Your favorite accessory & Why?

Gee Peter, that Forklift Driver would be FIRED for a bad job like that!

Several years ago I saw a Lionel Dispatch Board at a train show for cheap. The seller was honest, said he was not sure it would work because he hadn't run it, having obtained it from a collection he bought.

Unlike many of you folks, who are highly talented and skilled mechanically, I'm not. But I took a chance because it was priced to sell, and I always loved the look (especially the light green color of the Board and the big blue figure that runs from one side to the other when activated) and operation  of this accessory. It is toylike, totally out of scale, child-like, not realistic, but fun, attractive and charming, and I love the whole idea of it and everything else about it.

When I hooked it up and applied the power, it did not work.😂 Then, I took it apart, cleaned it (there were dead insects in the mechanism), applied a drop or two of oil and a little WD40, and it worked. Hooray! 😀

Now, I'll see if it still works. I'm optimistic. If it does, I'll make a short video and take a picture or two. 

And now ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the Postwar Lionel  Dispatch Board on the Cribari layout in Yorktown Heights, NY (your supposed to applaud and cheer now-LOL).

First, the pictures showing the Dispatch Board on a siding near a passenger station so passengers know when trains are arriving and departing:

And now, the big moment, a 12 second video showing this fabulous accessory in action:

A feature you can't see is that when the button is pressed, in addition to the figure moving, the name of the train changes, ie, the SP Daylight to the Santa Fe Super Chief, or something like that.

Just when I thought the command culvert loader and unloader I got could not be toped. I got this. It was new in the box unused from an estate sale. Not cheap and limited as far as number of them put out by lionel. Not to mention no avilable parts from lionel either.luckly other than a minor adjustment it works flawlessly. Its back in the box for now untill I can get my dream layout to put it on. The only bad thing is now I have to collect more rotary coal cars to use with it.

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

Just when I thought the command culvert loader and unloader I got could not be toped. I got this. It was new in the box unused from an estate sale. Not cheap and limited as far as number of them put out by lionel. Not to mention no avilable parts from lionel either.luckly other than a minor adjustment it works flawlessly. Its back in the box for now untill I can get my dream layout to put it on. The only bad thing is now I have to collect more rotary coal cars to use with it.

Roger, I have not seen this in person, but have read about it, probably on this Forum, and it seems very cool and desirable. Glad it works.

The old barrel loader with the wooden barrels.

jim sutter posted:

The old barrel loader with the wooden barrels.

A classic and maybe the first accessory I got for Christmas as a 4 or 5 year old around 1956.

The barrel loader, operating milk car snd platform, operating cattle car and corral, will always be near and dear to my heart, and probably many of your hearts, but

The accessories I most love now are the ones I did not get as a child either because my parents couldn't afford them or they may have thought were  dangerous for a child, to wit: the 282 Magnet crane (way too expensive), the 97 coal loader (maybe pricey), the rocket launcher (very powerful spring that could easily take s child's eye out), the #38 water tower that uses real water (not a good idea to mix electricity, real water and young children), the Dispatch Board (probably pricey).

Arnold,

    Mine has always been the Hellgate Bridge, I even kept the write up in Toy Tain Magazine from long ago.  IMO as an Engineer Lionel did this one right.

PCRR/Dave

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

Arnold,

    Mine has always been the Hellgate Bridge, I even kept the write up in Toy Tain Magazine from long ago.  IMO as an Engineer Lionel did this one right.

PCRR/Dave

Beautiful

I think I most desire the Hellgate Bridge, but like a lot of those listed above, I don't see how I can fit one in my layout. Maybe someday.

Sadly, out of the things I own, my favorite is the one I stupidly broke. My Marx automatic gateman. I like the gatemen from Lionel as well, but I just love the colors of the Marx accessories, and my Gateman was still unused when I found it, so it looked great. Then I messed it up. Luckily, some guys at the TCA show in Philly last weekend directed me to an outfit that carries replacement parts, so I ordered what I need just yesterday. Hopefully, I will have him back out directing traffic soon.

Awesome Mike CT, next only to your farm scenes.

The first two are of my dad's 60+ year-old AF oil drum loader and milk car (video shot in the early stages of building his layout). My grandfather worked for Bell Aircraft and one day brought in one of the oil drums and machined duplicates, so that my dad had at least twice as many as the number that came in the set. I'm not able to distinguish the originals from the duplicates. The third video is my Lionel milk car, which my dad found for a song at a hobby store that was shuttering its doors.

