I’m in need of a few more switches for my layout. I can’t afford new O22s, and seem to hit or miss with the postwar O22s(about half of mine work great, about half hardly work).
A local shop has a handful of the older Gary Moreau O31 switches for a very good price, with all of the add-on tracks and other little odds and ends.
These switches have always intrigued me, but I’ve heard plenty of reports from folks who claim that they are problematic.
So, here are my questions
For KOOLJOCK and anyone else who has reported no problems with the switches-what is your feeling about the general performance of them? Are they as snappy as a properly operating O22? Are they smoother? Assuming I buy some, are there any precautions I should take(other than not turning the lantern, which will be a hard habit to break) in order to keep them working properly?
For folks who have had problems with them, what sort of specific problems have you had?
Also, I have an SC-1 which I would like to get hooked up and running. I have never had much luck getting it to work with O22s, however I have always assumed that it was probably designed to work best with these switches(considering that the SC-1 and the O31s came out about the same time, and the SC-2 replaced it about the same time the new O22s became available).
Okay here’s MY deal (I can’t speak for others!): IF you get a good one, it will be good for a lllooongg time. But if you get a bad one, it’ll crap out in no time.
Check them for operation at the store. Flip them back and forth by hand and under power a bunch. If it still works, you should be good to go!
I would say if your planning a permanent layout try to get your 022 postwars going. Nothing worse than ripping up problematic switches.
A properly tuned/cleaned up PW 022 is, as another poster stated, practically bulletproof. Except for the non-derail strap connection breaking from vibration (just make sure there’s a strong solder joint here), there’s not much that can ever go wrong with them.
As it turned out, the shop only had one. I needed an additional right hand switch, and that’s what this one was, so I ended up taking it. We tried it a bunch of times, and worked fine, so I’m fairly confident in it.
I ended up replacing it with one of the problematic O22s that was in the crossover between my two main lines. It works really well at 12 volts, which I’ve never been able to get an O22 to do, so I’m quite pleased with it in that respect.
As far as my O22s-I currently have five installed on my layout. Two of them are in really nice shape and consistently work fairly well. The other three came from a big lot I bought at a train show for next to nothing. All of them were in rough shape, but I cleaned up the better ones and used them. I’ve been over and over the motors-the mechanisms and contacts are all clean, and there’s no oil in the solenoids. Even at that, they won’t throw completely unless they’re getting a full lantern-melting 18 volts. Since I have all of my switches on a ZW variable output, I just crank it up right before throwing one, but I’d rather not have to do it.
Anyway, thanks again-I’m happy with the one I ended up with. I also ended up getting two free UCS tracks for agreeing to rewire two for the shop owner, so I’m now where I want to be both on switches and operating tracks for my layout.
The real key to O-22 operation is not screwing on the housing when installing on the layout. That way when it needs to be cleaned you can get at the innards without a problem.
Ben, there is a solder joint that isn’t normally visible, it’s under the kraft paper insulator sheet on the bottom side of the upper half of switch. It can be cracked and not even be obviously visible when you are looking at it.
Well, I’ll be the first to admit that my pw022s are at 15 volts. MOre than your preferred 12 volts but still not really cranked up. At 15 my are real snappy and are super reliable.
Is the solder joint to which you’re refering in the motor housing itself? I’m well aware of the non-derailing joint which often fractured-in fact, on the several I reconditioned, I soldered a small wire jumper rather than trying to solder the strap directly to the rail.
Please advise if there’s another joint I should be looking at.
Thanks.
Mike,
If I could get all of my O22s to work alright at 15 volts, I’d be happy. As I said, though, several of mine need a full 18 volts to work correctly, which is way too high for my liking.
My real reason for wanting to keep them at 12 volts, though, is I want to be able to use my SC-1. The electronics in those are incredibly fragile, and I’ve heard horror stories of them frying if they are connected to too high of a voltage. 12 volts is optimum, and 15 would probably be pushing it.
It’s the one you’ve already found, sorry. BTW, the main issue with the SC-1 is it’s current handling capabilities (or lack theroff). I believe it max’s total power is less than a single “port” on the SC-2.
The one I bought back last month is still working great.
Last weekend, I grabbed a second one new in the box off of Ebay for what I would consider to be a great price(about what I paid for the first one).
Addmitedly, I was a bit aprehensive about this one, given that it hadn’t been tested. I received it on Friday, and, before installing this one, I tested it as Kooljock described. It held up just fine so, I went ahead and installed this one also.
Thus far, this one is working great.
I’ll also mention that this new one was marked “made in China” and the box was marked 23010. My first on was “Made in the USA” and marked 3011. I wasn’t aware of the fact that these switches had been made at all in China, however it appears as though that was the case.
The old post war Lionel 022 switches work great with a little clean-up every few months. I would rather have the older 022 switches than the modern 23010’s, the 23010’s are just breakdown babies in my opion!
Don’t have any personal experiance with newer Lionel tubular switches but have read on some posts here that the new tubular switches are real duds!
I have gone over to Gargraves track and switches, and have no regrets!