What is your favorite Action car?

I love all the Halloween popups. 

Mine has to be the TMCC Crane Car, you can fool around with that for hours, really fun car.

The "exploding Box Car" is mine!

I'm a fan of the milk car....something about that Postwar guy tossing those milk cans everywhere except the platform.

I agree gunrunnerjohn!!! The tmcc crane and crane car is fun to watch work and listen to the crane sounds and crew talk. 

All of those are great! Our random uncoupling Lionel freight cars with their potential for disaster at any time have become new favorites.

I like the Lionel pre-war 165 Magnetic Crane and the post-war 182 Magnetic Crane the best.  I think the growl of their open frame motors makes them seem much more realistic than the silent, smooth can motored modern Magnetic cranes.  They are loads of fun to operate and they are good for teaching hand and eye coordination to little grandchildren. 

The aquarium car.  Love all of them!

My favorite action cars is a tie.  The 3662 Milk Car and the 3520 Searchlight car.

The milk car because it can be adjusted to properly deliver the milk cans to the platform without tossing them all over the place; and the searchlight car because of the ingenious engineering used to turn the light and rotation on and off via a remote control track section that still works after sixty-four+ years!

Pete

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Mine and my families favorite Action car is the Lionel 3376 Bronx Zoo Giraffe car.  ...

you've got the right idea!  one of these is unique, but a whole string are a riot to watch.  i grew up by the Turtle Back Zoo and i finally tracked one of those down a few years ago.

excellent!...gary

The "Mo and Joe" Lionel lumber unloading car (based on a early American Flyer car).

Gotta be the Milk Car.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Mine has to be the TMCC Crane Car, you can fool around with that for hours, really fun car.

I agree great car! That's my favorite. 

I enjoy my Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam stock car.  Bugs Bunny slowly creeps up as the car goes, and then Yosemite Sam follows at the opposite end.  When he's up in the air, Bugs Bunny pops down to escape.

They had one running on the permanent display layout where I work, and my girlfriend noticed it one day, so of course I had to get one myself.  It got a lot of laughs out of visitors to the Redford Theatre while my Christmas layout was up this past year.  I also like the circus chase gondola with the lion chasing the trainer.

Previously, my favorites have been the 3665 Minuteman Missile Car along with the Exploding Box Car.  But since the advent of the TMCC Crane Car, that now tops my list as best action car.

Early edition RailKing Helicopter launching cars!.....in a room with a TALL ceiling!

Awesome!  Totally! (...Especially compared to Lionel's pitiful excuse for the same.)

Latest versions of the same car seem to have been toned down on the launch.  Change to rotor, maximum spin-up speed?  Too many lawyers in the boardroom?

KD

For operating cars, my choice would be any of the milk (or Bosco) cars.
For animated cars, it would be a Cop and Hobo car.

Lionel's recently -produced ice-melter flat cars with the jet engine nozzle that blows smoke.  They only made 2 or 3 versions of this, then released a couple cheaper versions without the smoke unit.  But the original is really ingenious & always an attention-getter as it blows smoke out the front to "clear" the tracks of ice & snow!   Here is a LINK to an Alaska Railroad version...   It is running in the wrong direction at first, but corrects direction & is really blows smoke toward the end of the one-minute video.

I'll add - my grandkids really like the Ice Station, the car just takes the hit, but they seem to love loading up the cubes and letting em blast.  Also kind of like the Aquarium Car, the newer version with can motor is much quieter and a rather soothing display vs. the old vibration motor with all the fish floating on top of the water after a while!

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Mine and my families favorite Action car is the Lionel 3376 Bronx Zoo Giraffe car.  When my young daughter saw this car in action at a train store 30 years ago we had to get one.  Now we have a string of five giraffes ducking and popping up when going thorough our various bridges and tunnels.  Most were picked up as car shells needing replacement giraffes.

Giraffe cars are inexpensive, easy to find used and it is easy to install tripping rails along side the track.  They take no wiring or switches.  I make mine out of old slats from discarded window shutters by rounding the ends to allow tripper arm to engage.

My seven grand children also love the giraffe cars the best and they are always on the layout ready to perform.

