Operating Accessories of The Upstairs Train

In addition to adding visual interest and realism to a train layout, Operating Accessories allow you operate it like a real world-railroad rather than simply running trains around in a circle.

#K766 Guilford Station and #735 Coach.  This was my mother's favorite.  She loved to watch the people move around the station platform, go down the ramp into the station, and come back up.  Then when they moved onto the passenger car, rode around the layout for a while and then disembarked, she could hardly contain herself!

#771 Stockyard.  I got this in the 1970s as part of a collection I bought. It's the favorite of most kids that come over to see The Upstairs Train.  Like the Guilford Station, the cows "walk" around their pens and go up the ramp into the livestock car when you open the gate.

#771 Stockyard from another side.  The black cows have moved up the ramp and into the livestock car.

This is the reproduction of Gilbert's #787 Log Loader by Mike's Train House (MTH).  It's an accessory I always wanted as a kid but never got.  I finally got a brand new one on eBay in 2003.  The little man in the blue overalls rides the carriage down under the building, picks up a log, carries it up over the waiting #914 log car, dumps it in the car, and returns for another log.  Here's a little closer look:

After a spin around the layout, the #914 log car tips up and dumps the logs back under the log loader so the process can be repeated.

Another of my mother's delights was the #718 Mail Car.  It tosses a mail bag out into the catcher that I made from my Erector Set.  As the train goes around the Lower Loop, I put the mail bag on the #713 pickup arm. As the mail car passes by, I press a control button and the metal arm comes out of the car to grab the mail bag and pull it into the car.  It's a wonderul thing to watch!

The #734 Operating Boxcar tosses a box out onto the station platform as it passes by.  L:ike the Log Loader, a man in blue overalls does the tossing.  Maybe they're cousins.

The #775 Baggage Loading Platform loads boxes into the #734 Operating Boxcar.  I got it after the layout was built and landscaped so there's no place for it.  I use it as an accessory when I set up a floor layout to play with any of the kids that come over to play.  The #K775 is the same but it came with the knuckle coupler #974 Operating Boxcar rather than the link coupler #734.

If you or your friends have some American Flyer trains and would like them to go to a nice home where they'll be loved and cared for, this is the place!  Email me: theupstairstrain@yahoo.com.  See my Wish List for the items I want most.

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