AF 779 Oil Drum Loader

AF 973 Operating Milk Car

Lionel 3482 Operating Milk Car

Probably the Lionel 313, although I do really like the 213 as well...  The 313 is big, noisy and works.  That said, I also love the other big three Lionel prewar accessories, the 97, 164, and 165. 

Hellgate Bridge, Bascule Bridge, AF Oil Drum loader, etc., all terrific.

Can the AF Oil Drum loader be made to work on O Gauge (three rail) layout? I would think so. And is the post war version affordable?

AF oil drum loader reminds me a little of the operating fork lift, one of my favorites.

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Can the AF Oil Drum loader be made to work on O Gauge (three rail) layout? I would think so. And is the post war version affordable?

Yes, it is compatible with O gauge. It runs off of accessory power, so you'd just need to make sure that deck is high enough—shim as is necessary. You can find the postwar version on Ebay for ~$115-$165, and the reproduction for ~$100.

the rocket launcher (very powerful spring that could easily take s child's eye out),

I guess that if you tried real hard you could cause a serious eye injury with a Postwar Lionel Rocket or Missile launcher. How would it happen accidentally?

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

And now ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the Postwar Lionel  Dispatch Board on the Cribari layout in Yorktown Heights, NY (your supposed to applaud and cheer now-LOL).

First, the pictures showing the Dispatch Board on a siding near a passenger station so passengers know when trains are arriving and departing:

And now, the big moment, a 12 second video showing this fabulous accessory in action:

 

A feature you can't see is that when the button is pressed, in addition to the figure moving, the name of the train changes, ie, the SP Daylight to the Santa Fe Super Chief, or something like that.

Received one for a Christmas gift when I was a tad younger and still have it. The man was lost but picked up a repro in the late 80's, fun accessory

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

And now ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the Postwar Lionel  Dispatch Board on the Cribari layout in Yorktown Heights, NY (your supposed to applaud and cheer now-LOL).

First, the pictures showing the Dispatch Board on a siding near a passenger station so passengers know when trains are arriving and departing:

And now, the big moment, a 12 second video showing this fabulous accessory in action:

 

A feature you can't see is that when the button is pressed, in addition to the figure moving, the name of the train changes, ie, the SP Daylight to the Santa Fe Super Chief, or something like that.

Received one for a Christmas gift when I was a tad younger and still have it. The man was lost but picked up a repro in the late 80's, fun accessory

There are so many Post war accessories, most are mentioned above.
Like the Oil rig with the bubblier and the pumping action. Rotating beacons. These make up a great layout.
I also like the operating helicopter car and when operated hitting the ceiling and knocking down some of my accessories when it landed. How many of you used the operating submarine in your swimming pools? Great fun.

Yes, the AF Drum Loader works fine with O gauge.  I have many (all) of the Lionel PW listed above and like them all pretty equally.  But, one of my favorites is a prewar 313 Bascule Bridge someone had spray painted all silver.  I was surprised, and a bit down, when I found it was the grey version as I stripped off the silver spray paint.  But, it is one I have restored and have others in original condition.  They can be difficult to have operate properly, but when level and adjusted, they are a great accessory to have.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275  

texastrain posted:

Yes, the AF Drum Loader works fine with O gauge.  I have many (all) of the Lionel PW listed above and like them all pretty equally.  But, one of my favorites is a prewar 313 Bascule Bridge someone had spray painted all silver.  I was surprised, and a bit down, when I found it was the grey version as I stripped off the silver spray paint.  But, it is one I have restored and have others in original condition.  They can be difficult to have operate properly, but when level and adjusted, they are a great accessory to have.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275  

Thanks Jesse.

Arnold

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

jackiejr posted:

97 coal loader

Spectacular, the way you blended in the 97 coal loader with the other structures in the top 2 pictures, and that switcher looks great in the scene.

Absolutely beautiful way to place the 97 coal loader. My favorite accessories are the MTH coaling tower, Lionel milk car, Fork lift and 282 Crane.  Having a realistic O scale scratch build layout,yet to figure out how to disguise these accessories best for realism.

C W Burfle posted:

the rocket launcher (very powerful spring that could easily take s child's eye out),

I guess that if you tried real hard you could cause a serious eye injury with a Postwar Lionel Rocket or Missile launcher. How would it happen accidentally?

The lawyer in me thinks of these things. The child could have his face near the rocket launcher, perhaps standing up with the accessory on the floor and looking down when launching the rocket. It sounds unlikely, but strange things like this can happen especially with little kids involved. 