Let us see your favorite Action car.

 

Charlie

 

 

These cars with the animals going up and down look so cool running past! Nice job on the home made tripper.

The silly Lionel 3444 Cop and Hobo is still my favorite! I still get a chuckle when I run it!

I suppose one can have another favorite!  I really like my Lionel Target Car #19824, the one with the track powered blower that keeps a 5 inch balloon suspended while the train rolls on.  This is a very cleaver and well working car. 

My only problem with it is all my loops have bridges or go through a tunnel so I get short runs.

Action photo.  I need to find some rounder and smaller balloons.

Keep the favorites coming, I am really enjoying them.

Charlie

Ummm I like dump cars.... I have 8 or 10 in the train room but I recently found these in a box in the garage.....  Can you ever have too many dump cars?

OKHIKER posted:

I like the Lionel pre-war 165 Magnetic Crane and the post-war 182 Magnetic Crane the best.  I think the growl of their open frame motors makes them seem much more realistic than the silent, smooth can motored modern Magnetic cranes.  They are loads of fun to operate and they are good for teaching hand and eye coordination to little grandchildren. 

I love those open framed motors, the sweet smell of ozone is irresistible! Fills the room in just minutes. I've got to say my favorite action car is the early Lionel postwar milk cars with the die cast internal mechanisms. 

B.T.

I really like the modern action cars from K Line and MTH.  Their can motors provide smooth, slow operation unlike the jerky motion of the postwar cars.  I especially like the MTH refer with the smoke unit that blows out 'cold' air when the door opens.  The K Line log and coal dump cars are always a big hit at displays.

Rolland

Without a doubt, the TMCC/Legacy/Command Control Industrial Brownhoist crane is by far the coolest and most accurate "action" model around.  My only complaint is that no crane has been issued for the B&O.  No, CSX and Chessie don't count.  I'm remedying that by painting a generic black "MOW" versions of both crane and boom car appropriately.

HOWEVER, should Lionel deign to issue a pair arrayed accurately for the First and Finest, I'll pre-order, pre-pay and pre-pare for dual crane operations as shown in this great period video:

https://youtu.be/0zP8qIZpUJs?t=261

For prototype accessories, there are spreader bars, cables, chains hooks and fittings available for 1:50 scale cranes; for prototype operations, the government is here to help you...

http://www.globalsecurity.org/...rmy/fm/55-20/ch9.htm 

Texas Pete posted:

My favorite action cars is a tie.  The 3662 Milk Car and the 3520 Searchlight car.

...; and the searchlight car because of the ingenious engineering used to turn the light and rotation on and off via a remote control track section that still works after sixty-four+ years!

Pete

Hi Texas Pete, Are you talking about this "floodlight" (that's what we called it, I think because it would bob and twirl its head in any direction it desired, flashing light indiscriminately, at random) car here (I don't know the number designations of old cars)? If so, I agree heartily. Ours was red with a grey light fixture and chrome railings. Did you have that fancier all-grey one?

And I , also, would mention the "coal-dump-car" ( as we called it) you can see in the same train (engine1666). That coal delivery car was hilarious to me, though not so much to my father, because it never actually "delivered" its coal; it would hurl its load of coal at the coal tipple receiving-tray, never seemingly hitting its mark and always overshooting, creating a big mess. Plus, it was red and black - what's not to have loved! (I theorize the load of sticks in it in this photo was an attempt at taming the car's wild nature.)

And yes, I still have them both, safe under the layout in their original boxes (I have no idea how they made it out of my childhood alive.) They'll go in my coffin with me - no kidding, along with that entire train. I think.         FrankM.

There are several that I like and some I don't.

The 3357 Hydraulic Maintenance Car.  When properly adjusted the figures seem to change places in an instant. 

Second would be the 3370 Sheriff and Outlaw car, the noise it makes when a figure drops down into the car is key for me.

Any milk car as long as you can bounce the milk cans off the back rail.

3359 coal dump that incrementally drops it's load.

The always reliable PW milk car since 1969.

Cop and hobo box car - worked reliably, and never any need to reload or clean up a mess.