Draft:Tyco US-1 Electric Trucking

History
Tyco US-1 Electric Trucking was a slot car line produced by Tyco Toys from 1981 through 1985. It is based around semi-trucks and construction equipment.

Sets
Sets consisted of track sections, accessories, and trucks, some following a specific theme. There were a total of fifty-eight sets made for the US market. These can be broken down between boxed retail sets, and sets sold through mail order catalogs.

Track
Track pieces used Tyco's "Quik Clik" connector and were gray colored. The earliest track parts featured painted road lines. Two different stock numbers can be used to reference most pieces. The 30## is the individual stock number, while the 37## is the retail sale number. A letter was used on the assembly sheet to reference parts for assembly.

Accessories
Tyco produced thirty-three accessories for the US-1 system. Most operate via interfacing with a truck or trailer, resulting in loading or unloading of loads. Loads consist of logs, barrels, drums, rocks, small plastic balls, or automobiles. A few accessories are powered by the rotation of a running slot trucks rear tires.

Trucks, Vehicles, and Trailers
The slot trucks/vehicles for US-1 are based on a proprietary chassis design that uses full length pickup shoes, and unique front and rear guide pins. this allows the slot car to be used in a reverse direction. The chassis' utilize a Mabuchi can motor with a worm gear drive to power the rear wheels. There are both lighted and unlighted chassis. Unique to US-1 are the fire engine and wrecker tow truck. The fire engine uses mechanical assemblies to operate a flashing light bar, as well as a working alarm bell. The tow truck uses a similar mechanism to operate a flashing light bar.

Trailers are modeled after box-type freight, flatbed, belly dump, and tanker trailer types, as well as an automobile carrier. These interface the accessories providing loading and unloading functions.