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Written by Paul D. Race for Family Garden Trains(tm)
Lionel(r) and other companies have been making "O-gauge" trains for over a century. This means that the "aftermarket" for buildings, figures, and other accessories to go with these trains has been growing almost as long. Train-loving families have also learned that setting out those accessories is one of the most fun aspects of setting up a model railroad, display village, or train set. In fact, my kids always seemed to like setting out the accessories (and rearranging them for various effects) as much as they liked running the trains. These accessories certainly add to the "play value" for all ages.
The Big Christmas Train catalog currently lists two chief classes of these accessories:
I have also stuck mostly to products that will take up very little space on your railroad, but add a great deal of interest.
Now for the "caveat," such as it is. Some of the structures shown on the photos below have been "weathered" a little to make them look slightly less plastic You can achieve the same effect by watering down some black acrylic craft paint, putting it into an old Windex bottle and spraying it on the structures until they look a little grungy. Once the stain has worked its way into the cracks, you may want to wipe the stain off the smooth parts of the surface, so the details and woodgrain show up, let the whole thing dry thoroughly, then give it one more overall coat to make it look less plastic. There are lots of other ways to "weather" structures, but this will give the effect shown in the photos. Alternatively, you might want to get some flat paint (the .99 flat spray paint stuff from WalMart is as useful as just about anything else) and paint over the plastic before you put the structure together. I recommend that for the "Union Station" especially. Again, painting and weathering is optional - when you get these things out of the box, you may decide you like them just the way they are (most people do); I just wanted to give you an option. For more details about painting and weathering structures, please see the Primer articles in the Family Garden Trains site.
Note about Availability and Pricing: Although I try to keep an eye on things and to recommend products that are reasonably available, the model train market does fluctuate, and any product on this page may change price or become unavailable without prior notice. If you "click through" to see details on a product, and nothing happens at all, or you are routed to a supplier's home page, please let me know and I will remove the product from the online catalog until I can find a replacement or another supplier. For more detailed information about why products seem to come and go and why I have stopped listing prices for certain products, please see my article "About Pricing and Availability."
Note about Suppliers: While we try to help you get the products you want by recommending suppliers with a good record of customer service, all transactions between you and the supplier you chose to provide your trains or other purchases are governed by the published policies on the supplier's web site. So please print off any order confirmation screens and save copies of invoices, etc., so you can contact the appropriate supplier should any problems occur. (They almost never do, but you want to be on the safe side.)
Platform Fence - As odd as it may sound, a little bit of fencing can bring a sense of establishment and order to your communities and farms like nothing else. A fence can turn a meadow into a lawn, a wilderness into a pasture, or a vacant lot into a city park. This fence accessory is great with both indoor and out-of-door trains. Used with O-Scale or O-Gauge (indoor) trains, it is the right size to represent the fences that keep non-ticketed passengers from wandering into the wrong areas at large stations. Used with Large Scale trains, it is the right size to represent a picket fence. The posts are designed so that it is easy to create different configurations from the one shown (as long as you use all right angles). I have been using a stretch of this outside to fence a farm off from the right-of-way. I should paint it with a white primer to make it a little more UV-resistant, but I have had no trouble with it so far.
Rustic Fence - Out in the country, this fence may look more at home than the white pickets above. Again, the posts are made so you can configure this fence in many different shapes.
Street and Boulevard Lights - If you're never going to get around to wiring the streetlights on your railroad or display village anyway, this set will bring detail and dimension to your "city" settings in a few moments. And they do sort of "light up" - the lamps are made out of "glow-in-the-dark" plastic that provide a dim glimmer when the room lighting is switched off. I wouldn't encourage my miniature people to try to read by their light, though. Each lamp base has two small holes so the lamps can easily be tacked into place.
"Through" Girder Bridge - Real world railroads only used "through" bridges when they had to leave room for boats, trucks, or other trains to pass underneath the right-of-way. The nice thing about these is you can put them almost anywhere on a model railroad or display village and they look great without taking up any room to speak of. And for some reason, watching the train go through something adds unique visual interest. (If you want to gouge out a channel or paint a river underneath the bridge, you can, of course.)
Signal Bridge - In the "real world" signal bridges inform engineers if the next stretch of track is safe to travel. Chances are your indoor railroad or display village isn't running so many trains at once that this is a worry. Nevertheless this accessory takes up very little space and adds a lot of visual interest.
Windmill with Farm Machinery - Again, this structure adds vertical interest while taking up almost no room whatsoever. I think the little guy on the tractor looks kind of funky, but some of the other toys, like the old pickup, are useful.
Water Tower - Few structures summon the age of the "iron horse" as much as the water tower, which will also add a vertical dimension to your railroad. This Bachmann model is molded in color and snaps together easily. That said, if you feel like painting it some other color, you certainly may.
Union Station - A classic big-city station that will fit into a very small space if you need it to (simply by reusing the platform extensions somewhere else). One of these graced my American Flyer layout for many years when I was much younger, so having this in my catalog is probably as much about nostalgia as it is about usefulness. That said, this structure is attractive and inexpensive. If you plan to light it from the inside, you might consider spray-painting it inside and out first, to cut down on the "radioactive"-looking glow of the light coming through the walls. It also gets rid of the plastic "sheen." It's very simple to lay the white pieces out separately, spray them with 99-cent gray primer (or $3 flat white primer, which is harder to find), then with 99-cent flat white, let the whole thing dry an extra day, then snap it together. You'd be surprised how a little extra effort and $2 worth of paint makes this building fit in with the most elaborate display village. (If you want to get really elaborate, hit the hit the green parts with a coat of $3 satin [not glossy] Hunter Green, then hit the gray parts with the gray primer and a bit of the "stain" I described above.)
For more details about painting and weathering structures, please see
the Painting Plastic Structures article in the Family Garden Trains site.
Rerailer - This rerailer not only makes it simple to get and keep your On30 or HO trains on track; it also makes a nice "grade crossing" (the place where roads cross the rails).
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Note: Family Garden Trains(tm), Garden Train Store(tm) and Big Christmas Trains(tm) are trademarks of Breakthrough Communications (www.btcomm.com). All information, data, text, and illustrations on this web site are
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