Vintage tomy train

This is my vintage Tomy train, I got it when I was a lot younger my guess is mid nineties, it stays at my mums house with all my old dark blue tomy track. I recently got a load if old track from eBay but had a real issue with this engine, it just wouldn't pull itself up hills and it struggled with rolling stock on the flat, so I took it apart to have a look, I also thought you'd like to inside one of these old locos with the reversing gearbox



Everything looked ok at first, but then I found this split gear, I repaired it with a little epoxy resin



With that repaired I regressed the gears and put the lid back on, I love this little loco, I was amazed at how easy it would be to to change the motor (although I wouldn't want to as I think you may strip the gears going from full speed forward to full speed reverse!)

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Here's the gearbox with the motor removed, the motors only sandwiched between the two body parts, you can see the plastic selector under the motor which forces the directional switch 'full' forward or backward, if you look closely you can see the gear that the selector slides up and down the shaft, in one direction it drives the axle straight, in the other position it drives the counter rotation shaft behind the axle which then drives the axle, simple really

I've included an image of the underside if the top tray



You can see the switch mechanism and how it engages the drive the switch on the outside operates the long selector that engages the gear, in rest position the spring sits normally in the engaged position, when you turn it off it compresses the spring and disengages the motor side of the transmission

What I like about these, is that there is a blank fitted next to the battery, this can be removed so you can use x2aa batteries instead of just one,

Oh very nice train. Whats the body made out of? Looks like wood from the picture. So after the repair how does it pull?

it's a plastic body, a wood body would be cool! I think they made lots of these, they do them in several colours and what's interesting is the plastic is dyed the colour of the train and each colour train has a different sticker set and gives the train a different number, they also used to sell matching caboose cars in the same colour plastic, in my recent lot of track I got the green body with caboose which I was quite happy with,

And how does it pull now? - like a steam train!!!!

[Ucwepn]

Great train and post! thankyou Tramp

[Super]

Very interesting Tramp

And that is some gear box in that old timer. Is that a magnetic coupling I see? Is this train the size of the large older Thomas series that Ucwepn has videos for? Large Edward

Can I ask what type epoxy resin you use? I am not sure what to use to adhere a small button switch fot a coach light project. The button housing will be attached inside the coach with the button sticking out through a hole. It doesn't take very much pressure to push the button but I want to make sure the button isn't pushed through by the rough, little peoples hands. Or maybe there is a better epoxy to use. I am reall illiterate when it comes to the huge amount of glue choices out there for modeling. Hmmm...maybe that is a good title for a new thread instead of interrupting this one...

Yeah it's the magnetic coupling series from when thomas was big! We have a thomas and Percy body too, the drive unit is the same for all the body types and all the body's are interchangeable, although the wheel colours stay the same, yeah it's a big gearbox really and noisey too! But I suppose that's part of the charm of these old ones as they are pretty slow too, the reversing gearbox is a nice novelty feature but you need the track switches to use it,

The epoxy resin I use is a brand called 'araldite' it's a two part glue that you mix together, it takes a while to go off but I really rate it, it's really strong and glues to most surfaces, if I'm glueing to smooth surfaces I score it with a Stanley knife to give it something to hold onto, I have used it on all my tomy projects if glueing LEDs or button cell holders, and it's an electrical insulator so getting it across led terminals is no problem

So I thought I'd share some more photos of the vintage trains and my mums house



The green one - the base came with the Percy set, as did the truck tops and the rolling stock with the black wheels,

The red loco running again



The green loco compared to a trackmaster Neville so you can see the scale difference



And this is one if my recent purchases



It's a battery powered station with pre-recorded messages, then the closest is supposed to be a goods station, I know nothing about it or what equipment it is compatible with, the levers move magnets under the stage area and it has a square style peg that pokes up out of the track base

[Super]

That is a great collection Tramp. To me what makes it great is that these were toys that you actually played with when you were a child and not just an adult acquired collection. So I am guessing but would this style of Tomy trains the Grandfather to what the motorized Thomas/Tomy/Trackmaster/Plarail trains we enjoy today? I have to admit that whenever I have seen these vintage trains I thought they were somehow related to Lego's because of all the circle bumps. Are they? Thanks for sharing!

They are not related to Lego, but they are, or were, intended to be compatible with Lego.
I've often wondered if Tomy had to pay any kind of patent / copyright fee or similar, to Lego.
Maybe they simply engaged in a partnership, to further promote the Lego brand by making the Tomy trains compatible with it ?

[Super]

Hello Plarailfan

Welcome aboard to these Forums and we hope to here more from you.