Purchasing operating accessories

Hi Chris • I purchase all my railroad operating accessories from my local brick & mortal authorized Lionel & MTH dealer. They have every operating accessory on display. My suggestion, see if you can find a dealer near your train layout. 

Good Luck

How good you are at repairing mechanisms may determine where you acquire your items.

First thing is to see what your interested in.

 You tube is a great place to see operating accessories in action.

Ebay offers a lot of different items. Some are overpriced, some need refurbishing.  If you search for a grade of C2 you can come up with a lot of items that need restoring, are missing parts, or can just be used for parts.

If your good with small assemblies there are sites that show you how to make little automated scenes with RC servos and such.

Bear in mind that trying to animate all your accessories automatically can be a little daunting, so I like the doorbell button approach.  For kids it is an interaction, when they press the doorbell button the scene animates. As a kid these were my favorite museum displays.  Even Lionel's gateman can be a little tiresome so let the kids push a button.

Sound can be activated this way as well.  Sound modules for greeting cards can be recorded by you for all kinds of sounds.

Imagination is more important than knowledge!

So far, all but one of my operating accessories have been purchased second-hand through this forum, choochooauctions, and eBay.

If you are fairly new to the hobby I think I would stick with new items. May save you a lot of frustration. If you have a local hobby shop/train store I would start there. That might be a safe source for used items as well, if the have a warranty on them and can fix anything that goes wrong. Some of the larger online dealers may have some things your local store may not have or be able to get.

I purchase 90% of all my train items from my local train store, I usually only buy things from the larger online dealers that they don't have and can't get. It's nice to have somewhere to go if you have problems, and they also do repairs.

Chris,

I second the post by rtr12. If you buy new you can always return if defective. The chances of this happening is very slim. You will build a reputation with you LHS. This alone is priceless.

God Bless,

"Pappy"

The best advice about buying operating accessories is to make sure they work before you install them on your layout.  Try to buy them new or make sure they work before you buy them. Even at a hobby shop test the accessory!

K-Line had a remote control out a few years back for their operating cars & accessories and it only controls the K-Line items made by K-Line and not K-Line by Lionel.

Williams will work with conventional control but their remote' controls only the Williams item! Unless upgraded to another system(any form of command control) all Williams operating cars only work with Williams remotes(no command control) and the same for Williams by Bachmann, only the WBB remote works with WBB.

A Williams remote might control the K-Line item but the K-Line remote won't control the Williams item.

Lee Fritz