Best accessories for kids

Accessories kids like:

MTH firehouse;

MTH signal board;

Lionel airplanes or helicopter on a pylon;

Lionel sawmill;

Lionel lumber loader;

Lionel gantry crane (the one with a magnet lets them have even more fun).

Any type of highway signal (these are much easier to use today with fast track -- I think for example Lionel makes the highway signals with a built in road crossing and activator.

These are just a few that come to mind.  The coal accessories are also very fun but they can be messier if you are doing a display or a carpet central.

HTH.

any of the oversized postwar style signals; they are less likely to tip over if not secured.  many of the postwar accessories had tabs to attach to the track, like the barrel ramp.  although, I don't know if these are compatible with fast track.

The Oil Drum Loader -- either the Lionel or American Flyer version -- would be great for kids. Hook it up with a momentary switch that they can push and watch the action.

Fastrack offers a crossing set with flashers. No wiring needed. They are scale sized.

However, the cross bucks plug into the base using a 1/8 inch stereo style plug. This is nice but if you hit into them, they can break pretty easily. Lionel should have used some type of stiff spring at the base to allow some play if they get knocked.

 

They also offer a scale sized crossing arm set that had some tech issues and was being revamped. Not sure if they are back in circulation now.

 

Zstuff signals only need track power (power and ground) with no additional wiring or insulated rails. They are scale sized. Very easy to add to Fastback layouts.

 

As far as accessories go:

 

As mentioned above, the barrel loader is great.

 

Along the same line the Forklift platform is great. Power and ground wires to an activation button and it doesn't require any special track sections. Very foolproof operation and kids love it.

 

The Classic crossing shed is pretty tough to beat. It can be wired to a button for kids or an insulated rail for auto activation.

 

Milk car is another good one that only requires an operating track section for activation. This could be powered right from the track but running a separate power lead to it would provide more reliable operation.

 

I have a small layout that I bring to train shows, with a number of operating accessories. Several can be activated by the viewers.

 

For smaller children (we have four year-old twins) the best bets are accessories that can be activated by a simple push of a button. On my layout the following are hooked up to "doorbell"-type buttons (so that the accessory stops functioning when the button is released) and work well:

        

     A Lionel 397 Coal Loader (this does have to be constantly manually reloaded)

     A Lionel airplane pylon

     A Lionel gateman

     A Lionel semaphore 

 

I also have a gantry crane, which is a big hit, but I have found that it is best to run this myself at the shows. In a home setting, with an older child who can learn to run it, this can be a great accessory for kids. My nine year-old loves it.

 

Derek

      

I think most of the American Flyer accessories work well for kids. My kids' favorite is the Log Loader.

The Lionel Magnetic cranes are great for kids too but the really young ones might find it frustrating to work exactly the way they plan. The Lionel vibrating barrel loader kids like and it works well with the barrel car.

Depending on the age of the kids:

 

Younger kids tend to like hands-on accessories.  The Lionel #96 coal loader has a hand crank, as does the Lionel #348 culvert unloader.  My 2 and 4 year olds will crank away all day and greatly prefer these accessories to the push-to-go accessories such as the barrel loader.   They prefer to fill the culvert cars by hand , pretending their arm/hand is a crane (complete with sound effects) rather than use the automated culvert loader.  There are Marx hand crank cranes that the kids like as well. 

 

My dad had the barrel loader and it was my favorite accessory by far.  I think he set up his trains when I was about 6.  30+ some years later I still really like the barrel loader. Any age over "I have to have my hands on it" enjoy the push button accessories.  The barrel loader was the best of both worlds.  It loads and we had to unload the cars and reload the barrel loader by hand.  There are many log loaders that would give the same enjoyment.

 

With an operating track kids love to load all kids of things (aluminum foil "scrap metal", m&m's, nerds... you never know what they will be shipping today!) in the 3469 style dump car and 3461 style log dump cars.  They can manually load at any point on the track and cruise over to the "dumping station" to dispense the goods.  Hours of enjoyment from that.  My kids greatly prefer these self-resetting type cars to the ones that have the spring and are activated by the magnet track.  The activation of the magnetic release cars requires the car be parked rather precisely over the electromagnet on the track and the kids get frustrated by stopping short or overshooting.  If your engines have cruise control and can start and run very smooth at very low speeds they may be able to handle it.  If not, they will likely lose interest in trying to hit the spot. 

 

The complex accessories, such as the magnetic gantry crane, are good for older  kids that you can teach to run it - and adults. 

My downstairs layout is all scale sized in terms of buildings, trains, etc. but for the kids & holidays we set up either carpet centrals or tabletops with toy-themed trains as the focus.

 

I can tell you based on experience with my own kids that the barrel loader is one of their favorites.  I don't have the gantry crane but I know that is also one of the top popular operating accessories. They also like the icing station and the 3356 horse corral/car.

 

When it comes to operating cars alone (not used in conjunction with an operating accessory), the 3662 milk car & operating aquarium cars are fun for the kids, as are log or coal dumping cars, as well as the 3376 giraffe & the cop & hobo cars (3444 gondola or the 3357 Hydraulic Platform car), or even the modern-era equivalents.

 

In terms of signaling, the oversized crossing gates (either with or without the flashing lights & crossbucks) are fun for kids.  Maybe also the banjo signal too and of course the operating gateman.

 

The post war crossing signals and gates are pretty stout too.

