# Old Tyco and Mantua Collectibility



## Eddystone (Sep 2, 2014)

Just bought a lot of 5 old locos of which four are branded Tyco and on Mantua. The Tycos sem to have been factory builds, and the Mantua shows evidence of having been built from a kit.

I am curious about how members feel about modifying these 60's and 70's locos when they are in stock form and pretty nice. In particular, the 4-6-2 UP Pacific is in very nice original condition. After servicing it runs quite nicely and reliably. It is a little bit noisy compare to the Mikado, and I am beginning to think that this happens mostly due to work gear wear. I cleaned up the boiler and tender shells with a weak detergent solution and they are very clean. Boiler is heavy metal and has only a couple of minor scratches.

I don't have any plans to mess with this Pacific, but I wondered what the general opinion is about how important it is to preserve these in original condition. As we say in the old car hobby, you can restore a vehicle many times,but it is only factory original once.

The Mikado is labeled Mantua and seems to be from a kit, so is not so much a factory original. The paint job is okay but not excellent. The motor had a chip of the worm gear missing, and I swapped in a motor from a later 0-6-0 that someone had done some cosmetic customization of. With the exchanged motor, the Mikado runs very nicely and is almost as quiet as some locos manufactured thirty years later than this one. I was planning to do some customizing on this loco including adding a feedwater heater, a Vandy tender and various other details. 

So, are old Tyco and Mantua locos a part of our model railroading heritage which must be preserved when in good original condition, or are they primarily old junkers that just can't match new locos in performance and appearance?


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Eddystone said:


> So, are old Tyco and Mantua locos a part of our model railroading heritage which must be preserved when in good original condition, or are they primarily old junkers that just can't match new locos in performance and appearance?


Speaking for myself, and myself alone, I would lean to the "old junkers" side of it......once you have a "new" generation engine, especially with all the bells and whistles, the old ones will be very noticeable in comparison, and you'll want to have all new ones.....IMHO anyway......


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## Eddystone (Sep 2, 2014)

My stuff is mostly about twenty years old and non-DCC, so it's not such a big contrast for me!


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## THE TYCO MAN (Aug 23, 2011)

Repainting it and adding details won't harm the value as the 4-6-2 is common.They run good once oiled and perform good for the time and age. I have 2 and they're great and reliable.


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## Nolackofwanna (Mar 10, 2011)

Hi
I believe the Tyco/Mantua stuff is worth saving...how many of us got hooked on the model railway hobby with Tyco as our first "sets" which eventually turned into layouts. I have all my old Tyco stuff dating back almost fifty years most still with the original boxes as I stored them in the boxes. My F9 and Alco C420 still run great and the F9 outpulls a lot of the new stuff!! Got it as a set from my Parents Christmas 1966...


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

There is very little truly valuable TYCO out there, have fun with them...I've modified them with Athearn mechanisms...










...and I've left them bone stock...










...in the end, I set out to enjoy them.


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## kcjones (Sep 12, 2014)

I just went to a train show in york, pa, and saw lots of tyco stuff, including the set I started with in the 70s. It was all dirt cheap. The vintage ho i see with some value is older brass, quality kits like bowser, etc. The nostalgia is great, and seeing a 'Chattanooga choo choo' surely brought back memories... but it was 5 bucks new in box, and I wasnt tempted a bit...


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

I guess most know about the Mantu & Tyco name?
Some of the real early Mantua's fetch a good buck if you can find them.


A copy and paste for those interested.

The Mantua Story

The Mantua name was associated with the model railroad hobby market since the early 1930s. Mantua was a pioneer in the field of HO-scale model trains. Early offerings included component pieces such as the Midjet Motor sold in the '30s to steam locomotive, freight car, and passenger car kits that included a full line of offerings by the 1950s.

The growth in ready-to-run HO-scale train sets was the reason behind the creation of the TYCO nameplate in 1957. TYCO's name derives from TYler Manufacturing CO...or TYCO. Mantua continued to exist throughout the '50s and into the 1960s manufacturing kits, while the TYCO line sold already built and ready to operate model trains largely in set form. 

The Mantua and TYCO empire was a family owned business from its inception. John Tyler was the person who helped guide the early Mantua into the model train business in the '30s. John Tyler's son, Norman Tyler, was named president of TYCO Industries, Inc. the combined Mantua and TYCO companies, in 1967.

