What is your favorite operating accessory?

Growing up in the postwar era, the Culvert loader/unloader set was by far the favorite of the family. Also nice is the 164 Log loader, 464 lumber mill. I believe Lionel has re-issued all of them in modern versions.
The Coaling accessories do not operate effieciently enough to be practical if your intention is to actually "move coal".

Please note that if your son likes the switching aspect of operating, you do not "have to have" operating accesories. A Freight Station is great for recieving box cars. A Grainery would recieve grain hoppers, an oil derrick could recieve a tanker or two, and so on.

Thats great that he has that interest.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Nothing to do with logs or timber, but I have the Lionel TMCC culvert loader/un-loader and they are great and operate off my Legacy CAB 2. The Lionel forklift accessory is reliable and cool to watch....for finished lumber.

TEX
Steve

The MTh firehouse or the Lionel Hobby shop is what the grandkids like the best

I don't think you can beat Lionel's Gantry Cranes for attention getting and interesting play value. All of them, pre-war 165, Post-war 182 and modern 282. These are great accessories.

quote:

Originally posted by OKHIKER:
I don't think you can beat Lionel's Gantry Cranes for attention getting and interesting play value. All of them, pre-war 165, Post-war 182 and modern 282. These are great accessories.

That is on our list.

We have the Coal Loader and just picked up the Log Loader. We also have a Milk Car.

If the boy is old enough, the Lionel Crane and Boom cars are mucho fun (but, mucho money too). The Legacy controlled set got a lot of play time on my Christmas layout this year .... kids and adults .... clearing the track.

Jim

To me, the 397 Coal Loader. Loud, lots of action and it throws coal everywhere. Couple it with the unloading ramp and you have even more action and more mess.
All the best,
Miketg

Favorite accessory? The lighting effect from a scratch-built radio antenna. Sorry I can't post pics, because I'm rather proud of it. It's painted in alternating bands of red and white, like a real one, and I used Minitronics lights also arranged like the "prototype". I installed "stands" in the antenna to display the lights from, and have them alternating. Two lights on steady, the next one up is flashing, the next two together on steady and the one on top is flashing. I studied a lot of real antennas to come up with that.

The tricky part was picking the right flasher board and bundling the wiring thru the whole structure so it would look like just one cable.

I also built in four guy wires to the ground for extra support.

The next project will be a scratch-built radio station with a flashing window sign that will say "On The Air" and a lit sign with the call letters. The letters will be the initials of our grandson.

sounds very cool. cmon, let us see it...

The new Bethlehem culvert unloader and loader that were just received this past month have been hooked up and both work and look great. Looks great in my hirail layout. These work so much better then the PW versions. Been after a set of culverts for many years and decided to add them now. Glad i did.


Dave

#1 on my list is the American Flyer Oil Drum Loader. Mine is a old one from around 1950, and still works perfectly (don't know about the new ones). I raised mine a bit to work with "O" gondolas.

The Sunoco oil derrick and the AF oil drum loader.They look great together!!

Ricky

I've got most of the postwar accessories and operating cars (my field of interest), but I'd have to say that the sawmill is the favorite - the action and sound give the perfect illusion that logs are actually being cut.

I've always liked the #97 Coal Elevator, although much of the coal doesn't make it to the gondola.

All mentioned are great I have them all on my layout. Don't forget the Milk car new or old there fun.

My favorite is the rotary coal tipple.

Jamie

My postwar Lionel 264 Forklift platform, Postwar 342 and 345 Culvert Loader and Unloader, are my all time favs. Cant go wrong with the 282 Gantry Crane, or the 175 Rocket Launcher either!

I am part of modular group that displays several times a year. We try to
number of accessories with actuating buttons on the outside. Show after show, the milk car seems to be the favorite, followed by sawmill and icing station.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe Hohmann:
#1 on my list is the American Flyer Oil Drum Loader. Mine is a old one from around 1950, and still works perfectly (don't know about the new ones). I raised mine a bit to work with "O" gondolas.

Joe - I have the Lionel 6-12862 repro and it's my favorite also. A Jr. High train buddy had the original and I've wanted one ever since. I had to raise mine 1/2" to work with my O-31 tube track and it took a little speed tuning to get the forklift driver to stop dropping drums. Looks like the Flyer version first turned up in the 1955 Catalog.

