TYCO produced HO-scale model trains for a very long time, beginning in the 1950s and continuing until 1993.  In order to showcase TYCO's train lines in a manageable way, they are broken into different eras.  TYCO's Brown Box Era begins with the Tyler family's sale of the line to Consolidated Foods in the early 1970's.  TYCO at this time adopts the familiar black logo with the TY and CO letters connected.  The Brown Box Era concludes with the demise of the TYCO train line in the early 1990s.