Where do you put operating accessories on your layout?

Operating accessories that need a helping hand often like the coaling station, milk platform and cattle pen need to be were they can be reached to give the helping hand.  It is also handy to have these accessories close to he operating transformer or button.

Charlie

If your layout is large enough, it is very desirable to get them off the mainline onto a spur.  Not tying up the mainline is the main reason (running trains on the main while operating on a spur, also a switching destination).  I have had trains bonk these accessories in the past on the main.   Best is to locate the accessory in an area that mimics where they would be in real life.  I am creating a farm on my next layout and plan the milk, cattle and horse cars there.     A number of these items are appropriate in a small industrial area (coal, cranes, merchandise).  Water tower in engine service area.

Bill

As you can see in the photo, I put them anywhere I can when I put boards up. A switched mainline, or a spur works. Below you can see crossing gates, gateman house, cattle loader, milk car loader, rotating beacon, and crossing bell and lighted yard tower. I did not have room for the log loader or the coal loader on this board. This was 2007 Greg

As you can see, in 2008, this layout had those other items, and also the coal loader and the log loader on here. An overall view appears below that. Hope this helps, Greg

Other FORUM-ites have offered good advice about accessory placement. Since you mentioned grandkids as "future Junior Engineers," here's my advice based on experience with my great grandkids -- Matthew (now 11) and Olivia (now 5).

* Place accessories on sidings located at the edge of the layout within short-arms-length for easy access. Kids may drop barrels, logs, and culverts -- and they'll naturally want to pick them up and put them back in place.

* Place the control button for each accessory on the fascia trim at the perimeter of your layout and in line with the accessory  for convenience of young activators. They'll move around the layout and activate each accessory - a better pattern than standing at a central control panel for all accessories.

* Allow kids to do some "five finger engineering" with accessories -- like moving a car to the exact position over an activation track section. picking up a log fallen off a log loader, picking up an errant culvert, nudging a barrel stuck on the vibrating ramp, etc.  To them, their intervention is "engineering."

* You'll soon discover that kids often prefer the action and fun of accessories to merely operating trains running in endless circles around the layout. Too soon boring.

* Since most action accessories are freight-handling related (instead of passenger related), your layout should favor freight service for their sake.

* On my layout, the most-favored action accessory for the grandkids is the Culvert Unloader and matching Culvert Loader. next-best:  the Lionel Sawmill and Oil Drum Loader.

*  Pricey accessories aren't necessarily the "favorite" of kids, such as:  Rocket Launcher, Nuclear Reactor.

* Sometimes, an improvised "accessory" becomes a hit. I created a Dinosaur Zoo on my layout with adult and juvenile dinos in corrals. The Lionel Dinosaur train parks at that siding and (according to Matthew) picks up animals and transports them to their summer feeding grounds and back.

* MTH iconic operating accessories (Gas Station, Car Wash, Fire Station, Mel's Diner) are clever with sound effects, but they seem to attract adults more than kids -- who may not have a long enough attention span to wait out the time it takes for the operational cycle.  FYI, kids may pay more attention to the firehouse dog peeing on the hydrant than on the action and sounds of the accessory.

Carry on ...

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

On spurs close to the layout edge……

Peter

Within easy reach for the kids.

A couple more photos.

Though it’s not completed yet, the plan for this layout is to have these accessories available to use on this shelf. It’s about 36” tall so the grandkids can operate and easily reload the barrels, ice cubes, logs and milk cans.