# Tyco Road & Rail set?



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Anybody have experience with these? I am out of town at my kid's baseball tournament and I have an opportunity to pick one of these up locally. The Craigslist ad has limited pics, but the one pic shows how it's packed in the box, and it appears to have been owned by a kid who took good care of his toys. Problem is I know exactly ZIP about trains. Never had a set. Anything in particular I should look for?

thnx in advance...

--rick

edit: another question. The ad lists it as a 1978. The box cover shows the red and white thumb plunger controllers but also says "Plug-in Terminal Track" and "Plug-in Controllers." Does it sound like this is the newer (current) Tyco track or the older Tyco Speedways/Tyco-Lok stuff with the tabs that break off?

thnx


----------



## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

It sounds like the track has the mutant Afx-like tabs. Do you have the link to see the listing? Just to be sure.


----------



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Just noticed a funny coincidence. :tongue: Sent you a PM. 

--rick


----------



## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

PM'd you back.


----------



## honda27 (Apr 17, 2008)

*road rail set*

ok here goes i have the tyco book on this road n rail set it is a tyco pro set came out in 1972 if this set is complete it is worth over 350.00 if it in mint condition and box is in good shape u see this set pick it up look on box see if the part number is 9000 that it. hope this was helpful ty.


----------



## Crank_It_Up (Oct 8, 2011)

tyco trains suck, as does the mixture of model trains, slot cars, and small excited children with a controller in their hand. Full speed crashes will occur frequently and the damage is not pretty 

If you are dead set on this combo, a much better bang for the buck in my humble opinion would be to get the crossing track (slot car/train track crossing) of your choice on Ebay. Cheers!


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

I ran the two for over 2 years with no damage to either slots or trains. Sure there was a derailment once in a while. Sure cars got into wrecks with the trains, but that was part of the fun. I did take strides to avoid crossing problems. I automated the power at the RR Xing so when the crossing gates dropped, the power to the sections just before the gates cut off. I had emergency power buttons to move cars if they stalled at the rails. Heck, I even had the table set up so I could run 4 cars at once via potentiometers so I could let it all do it's own thing and drink a beer or two. 

Granted... I really didn't run anything but T jets. I was more worried about damaging the gates than anything else. They survived more than their share of wipe outs. If the gates didn't get hurt, I can't see a car or a train getting creamed.


----------



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

ok...

i was in Pittsburgh this past weekend, and i hit up Pitt Craigslist and found this:

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/tag/3101190243.html

looked interesting. i wasn't able to connect with the guy, though. now that we're home, i was thinking about still pursuing it... especially after Honda's intel. plus it just looked like a neat set to have. (thanks for the info, honda!) but Crank It Up brought out a good point that I already kinda knew and had forgotten... these things aren't very practical and the novelty wears off quick... so either i'd end up getting a nice set that i could set up on the kitchen table and do a couple easy laps and put it away, or i'd get a nice set that i'd use the way it was intended and it'd get trashed before long. as a general rule, i like to have stuff that i can drop on the track and run. any and all of my cars can see track time at any time. if this was a screamin' deal and nearby, maybe i'd stick with it... but it's over 3 hours away and something i won't use much, so oh well...

--rick


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Man, that set does look like new....


----------



## honda27 (Apr 17, 2008)

*train slotcar set*

well back in the early 70,s late 70,s tyco was top of the line for ho trains at that time. thing is when kids run the slotcars u dont run the train. just to have this set its worth alot of cash was only 500 of them made wish i had 1 it would be packed away.


----------



## TUFFONE (Dec 21, 2004)

Most likely nothing special in the contents of the set on the train or the slot car side. The box is probably the most valuable part of the whole deal as you don't see these all the time.