The missle launching train car does not have as powerful a spring, but it doesn't take much to injure an eye. One child could point it at another child and launch the missle. This is probably more likely to happe than the rocket launcher accident.

Matt GN027,

   The AF Oil Can Loader is one of my favorites, and I have never owned one because I have no AF layout.  A way cool piece of Tin From the 50's/60's  I love it!  I often wondered if I could now retro-fit one to my FT/Tin Plate layout in some way.

PCRR/Dave

I love the 97 coal loader, 352 ice station, 352 log loader, the AF 787 log loader, 282R crane, 445 switch tower.... list goes on & on 

Alot of my accessories are packed away as they are too out of scale for the layout now .

Favorite was the ubiquitous gate-man with the seven foot blue man swinging his lantern.  Next was the coal conveyor loader that threw coal everywhere but the bin, and coal ramp with its N&W coal car.

Ah memories....

The magnetic gantry crane is on my list. I don't have room for any other accessories but the crane can straddle a siding. I would motorize the base so it moves back and fourth like several have done here on the forum.

Bob

The lawyer in me thinks of these things. The child could have his face near the rocket launcher, perhaps standing up with the accessory on the floor and looking down when launching the rocket. It sounds unlikely, but strange things like this can happen especially with little kids involved. 

Sure would hurt. But serious damage?
Regardless, let's not find out

Arnold if you are going to Trainstock this Saturday you can see the rotary tipple up close and in action.

The Lionel 352 ice station has always been a favorite of mine. Having grown up in what was  then a small Southern California farm town where Sunkist and Calavo were the biggest facilities for miles. Both were serviced by a once a day Santa Fe train. Both had an ice house and wharf with a line of refrigerated cars being loaded with ice in a manner similar to the Lionel model but a lot bigger. The Sunkist facility was huge Calavo's was good size but not close to the dimensions of the Sunkist ice plant. It's a pleasant link to a home town that exists today in name but is no longer anything like the place I grew up. Today it's suburbia with all vestiges of the 1940's and 50's farming community wiped away except for some street names.

Bogie

don't have em yet but its a 3way tie between the lionel diesel maintainance station lionel swing bridge and lionel lift bridge why ? because i like to see big diesels go through the brush rollers and bells go off and lights and steam looks awesome 

the swing bridge because i am thinking about modding one into an elevated turntable don't ask me why i got crazy ideas 

the lift bridge because its freaking huge and i like huge things

164 log loader & 165 magnet crane. Got them as a child between 1938- 1940.

Jackiejr, I like what you did with the 97 coal elevator.

Matt_GNo27 posted:

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Can the AF Oil Drum loader be made to work on O Gauge (three rail) layout? I would think so. And is the post war version affordable?

Yes, it is compatible with O gauge. It runs off of accessory power, so you'd just need to make sure that deck is high enough—shim as is necessary. You can find the postwar version on Ebay for ~$115-$165, and the reproduction for ~$100.

Thanks Matt.

Arnold

coach joe posted:

Arnold if you are going to Trainstock this Saturday you can see the rotary tipple up close and in action.

Thanks for letting me know, Joe. I got a conflict, but hope to meet you and our other friends on this Forum later this year.

coach joe posted:

Arnold if you are going to Trainstock this Saturday you can see the rotary tipple up close and in action.

Is that a Lionel one, or the one made by AAA Precision Turntables? (they operate slightly differently, I believe - not sure the AAA model clamps down on the cars?)

It's been a few years since I've been, but I think I remember this scene may be a bit in from the end with the city and Helical curves (window side of room), near a harbor scene?

As to my own favorite, it's so hard to choose just one! 

Any of the large bridges (Lift (either version), Hellgate, Bascule, Swing) or items that load/unload things into rolling stock are winners in my book.  (Magnetic Crane, Crane with Clam-shell Bucket, 164 Log, Culvert pair, Ice Station, 456 Coal Ramp, etc). 

The only exception to this in my modern reproduction experience was unfortunately the Barrel Loader ramp.  I never could get mine adjusted to work properly for whatever reason.

-Dave

The 175 rocket launcher has always been my favorite. I bought it with money saved from my paperroute back in the early 1970's from Madison Hardware. Still have it today and both my eyes too. Miketg

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

Arnold,

    Mine has always been the Hellgate Bridge, I even kept the write up in Toy Tain Magazine from long ago.  IMO as an Engineer Lionel did this one right.

PCRR/Dave

Another excellent choice, Dave.  That's one of my favorite Lionel accessories too... so much so that I have THREE of them in this color scheme back-to-back-to-back on my new layout.