Pete

The Lionel #362 Barrel Loader. I spent endless fascinated hours with that one as a kid, and I still think it's a clever design that's great to watch and use.

quote:

Originally posted by CVette:
I'm trying to plan a layout for my son and he seems to like switching. What is your favorite operating accessory or what might you suggest? I like the idea of processing items, like loading logs, taking them to a mill and making lumber. Any suggestions on what brand and accessory to buy?
Thanks!

How much space do you have? Placing between tracks? Like tin look or more realistic? I think cranes have great options. Can be rigged to pick up all sorts of stuff (magnetic?), containers with loops, bundles with chains or wired together. Also less mess than coal.

K line made a neat looking little sawmill & the Pw Flyer sawmill has been redone and is pretty small.

Good luck, John

My son enjoyed the MTH helicopter car, MTH fire station, McDonalds, 165 crane and Flyer Coaling Tower.

Seeing the accessories in operation might help you make up your mind. Here are videos of several of mine in action.
1. 3472 Operating Milk Car
2. 6-12706 Manual Barrel Loader modified with a solenoid for remote activation.
3. 3359 Twin Bin Dump Car
4. 3444 Animated Cop & Hobo Car
5. 2316 N&W Gantry Crane with homemade electromagnet and forward/reverse crane operation
6. Mail Bag Pick Up\
7. 9301 US Mail Car with mail drop
8. 9300 Log Dump Car
9. 3361 Log Dump Car


My favorite operating accessory is the Lionel Gantry Crane. It has lots of play value and can load and unload a variety of objects.

The American flyer repo coal loader by MTH. Just love moving the crane up and down. I use aquarium gravel for coal.

I just acquired a Lionel Tie Jector car, while not an accessory it operates flawlessly and ejects ties as it goes down the track. Very neat action. It would easily be used and operated by a young child too. They could load the ties, eject them and then collect them up again and reload the car. No fancy wiring or hard to adjust mechanicals/voltage to make it work.

The operating accessories on my layout that seem to capture a child's attention the most, all involve "little people" doing something. The ice depot, oil drum loader, forklift platform, freight station and operating switch tower where one guy ducks back into the building and another "runs" down the steps seem to fascinate children.

Heck, they still fascinate me!

Curt

The PW 264 Lumber Loader

The Gantry Crane is a lot of fun...loading/unloading scrap and various parts. Mine is one of the newer TMCC version, but I use it conventionally.

I have a Lionel re-issue of the Anerican Flyer 787 log loader. MTH also re-issued the 787. I really enjoy this item. I set it between two tracks so I can dump logs on one side and load on the other.

I am waiting for the culvert loader/unloader to arrive. These are must haves.

David from Dearborn has a good idea of letting you see the operating accessories in action.

In my video below, you will see

Lionel PWC barrel car(repainted)...at 4:12

K-line operating milk car(repainted)...at 7:30

MTH log dump car(repainted)...at 9:03

787 log loader(Lionel re-issue)...at 10:00

397 coal loader(re-issue)...at 11:30

MTH six wheel search light car...throughout the video

Whoa! Thanks a ton everyone! Lot's of action to go check out. These are perfect suggestions. Thanks for the videos David and CandO.

I like the Postwar stuff since it's nostalgic to me but I think I like the reissues more because they are quieter. CandO's milk car is so much more quiet than the postwar I'm used to. Some may like the buzzing but it starts to get to me.

Thanks again everyone!

I know it is late in the game , but I would like to add my two cents in favor of the American Flyer Oil Drum Loader and its Lionel/AF descendents (with the excepti0on of the the first Lionel version). Kids love to both watch and play with them. That is based on watching the reactions of children to this accessory at over two decades of doing train displays.

Belatedly, I hope this helps.

Ed Boyle

I've said this before, but I guess repeating it is OK. If there were such a thing, I think what would be really popular is a fully operational grain elevator facility, starting with a grain truck that is emptied by tilting the whole truck (like a real one) and complete it with loading into grain hoppers. I'd add sound effects too.

I'd get someone like Riceland to license the use of their name and logo for it.