----------



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

TUFFONE said:


> Most likely nothing special in the contents of the set on the train or the slot car side. The box is probably the most valuable part of the whole deal as you don't see these all the time.


true, and that's also part of what made me decide not to worry about it... i think i've had 3 or 4 sets of those chrome Porsches, never because i actually wanted them, but because they were in a mixed lot of stuff that i acquired. and God knows i can get an HO train set cheap around here... and a Tyco or Atlas road/rail crossing isn't all THAT hard to come by, i don't think.

but man is that a cool looking box... :hat:

--rick


----------



## honda27 (Apr 17, 2008)

*set*

ok i tryed last time i seen this set on ebay it sold for over 750.00. but a tyco pro train crossing track is real hard to find and the atlas ones r very rare to find good luck. u can get the new mattel ones or lifelikes ones they suck.


----------



## Crank_It_Up (Oct 8, 2011)

slotcarman12078 said:


> I ran the two for over 2 years with no damage to either slots or trains. Sure there was a derailment once in a while. Sure cars got into wrecks with the trains, but that was part of the fun. I did take strides to avoid crossing problems. I automated the power at the RR Xing so when the crossing gates dropped, the power to the sections just before the gates cut off. I had emergency power buttons to move cars if they stalled at the rails. Heck, I even had the table set up so I could run 4 cars at once via potentiometers so I could let it all do it's own thing and drink a beer or two.
> 
> Granted... I really didn't run anything but T jets. I was more worried about damaging the gates than anything else. They survived more than their share of wipe outs. If the gates didn't get hurt, I can't see a car or a train getting creamed.


sounds pretty clever, unfortunately, I had a slot car track in the middle of my train table, and the cars were flying into the scenery at high speeds and destroying it. They weren't T jets though, probably tyco pro and magna traction. In addition, my kids were pretty young back then


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

No doubt magnet racers would be a tad bit more destructive.  I am one of the oddballs of the HT group. I'm always looking to go slower, while most everyone else want to go fast. :lol:


----------



## vansmack2 (Feb 9, 2012)

The picture on the box looks decent, but it is just a TYCO HO slot car set with a TYCO HO train set, with the crossing. I personally like TYC0 HO trains, but they are just toys, and by 1978 (brown box era) not of high quality train. The motors on those old TYCO trains often give out, but some can be replaced with a modern can motor.

You could do your own layout like that with any HO slot car set and virtually any HO train set, as long as you have a slot/train intersection. Wow, imagine a high speed train and slot car wreck!


----------



## SouthLyonBen (Mar 14, 2012)

I used to use an intersection track and use my US-1 trucks like the "train" part while they would just run around and around when I was running a car and didn't feel like "moving freight" they'd be the obstacle but you always end up smashing into 'em because you are watching the car and it comes around so fast it's usually hard to stop in time, or you try to "beat the truck" and lose :tongue: I got two train crossings in a lot A while back though so as A glutton for abuse and plastic collisions I've been thinking about this quite a bit again because it always looks so cool when I see people like Slotcarman's YouTube vids I'm totally jealous.


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

I'm jealous too!! That table's been gone for over 2 1/2 years and I still haven't put down a keeper for a track. Downsizing sux!!


----------



## SouthLyonBen (Mar 14, 2012)

slotcarman12078 said:


> I'm jealous too!! That table's been gone for over 2 1/2 years and I still haven't put down a keeper for a track. Downsizing sux!!


It was totally sweet, I saw your vids way before I was on this forum, when I found out you were "that guy" I almost sent fan mail. I made my wife watch the vids on the big TV in the living room via the Blu-Ray player, she's so patient sometimes :hat:


----------



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Not sure I'm familiar with aforementioned vids. Linky?

--rick


----------



## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=257889

The first page or so is the good stuff. Once the tear down begins, it all goes down hill.

You might want to turn down the volume some on the vids... My sound doesn't work soI can't hear them so I don't know what they're playing anymore. 










https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fxhAvQXVNg&list=UUz_AsdObptACfYrCMCmNJiA&index=7&feature=plcp 
This one was testing the auto stop / auto run feature I had built into the operating system. A rather crude set up, but for the most part it worked. There always seemed to be a glitch in one of the lanes..

These three links show it running. It's been so long since I've been on Youtube and 4X longer since I even looked at the vids, I totally forgot my password!


----------