The 1970s brings the sale of the company to Consolidated Foods. Production focuses upon the TYCO line and moves from the Woodbury Heights, New Jersey home of Mantua to Hong Kong. Norman Tyler served as an executive for TYCO, under the Consolidated Foods ownership in the early/mid '70s. The Mantua factory in New Jersey was no longer needed by the late '70s and Mr. Tyler was told to find a buyer. Tyler ended up buying the factory and brought the Mantua name back to life in 1977.

The new Mantua offered steam locomotive kits, plus ready to run examples. The F7 and GP20 also joined the Mantua line. Freight car offerings included classic Mantua tooling, plus later the former Lindberg line was re-introduced by the company. 

The new Mantua published its final catalog of products in 2001. Model Power purchased the company's tooling and today sells them under the Mantua Classics name.

This site features the product catalogs published to promote the Mantua HO-scale model train line, as it existed between 1977 and 2001.


Facts and information regarding Mantua's history presented above was found in the November 1984 edition of Model Railroader magazine. Russ Larson and Jim Hediger tour the Mantua plant and the company's history is detailed in the article, "Mantua Metal 
Products Co."


A little more from the Wiki,

Mantua Metal Products was a Woodbury Heights, New Jersey, metalworks business founded in 1926 by John Tyler and family. In the 1930s Mantua began to manufacture HO scale model trains of die-cast metal, and became a leading hobbyist brand.

From 1942 to 1945, production of model railroad products was suspended as the company participated in manufacturing of precision measuring and mapping equipment for the U.S. Army and Navy in World War II. The company received the Army-Navy ‘E’ Award for Excellence in Production in 1945. After the war, they converted the plant back to production of model railroading equipment.

Launching in 1957, Mantua pioneered "ready-to-run" HO-scale model railroad kits under the TYCO (for Tyler Company) brand.[3] Many TYCO and Mantua die-cast products, such as steam engines, are collector's items today.

In the 1960s, TYCO changed its focus from train kits to ready-to-run trains sold in hobby shops and also added HO-scale electric racing, or "slot car" sets. The slot car range started in 1963.[3] By the 1970s, TYCO shifted sales and marketing to a consumer-oriented, mass marketing focus. Eventually the name changed to TYCO Industries, under which name the company was sold in 1970 to Consolidated Foods during an era of corporate conglomerates.[3] As a division of what became the Sara Lee Corporation, Tyco continued to grow.

By the 1980s, Tyco dominated that market in electric racing, also producing the first "slot trucks" known as US-1 Trucks, as well as the radio control category. Diversification continued with the 1989 purchase of the View-Master/Ideal Group, which brought to the company the View-Master, Magna Doodle and the Ideal Nursery line of dolls. In the 1990s, the company branched out with other toys such as airplanes, clones of Lego brand building elements (after the basic patent ran out in 1983), and Sesame Street items. It made a hit in 1991 with their Disney's Little Mermaid dolls that were released during the same period the movie came to theaters. It purchased Matchbox, a maker of model cars, in 1993.[4][5] In 1995, Tyco Preschool was named the primary toy licensee for the Children's Television Workshop. A year later Tyco Preschool launched an extensive new line based on the popular children's program, Sesame Street. When Tyco was purchased by Mattel on March 27, 1997, it was the third largest toy company in the United States. The brand survives as the Mattel Tyco R/C division, while much of the Sesame Street line as well as the Magna Doodle was transferred to the Fisher-Price division.

The Tyco model railroad business was purchased back by the Tyler family in 1977, who revived them under the Mantua Industries brand. Tyco exited the model railroad business after the 1993 catalog. Many of the Tyco model train products were then produced by Mantua and by International Hobby Corporation (IHC). In 2001, Mantua ceased production of its model railroad lines, and sold the model railroad business to the Model Power company, which continued to sell a few items such as steam engines as its Mantua Classics brand until the business closed in April 2014.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Question: so who is producing those "new" Mantua items today? I see they still have product coming out. 

https://www.walthers.com/exec/manuinfo/455/Mantua_Metal_Products.html

Or is that going to go away once they sell out those items, as Model Power (who last owned Mantua) closed earlier this year?


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