomotives.

 

[shaygetz]

I placed a Athern U30C drive into a GG1 shell. And it fits well.

Wow, being a GG1 and a Tyco fan, I've always wanted to get one of theirs. Now I can pick up the shells I seem to find more often and fit it onto that decrepit Athearn U30C mec I have in the future projects box...thanks.:thumb: