# tyco gg-1 electric



## Cab1 (Jul 26, 2009)

I just picked a ho scale tyco gg-1 electric on ebay. It runs okay and looks like there will be plenty of room inside to convert to DCC. I'm trying to get the shell off without breaking it. So I did a search to find an assembly diagram but no luck. Any of you guys know how this thing comes apart?


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Not sure about the GG-1, however ...

I have an old Tyco Santa Fe deisel .. on that, the trucks are mounted to the shell via little tabs that poke through the side of the shell. By bending out the sidewalls of the shell just a bit, you can pop the tabs out of their slots, and remove the guts.

Again ... not sure if this is repeated on the GG-1 ...

TJ


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## THE TYCO MAN (Aug 23, 2011)

They're just nothing but tabs. The old Power Torque can be remotored with a CD-ROM motor then DCC could be added.


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

THE TYCO MAN said:


> They're just nothing but tabs. The old Power Torque can be remotored with a CD-ROM motor then DCC could be added.


:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

You'll see black tabs fore and aft...just carefully pry it apart at those points and the drive will drop right out. The CD ROM motor conversion is a much better motor than TYCO ever put in those.


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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

THE TYCO MAN said:


> They're just nothing but tabs. The old Power Torque can be remotored with a CD-ROM motor then DCC could be added.


How do you do that? I wonder if the same can be done on the single truck driven Bachmann and Life-Like locos?


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

If the loco/engine only has one set of power pickups it won't work very well as a DCC setup loco/engine.
It will lose power way too much to run smooth!


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## Cab1 (Jul 26, 2009)

Yup, that's exactly what I did. It took a little while to find the right CD motor though. You need to find one that has a long enough shaft to reach the main drive gear. Then, of course, the motor shaft is going to be too thick for the drive gear; so you'll need to grind down the shaft to pass through the brass bearing and the drive gear. Oh, by the way, do not screw around with the brass bearing. It alines the drive gear with all the other gears. If you' re off just by a little bit, you're dead. Next comes the grinding of the case. Not only do you need to physically fit the CD motor in the case, but you have to do it in a way that centers the CD motor shaft through the brass bearing. Then you have to grind down the brass center drive wheel to almost nothing to fit the six wheel truck back on. That brass center drive wheel will bind against the CD motor case if you don't. It's a bit of work, but when you're done you'll have a powerful little FIVE wheel truck. From that point on the DCC decoder install is straight forward. I cut the light tubes off and replaced the bulbs with LEDs. You'll need a good dremel to do all this. Would I do this again? No, I'm done with Tyco. I am impressed with the tab setup they used to fit the loco together. I couldn't even see them until they were pointed out to me. That's really good machining. The next thing I want to do is add two six wheel trucks to the center of the loco. They're missing on the Tyco. I think the AHM HO GG1 would have been a better choice.


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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

The AHM is made by Rivarossi. I would like to find an inexpensive (yeah right) IHC twin motor GG1. I do have a Tuscan Red Rivarossi one. Now I need the Brunswick Green one.

Cool thing about the AHM/Rivarossi and the IHC, is the fact that you can run cantenary wire and feed power that way also.


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