Track's not here yet. Grrr. I've resorted to obsessively searching for cheap crappy freight cars on ebay. I watched some videos where they recommended buying quality over quantity and it deepened my resolve to do the opposite. I'm dumb. I will convert these crappy Tycos to body-mounted magnetic knuckle couplers, gosh darnit! I might even paint the darn things to look less crappy!
Tyco? OMG, you are a masochist.
There won't be much TyCo left when hes done. 
In reply to Appleseed :
And that's ok...
I shouldn't say much. I'll probably narrow and section HO cars and plop them on N scale chassis for my Hon30. They'll only be 23mm wide and 30mm high.
Part of it is the nostalgia. We had Tyco and Life-Like stuff when I was a kid. Maybe they'll suck and I'll just put them on a siding to look at. The other part is I kind of like tinkering with stuff. Especially stuff that I can't break too bad, as opposed to working on my real-life cars or whatever.
Oh and I lied, so far I mostly bought Bachmann stuff. Older, with truck-mounted couplers except for one. And of course the totally fictional green PC F9A that's actually an F7. It's a real mess and probably not worth fixing up, but hey. I got nothing better to do.
I don't think we had any tyco train cars but I had a few of their buildings when w had our US1 trucking set. They made a 7up plant and my father and uncle had 7up routes so we had to get one. I also had a couple trailers painted to match at one point.
Appleseed said:In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
Just wait till you get into multiple scales. God help you if its post war Lionel.
I grew up on HO through and including college. Early in our relationship my wife decided I was mopy around the holidays when not visiting relatives so she bought me an N scale kit from Bachman and rekindled the itch. I got stuck at one point and couldn't get myself to get past some problems with the 3x5 layout I was building. My therapist said put it away. Not get rid of it. Put it away. What a relief. I was mentally blocked and letting the unfinished project bother me to the point of annoyance. It will come out again. Or I'll go back to HO. I'm too busy with work (teacher) and working on scale model cars and helping my wife run her business right now. All these threads don't help though. I will live vicariously through them.
That's exactly why I'm starting with Kato Unitrack. I already have had a layout that derailed trains consistantly. I dont wnat to spend days or months fine tuning a design that was flawed from the start.
If I want to beat my brains out trying to get a crazy tight 2 and a half inch radius micro layout to work in the future, so be it, but alt least I'll have a fine running Unitrack micro to super detail when I get stuck.
My eztrack finally showed up, along with about 4 smaller boxes containing various stuff like tiny orange cones and jersey barriers so I can make an autocross layout somewhere in the scenery. (Getting ahead of myself, I am.) I immediately cleared off a space (on the spare mattress I sometimes sleep on but usually just walk over) and set it up. And...it works! It sounds like poop, but it works.
This is a big win, but now I have to decide how to proceed. Obviously I need to get some wood to make a base to hold this thing up off the floor. Then down the road, I can expand the size of the base, and eventually upgrade to DCC. I like the design of the Digitrax stuff I've seen.
I actually think I'm going to get a nicer locomotive that's DCC-ready, but not put a decoder in it yet. I'll use it to pull cars with knuckle couplers while I work on upgrading the other ones that have horn-hook couplers. If I want to pull horn-hook cars before converting them, I can use the Tyco.
Eventually I want to pull the Tyco apart, root around in there, and see if it has the pancake motor. If so, there's magnets designed for slot car pancake motors that can be made to fit and improve the performance. And it also needs heavy refurbishment cosmetically and on the mounting points, so I'll work on that too. And maybe figure out what the current draw is and if there's any decoders that can work, although most people advise against putting DCC on Tyco locomotives.
In reply to slowbird :
A running train is a HUGE motivator. For a base, look at thrift stores for a round end table if you test layout is a pizza style one. With any luck, you can store the loco and cars and power pack in a built in drawer or cabinet underneath.
Bad news: it's not the pancake motor. Good news: it's not the pancake motor. So I don't know how to upgrade it, but maybe I don't need to, because it's not the notoriously bad thing that everyone supposedly hates. But it does look a bit small. And it certainly needs cleaned and oiled.
Tycos are weird. They don't really have a frame; the trucks (and a big weight in the middle) just kind of screw into the shell. The shell is busted in some rather important places, but I think I can fix that.
