Well last night I took the top cover off of the Lionel 42" remote switch I bought new last summer and removed the coil/plunger assembly after I cut some wires. Too late to return it to hobby shop. My layout is small enough that I don’t have to move much to switch the 3 Lionel 42" switches I have. I have 2 more of these used that I will disable next. They are both under the 2nd level. I think I will make some type of arm or cable system so I won’t have to reach all the way under to flip them.
Can I ask, why you disabline them? If you are thinking about a cable or arm system to actuate them, wouldnt the remote function they came with work better? Just curious.
These switches have a mind of their own. When a train is coming up from the top side of the “Y” the switch will flip for the other track and derail the train. When a train is coming up from the bottom side of the “Y” the switch flips right under the train and you guessed it, derail. I have the fiber pins in the correct places and started a thread on these switches last fall, and other people seem to have the same problems that I do. These switches remind me of a crazy neighbor I had 16 years ago. So instead of taking my anger out on them with a hammer I’m disabling the electronic gremlin and putting those parts in a box. Don’t worry I didn’t do anything to my crazy neighbor, I just moved away. I think these switches have been made for many years. You would think a company as big as Lionel could solve a problem as small as this one. There are a few more places that I could add 42" switches, but they won’t be new Lionels. Used maybe at a swap meet if they are cheap. Otherwise I could get some manual Ross Custom switches with the same footprint as the Lionels and they would look better.
This is an easy fix. Two wires were transposed at the factory, that’s all.
Rob
I think you nailed it Rob. that is exactly where I would look, and it matches the symptoms. The non-derailing feature seems to be cross wired.
Which wires? All the wires I saw when I did this on the new Lionel 42" switch were white. Snip snip.
Switch the non-common wires to the solenoid coils… probably the white ones - as the common wires are usually enameled. Even though I refer to them as “common”, they are common to the two coils only - and they attach to the center rails of the switch.
Rob
Since you’ve already disabled some of the switches, there are a couple of more traditional options you might look into.
One is automotive choke cables, if you can find them. The other is piano wire, which would be considerably more available.