I have 4 HO Lionel turnouts (18" radius, 2 left, 2 right) that only mechanically work one way. The solenoids try to move the points in the other direction, but won’t. When I manually move the points, it feels like there’s something binding in the switch machine.
Is there a good lubricant I can try? I’m going to try to blow out the mechanical portion at work with shop air (I’m a mechanic) in case there’s some trash of some kind in there.
These are really well made and I’d really like to use them on my layout, but unless I can get them to work reliably, they’re basically scrap.
Note–they’ve been in storage for quite some time. My father-in-law gave them to me and said that he got them when he was a kid.
Remove the switch machine, get the TOs operating smoothly.
Make sure the solenoids operating smoothly - there may be dirt inside. If you cannont get them to operate smoothly, you can always use a different switch machine.
Easy on the air !! 80 psi air straight out of the nozzle will shatter HO track. Turn out way down - like 10 psi.
For lubricant: you need plastic compatible hobby lubricant like LaBelle.
The swich machine is molded to the ties, so no real way of changing the machine.
Popped the cover off the machine that felt like it was binding the worst–no foreign objects or obvious damage. Checked continuity of the solenoid coils of all 4 turnouts–only .3 ohm difference between them.
Got an age estimate on these (and the sections of track that came with them). Right around 50 years. They’ve probably been in storage for 49 years. The rail on them shines just like it came out of the package today.