Besides operating trains, I also like to enjoy the operation of operating cars and animated accessories. Here is a video a few on my home layout. You will see a Lionel 3472 Milk Car, Modern Barrel Unloader, 3359 Twin Bin Dump Car, 3444 Cop & Hobo Animated Car, 2316 Operating Gantry Crane, Mail Bag Pickup Accessory, 9301 US Mail Car with mail drop, 9300 Log Dump Car, 3361 Log Dump Car.
The Operating Gantry Crane is particularily interesting. I put the crane structure on a 2 foot length of 027 rails and then added a small DC motor connected directly to a 2 foot length of threaded rod. The nut on the rod is then connected to the crane leg. Operating the motor will cause the crane to slowly move back and forth on the rail. I also made my own electromagnet that works well and doesn’t overheat.
The 6-12706 barrel loader was made by Lionel a few years ago, I think. It’s a simple inexpensive ($10) snap together plastic kit that allows you to manually load the barrels by pushing on a lever located on the side of the platform. You can still see the lever in the video, I never did cut it off. A 12 volt solenoid that I purchased from allelectronics.com was added to the bottom of the platform. I added a string between the solenoid plunger and the lever mechanism and hot glued the solenoid in place. It works real well and I substituted homemade 55 gallon drums for the wooden barrels in the kit. They don’t jam as easily as the wooden barrels. It’s a great operating accessory and only cost about $15 including the solenoid. From the same time period, Lionel also made a Lumber Loader Kit (it actually loaded logs) that snaps together and is inexpensive. I wouldn’t recommend this kit, it mechanically doesn’t work well and is kind of silly the way it loads the logs.
Here is a photo of the Barrel Loader Kit. If the photos don’t show, it’s because my free website host only allows a limited number of hits per day, so you might try again tomorrow or the next day.
Here is a photo of my barrel loader. I also added a light over the shed.
Here is a closeup of the bottom. You can see how the solenoid is connected to the lever. The solenoid is at the top right and the lever is at the lower left.
It’s too bad that Lionel doesn’t offer this kit with an actuator. It’s a very compact accessory compared with Lionel’s Postwar Barrel Loader and it’s great on a small layout.
