What do you think? (It can be by any O Gauge manufacturer.)
Mannyrock
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What do you think? (It can be by any O Gauge manufacturer.)
Mannyrock
Replies sorted oldest to newest
My "vote" is for the Lionel matched pair: Culvert Loader and Culver Unloader. Non-stop fun for junior engineers! And me too.
Mike Mottler LCCA 12394
264 Lumber unloader…….I believe that it is one of the most (if not the most) reliable performers……
Peter
two things
1) how flawless does it work?; AND
2) if not 1) then how fascinating is the design attempt?
my vote: the Culvert Loader and Culver Unloader
Rotary coal unloader-Lionel
Marty
My favorite is the 397 coal loader and 3469 dump car.
I recently refurbished mine from the fifties.
I am pretty sure Lionel's all time most popular then and now has been the Automatic Gateman. Someone correct me if I have that wrong.
John
@martind posted:Rotary coal unloader-Lionel
My parents 145 gate man for me. Mainly because it was on our Christmas layout every year when I was young. Reconditioned it a couple years ago and it's on my layout. To me it has a lot of charm.
The sawmill. Logs go in, and boards come out! Probably more complicated things out there but pure magic for a kid when i first saw it. And even sounds like a sawmill with no fancy boards and speakers.
Another vote for the culvert loader/unloader pair. Although the gateman, milk car, barrel loader (Amer Flyer) are close behind.
I like the milk car and the 145 gateman. I'm happy to see the response re the culvert loader/unloader. I'll put that on my buy list.
The American Flyer coal loader number 785.
The Lionel magnetic gantry crane. It kept my kids riveted to the layout for hours, driving up trains and loading and unloading parcels.
164 log loader. My grandfather had one when I was a kid and I put a reproduction one on my layout in his honor.
I like the coal loaders. Lots of noise and a big mess !
Another vote for the milk car. I am part of a modular group. On my modules I have the milk car, barrel ramp and car, icing platform, and sawmill, all operated by the audience. I am constantly having to refill the milk cars. Kids and adults get a kick out of it.
The milk car was my favorite as a kid. It's cool when it works correctly but cracked me up when the voltage was high and the cans came flying out.
The gateman is a close second. I really don't know why I even like it...but I like it.
Many of these accessories remind me of the old Army joke, dig a hole and fill it up. The 397 coal loader and 352 barrel loader for example.
The one you remember as a kid is always the best. For me, it was the AF Oil Drum Loader. The swiveling action of the forklift is mesmerizing. I repainted and weathered it up to better fit my scale layout.
Runner up: Lionel Magnetic Gantry Crane. My grandkids are constantly unloading metal scrap from gondolas and dropping them in the scrap yard.
Bob
I am with Bob, both the American Flyer Drum loader and Lionel Gantry Crane.
But my grand kids love the Lionel Milk Car and unloading platform.
Charlie
@Choo Choo Charlie posted:I am with Bob, both the American Flyer Drum loader and Lionel Gantry Crane.
But my grand kids love the Lionel Milk Car and unloading platform.
Charlie
You mean like this one?
Me, too!
My vote is for the Lionel Postwar # 282 Magnet Crane.
A close 2nd is the Lionel Postwar # 38 water tower with real water and the water pump inside.
Arnold
For me it's the operating Milk car and the self propelled cars, gang car, fire car...
I'm partial to the milk car. Action but not overall toylike. As an avid fish keeper had to have the aquarium car. Tried the cattle car, never worked quite right, didn't fit the scene.
All are great choices, really!
Peter
Mth car wash and fire house.
I no longer own it, but I really like the MTH car that unloaded pop cases and when the doors opened smoke came out.
When I designed and completed my "dream layout", it had to include my vintage Lionel trackside accessories: milk car, cattle car, coal ramp and loader, lumber loader, log loader, sawmill, rocket launcher, magnetic crane, bascule bridge, gateman, and crossing gate. But my most exciting is the milk car! You'll see most of these and lots more in the article I submitted to O Gauge Railroading (The GFRR: Grandpa's Funtastic Railroad), and in the Oct/Nov issue. For me, that's even more exciting!!
Michael
This is complicated because all the accessories are in the same class even though they have different levels of complexity. So the 145 gateman and the LTI intermodal crane are competing with each other.
So, lets have two classes, "simple" and "complex".
In the "simple" class, it's a tie between the 145 gateman and the 445 interlocking tower. They both work the same way.
In the "complex" class, it's the 497 coaling station, with the intermodal crane as runner up.
I believe the 145 gate man (and possibly other American made accessories) enjoy an international status. I acquired a pretty decent 145 knock-off many years ago that was manufactured by a train outfit in the old Soviet Union. The man in the Russian version appears much more authoritarian than his American model.
Love the gate-man and the milk car but you can't beat a 97 coaling tower for throwing the coal all over the place.
Fun string...
It might not fit the true definition of a trackside accessory, but my vote is for the 494 Rotary Beacon. When we were kids, we loved turning off all the lights in the basement, and running trains in the dark (until the inevitable derailments), with the beacon lording over the layout.
497 overhead coal station!
Nuclear reactor!
A small child running the train.
I have a #45 gateman on a layout at our local mall and every time a child stops by, I say "look at that red door" and when the flagman pops out, a squeal of delight is guaranteed. Some, and their parents will watch two or three cycles of the train just to see him pop out
The operating accessories on my layout were selected because I had fond memories of them as a child and they have modest real estate requirements.
I have a milk car / platform; operating saw mill; ice platform, oil drum loader; operating freight station; and forklift / lumber platform installed on my permanent layout. I am very fond of each accessory and operate all of them multiple times each week. I have also watched the amusement that comes to adults and kids faces when each of these accessories are operated.
Although all of the ones on my layout would fall within my “best accessory” category, Manny set the rule at the beginning for the “single best” so, with that in mind, I add my vote for the milk car to those of several earlier posters.
Curt
For me it's the post-war 282 Magnetic Operating Crane hands down. That being said I love virtually all of Lionel's operating accessories,
Hey Guys,
I really appreciate all of these opinions. It seems to me that a lot of it is a matter of taste, and a lot of it is a matter of nostalgia, which is fine.
For me, the AF 785 Clams Shell coal loader looks the coolest. But I have a question. After you load the plastic coal into a car, how do you get it out? Do you have to scoop/claw it out by hand to start the game over? Or, is there a special coal/dump car that will spill it out into a neat pile? (I don't think I could hand scoop it out of a car without derailing it.)
I also really like the AF Barrel loader. But, in looking at all of the Youtubes, it looks as if the unit has to be placed really close to the side of the track, which means that a large modern steam engine or diesel, with equipment and fixtures sticking out of its sides, could not make it past the unit without catching on the unit itself. Is this the case? (Almost all of the videos show a train "backing up" a gondola car next to the unit, so that the car can be loaded.)
The milk car and conduit loader also look great.
Mannyrock
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