 

Are you using conventional power? If so the crossing gates hooked to the accessory activator track only work at higher power settings (lights will work). The Banjo signals and lighted crossing signals work fairly well. The DCS systems recommends not using track power to activate accessories. Running one accessory off a Lionchief train set works okay, but you are going to run out of power fast without upgrading the transformer. 

My grandson is 3 and loves any accessory I put out.  Currently I have the barrel loader, barrel car, American Flyer Water Tower, MPC shed with diesel horn and 2 K Line remote control cars.  He will play with them all day when I am home. I am always near by to make sure things work correctly.  He really can't damage these things.   For Christmas I had out the nutcracker gateman and he loved it!  

 

Rolland

 

 

 

 Add a few so they have time to cool off between uses Not a joke really.

Keep in mind things like uncoupling track electro-magnets, build heat rather quickly.

 

 Lionel 175 launch pad, gantry, with a missile holding flat car, and 6650 rocket launcher were my fav's. A target car only if they are patient types (they fall before you can hit them when your not careful) Invest in an extra missile, rocket or even two.

• A bump and go "anything", but trolleys are my fav's.
• Cartoon character handcars
• Hobo chase gondola
• Gi-raffe cars (see Mitchell's posts in the "what did you do on your layout today" thread)  
• The lighted moving aquarium cars are fun
• To this day, I cant get enough of the geared, operating gunfighter car.

      I think need a bullion car though. The sheriff is tired of protecting the gi-raffe, and a cast bathtub delivery 

• The bubbles, and click clack of operating oil derricks kept me quiet for lights out passenger car runs
• Someone had a Foghorn leghorn chicken car for sale on the forum recently. That, and similar cars can be fun.
• A gantry crane is huge fun! The full tmcc versions are one of the coolest things ever made, period dot You almost don't need trains with one of those

 The #90 button hooked to anything. Its irresistible.

• Hey, just uncoupling with one was fun for me  
• The Lionel news stand with dog circling the fire hydrant always made me giggle.
• Operating luggage stations are the one "buzz box" vibrating accessory where the moving item doesn't fall over ever few seconds.   
• Milk cars are great, and cheap really. Just a car & platform (but operating cars like this, package delivery, etc. are heavy too!)
• Culvert and lumber accessories, the "stock" is very manageable (coal goes everywhere) 
• The newer work crews are really neat.

 

 I think signaling isn't much of a deal unless they really want to run prototypically, and modern. Its "flashy scenery'

  Cross bucks with lights? Nice but overrated. That's what horns, and whistles are for

Wow everyone! Thanks for all of the suggestions. I think at this point I am leaning towards a barrel loader or an icing station.

Also thinking about getting a giraffe car or something similar. I have an old postwar milk car, but I don't know if the platform will fit my fastrack now.

As for power, I usually use the transformer that came with a starter set. I do have an old KW as well, but I haven't used it in years.

There are so many great items that it is overwhelming!

I have always had smaller sized layouts and still do. With a smaller layout, "real estate" is at a premium, so accessories with large footprints don't always fit in with the overall scheme of things.

 

Tfabrizio, you say you have a floor layout and one of your goals with accessories is to not have a lot of wiring all over the place.

 

A solution I came up with for my layout may also be suitable for your situation.

 

I have an overhead track that is powered, with a few platforms mounted to it. The track is powered and the platforms are for a few RR types of buildings which are illuminated off the track power. The buildings can be switched, as the lights that are off the track power are positioned to accommodate several building sizes. 

 

On the track, I utilized stationary operating cars like the motorized aquarium car, the motorized chase gondola, the 3520 type of rotating search light car, the motorized walking brakeman car, the flashing toxic waste car, etc. And then, ordinary illuminated cars like seach light cars for added illumination for darkened room running.

 

To turn these cars "off and on" I utilize small strips of cut drinking straws over the center rail. So when I push the car to the left and inch or so, the car turns off. Back to the right, so the pickup roller clears the drinking straw, it goes back on. For cars with 2 pickup rollers like the modern aquarium cars, I have to use 2 short pieces of drinking straw over the center rail.

 

So Tfabrizio, you may want to consider placing a straight section of track somewhere in the middle of your floor layout, using the same concept. I don't use FasTrack, but the catalog states every straight and curved section of FT has two terminals on the underside for either track power connection or accessory connection.

 

But with the shape of the FasTrack rail, I don't know if the insulated drinking straw idea would work as it does on tubular track. Though I should note, some of the newer Lionel cars like the motorized aquarium and walking brakeman cars have an on/off switch on them. Since my overhead track is at the back of the layout, I like the drinking straw idea as it saves me from reaching over and trying to find the small switch on the bottom of these cars. Cars the like the toxic waste car do not have an off/on switch, so the insulated center rail w/ drinking straw idea works great for these.

 

If you put bumpers on each end of this track (which doesn't necessarily have to be straight - you could have some curves on it), this auxiliary section of track could also double for use with the bump-and-change-direction types of trolley cars.

 

Just food for thought.

 

Of course there are the new Plug-N-Play Lionel accessories, designed for layouts like yours. But you are not as likely to find these at the same prices as older gently used operating accessories.

 

That KW has allot more power, and constant voltages too, but the starter set transformer may operate new whistles better.(which one?) 

You can use both, but remember to phase them

Check the KW cord, and internal rollers 1st. (handles off, 4 screws, lift the cover)