An operating underground coal mine would be cool too, with the main feature being the loading of the coal into coal hoppers. An open pit mine would be more interesting, but would require too much real estate. There're all sorts of prototype coal company names that could be used or you could name it after yourself. Many coal mines are in fact small independently owned operations. I'd also like to see a model of a continuous miner machine brought in on a flatcar.

A family member has the nuclear power plant--it is fun to watch.
Norm

It's hard to pick just one or two for that matter. Kids and adults love watching the accessories in general. For operating, the magnetic gantry crane is the favorite. I allow older kids to operate the gantry crane. It's very interactive. The milk car is still the crowd favorite as far as watching in addition to the the horse corral, although the corral is not as forgiving as the milk car! As a kid I really liked operating the 027 switches. (As an adult, I live in fear of switches and their subsequent problems!!) I've also noticed little kids really like watching the cars uncouple and recouple.

Warning, once you start collecting accessories and operating cars you may not be able to stop! You'll notice we all have our favorites, but you'll also notice the same ones keep popping up in this thread.

By the way, Mr. Roland La Voie wrote some very informative sections reviewing accessories and operating cars in the old "Greenberg's Model Railroading with Lionel Trains" book. Your library system may have a copy.

Good luck! Have fun!

Rick G.

Culvert loader/unloader is onem of my favorites, too. Kids like the MTH firehouse.

quote:

Originally posted by Miketg:
To me, the 397 Coal Loader. Loud, lots of action and it throws coal everywhere. Couple it with the unloading ramp and you have even more action and more mess.
All the best,
Miketg

Agreed, except that it doesn't have to "throw coal everywhere." I power mine (postwar, of course) with its own transformer/throttle so that I can control the speed of operation at all times, including when it's cold and also when it has warmed up. Using the right "coal" and ensuring that the transparent "spatter shield" is properly positioned also help.

If it does throw a little coal, so what? Has anyone ever seen a coal yard that didn't have some coal strewn around. I have a friend in western Maryland where CSX coal trains run right next to his property. He has never paid a penny to heat his house....

We have my dad's original cattle corral installed on the layout. I think it is my favorite, even though we also have a 282 crane and a culvert loader. For some reason, this accessory always gets a bad rap! Ours works fine. One trick that Dad discovered long ago is to install it tilted--i.e., with the rear of the corral in the higher "O" slots and the side next to the tracks in the lower "O-27" slots. Seems to help the movable ramps mate up better, at least on ours. It's best to power the corral independently of the track, of course; and best to operate it with the cattle car coupled to an engine, so it doesn't vibrate away from the platform. Replacing the rubber washers in the cars and in the corral helped a lot. Interestingly, the 60 year-old rubber cows themselves are still supple and work flawlessly.

If you "drive" carefully, you can use the corral to load cattle into the car, and then take them to another location. Your corral can be a lineside stop to "rest" the cattle. Or it can be part of a slaughterhouse complex. Or it can be a stock pen where ranchers bring cattle to load onto the train. Or maybe it can belong to some sort of "stock" broker, where cattle might be loaded or unloaded depending who is buying or selling. (Ours seems to vary, based on whether the cattle are in the car or in the corral at the moment).

quote:

Originally posted by CVette:
I'm trying to plan a layout for my son and he seems to like switching. What is your favorite operating accessory or what might you suggest? I like the idea of processing items, like loading logs, taking them to a mill and making lumber. Any suggestions on what brand and accessory to buy?
Thanks!

Depending on your sons age the best value I've is the crane & boom caboose....The most enjoyable also are operating accessories that load and unload electroically... I only use Lionel and most of mine I got in the 40's & 50's....

We have most of the operating accesories in place and believe the 282 Gantry Crane seems to be the favorite.
Doug Murphy - Wondering what you did to your coal loader to get the bucket to dig into the Aquarium gravel? We have added weight to the bucket but it still doesn't want to dig in while it is closing. Thank you

I have quite a few operating accessories on my layout but the one I really like and the one that seems to be a favorite among my guests is the Lionel Scrapyard.

This accessory has a lot of action and the welding scene impresses everyone.



Steve Tapper

The ones I care for the best are the lights, signal lights, grade crossing gates and lights that operate. They make a layout come alive. I like to Light up everything that can be lite.