I recently saved
this near mint 1980s Tyco steam locomotive from being thrown out at the model train store. Why would a locomotive like this be thrown out you ask?

Although she is beautiful in appearance, she has been affected by a fatal flaw common to Tyco locomotives. The cheap plastic Tyco used to make the gears on their locomotives degrades over time, causing the gears to split and break. This even affects locomotives that have never been ran and is so prevelant, that in seeing hundreds of these locomotives come through the train store, not one has ran.

What causes this is the breakdown of the polymers, the little molecular chains that hold the plastic in the train together. This affects vintage plastic toys in many ways, causing such ailments as inflatable toys developing leaks, rubber components becoming sticky, and toys exposed to Intense sun over time disintegrating.

I once had a 1960s dime store toy freighter crumble to tiny flakes of plastic in my hand. Due to having been near an attic window for 50 years, she had become more fragile than a potato chip.

A replacement gear set is available for this locomotive, but unfortunately costs far above the value of the repaired locomotive, therefore she was relegated to the scrap heap.

If you find one of these that runs, it should be reported to the SCP Foundation immediately.