MTH Operating American Flag

Yup, was suckered & bought one too when it was offered. Had plans for it when I was building our layout. Was going to put it in front of the Plasticville schoolhouse, hook it up to track power so it would fly when a train passed by. It now sits ignored & out of reach on a marble slab I found in a stoneyard rubble pile.  I'll just leave it at that ...

I agree it is noisy but it works well on my layout and works using an insulated rail. We have one at the club layout which was trouble in the beginning but we removed the flag and reinstalled it and it works great now.

just blow on it or use a fan...you'll get same effect...lol

I've got one on my layout, I saw one on a layout while in Florida one year and just had to get one.  They are noisy but with you trains running to me it's a minor.  I hooked mine up to Lionel's 153IR controller so that when my train exits the tunnel the flag waves.  I like it!

Ken,

I like mine too!! I think they are cool!! HEY, a little noisy, but fun. The Adults as well as the KIDS who see my Layout, think it's neat!!

Fredstrains,

After hearing that some of you could tolerate the noise, I took my flag apart to see its operation.  I found the cam was on the wrong side of the motor lifter.  I put it back together and the loud noise I was having was gone.  I optimized the flag flapping with some spray starch.  I now can hear the snapping of the flag from the "wind" over the sound of the vibrating mechanism.  It looks like a strong wind is blowing the flag - reasonably realistic.

It turned out to be a nice accessory once tweaked (like most operating accessories).

I believe this accessory was designed by the famous Lionel inventor, Frank Petitt, when he was very late in life... his late 80's perhaps.  I think the story was that he offered it first to Dick Kughn's LTI, but they were not interested in it, sadly.  But Mike Wolf was, bought the design and put it into production.

Operate at the lowest possible voltage to tone down the vibrating motor sound and keep the flag waving eg 10-12 volts.