Retro Tech Tuesday: Tyco Super Turbo Train

It seems like high-speed rail will never take hold here in the United States. Perhaps if more parents had bought this toy in 80's, the legislators and lawmakers of today would have a more positive view of future rail transport.

The Tyco Super Turbo Train combined an HO scale train track, with the motor technology of slot cars to produce a toy that went "faster than the speed of sound" (at scale.) Be thankful you don't have HO scale-sized ears or I guess you would've heard a sonic boom every time this thing was fired up. I briefly owned a Tyco Super Turbo Train, and I hate to report that as with many toys of the time, it didn't quite live up to the hype. Getting it to stay on the track, and keeping the ultra-light and ultra flimsy cars free of dents was a real chore.

Still, today it is on my shortlist of toys from my youth to purchase off of eBay at three times the price of the original: