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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.

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Runner up:   Lionel Magnetic Gantry Crane.  My grandkids are constantly unloading metal scrap from gondolas and dropping them in the scrap yard.

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Bob

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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.

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.  

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

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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