Oh and I guess it's important to note that it's actually a "Mantua Tyco". The company started as Mantua and later started selling trains under the Tyco name, then became TYCO Industries and was sold to Consolidated Foods, then the people behind Mantua bought some of the tooling back from Tyco and started selling trains under the Mantua name again. If I had to guess, I'd say this is from the 60s, but it could be from the 70s.
I messed with the motor and broke an ancient solder joint. And my cheapo soldering iron quit working recently. Rats! Out of commission until I get a new one.
While I look at the motor and sigh, hoping it magically solders itself, I'm thinking about restoring the shell. I see three options:
1. Just fix the truck mounts and send it. This is the most likely.
2. Repaint it in its original shade of green, which Penn Central locomotives never got in real life that I know of. But it looks cool. Restore broken steps etc.
3. Repaint it something completely different and cool that's also more realistic. Also replace broken steps etc.
Not gonna paint it authentic PC black, that's boring. I think it would look good in blue.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37908073@N04/7510717852/
Alright, I might be pushing the limits here with this one. A bit long for this sort of curve.
Even if it just sits on a shelf though, I like it.
In reply to slowbird :
OK, I know it would be RIDICULOUSLY expensive, but a full autorack of these would be AWESOME.
https://www.amazon.com/Model-Power-Scale-Diecast-Shelby/dp/B000BQYYO6
In reply to kazoospec :
Ooh, that's a dangerously great idea. 
In reply to slowbird :
Well, you could always order one . . . you know . . . for science.
In reply to kazoospec :
Scientific progress goes boink! Found some on ebay for a good price.
What if you sectioned that auto carrier down to 4-6 automobiles? It would be a bit stumpy, but stumpy is interesting.
It's not Cobras, but here's a couple sweet loads for inspiration:
Appleseed said:What if you sectioned that auto carrier down to 4-6 automobiles? It would be a bit stumpy, but stumpy is interesting.
Hmm...that's an intriguing idea. I'm not sure if I could pull it off.
In other news, I fixed the locomotive! Good to know all those hours of soldering videos I watched on youtube last spring are still embedded in my brain somewhere. It definitely needs oiled or greased though. Gotta buy some stuff, I don't think there's anything around the house that would be suitable.
Also, I like big trucks and small houses. Ford Aeromax on top, 9000 LTL on the bottom. Extremely old Bachmann ranch house that definitely needs painting before it goes together. The roof is even more blue than it looks in the picture.
I think a 6 car carrier could work.
And for fun, a 4 car "Stubby Bob" carrier.
Well, if you're modeling Penn Central then equipment failures and derailments will be completely accurate.
In reply to ddavidv :
Ha! Well, when I think abut the theme of my railroad, I keep coming back to "like the real world, but if it was more ideal to me specifically" which effectively means, among other things, Penn Central would have succeeded, they would have painted their locomotives green, and 90% of the vehicles on the road would be Fords.
Speaking of which, the Ford Ka should have made it to America. So in my layout, it did.
This Mantua is turning out to be a real hooptie and a project, so I'm looking for a cheap Chessie engine from Life-Like or something. Gotta diversify the portfolio as they say.
I think I've established a long-term track plan to aim for, as well as a vague semblance of a reason for it to exist. The tiny town inside the oval grew from a mining operation on a plateau. The railroad was built around the town so they could get trains up next to the mine and back down. The ambitious design of a complex loop resulted in cost overruns and maintenance problems. The mine is long gone now, but the town soldiers on, a small speck of rural life. The trains that come through now are tourist and excursion trains, eager to see the infamously misnamed Circle Track (it's clearly an oval). This generates just enough interest to keep the local businesses afloat. The townspeople mostly moved away, but those who stayed have an appreciation for the unique locomotives that come to visit.
Initially, I'm going to set up enough space for the small oval. I have enough material to fill the green area, I just need to make legs and supports to hold it up. I'm going to get some of those thick foam sheets from the hardware store and put an inch or two of foam down on the table as a base. Then more foam to raise up the oval and the town inside. The tracks branching off the oval will slope down to the base level and lead to nothing for now. Later on, assuming I can add more space, I'll have those meet and merge into a single main track down past where they run off the edge of the layout. Building placement is highly tentative for now, but I'm strongly committed to the idea of the two-lane road running along the tracks, crossing under the raised oval, coming into town, and making a loop back onto itself.
Here's a rough approximation of the landscape. Anyrail doesn't really do plateaus too well in 3D mode and it doesn't draw the roads (which are just wide lines) and also the grade is probably too steep in this rendition:
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