438 Signal Tower - What's With the Knife Switches?

Actually they could be used for turning accessories on and off, but more likely they were intended to disconnect power to an isolated track section such as a siding or a block section on your railroad. To operate switches you would need a switch that throws in two directions rather than 1. The larger Lionel switch tower has a row of these single throw knife switches. (as does the American Flyer switch tower) But on the Lionel there is a place to mount two of the Lionel "heel" shaped early switch controllers.

Roland

Thanks for the info, Roland.  Makes sense about them being used for isolated sections and blocks.  

The instruction sheets I have for the Switch towers (437 & 438) as well as the Huge 840 powerhouse show routing through the knife switches for lights, buildings, accessories and track power (with a rheostat) both main lines and a siding...  The "heel" shaped switch controllers are just that.

As usual, Roland is right on the ball!

Glad to help if I can

Roland

Here are some knife switches with Switch controllers on a 439 Panel Board.

I'm new to the group. Just was wondering, Does anyone know of a on line source for an instruction sheet for 438 tower? Was wondering how the knife switches are supposed to be hooked up. There's wiring up to the screws on the back wall of the tower, but not  on the opposite sides of the knife switches. Are you just supposed to make your own jumpers & leads? I have the same one pictured above.

Try one of Bob Osterhoffs discs.  

Well, if you look at the 2nd photo that's posted above, you will see a silver screw to the left of the left knife switch. That screw has a wire on the inside of the tower that taps into one of the wires to the light bulb at the top. The screws are insulated from the sheet metal of the tower. I made a brass jumper tab to go between the screws & the top of the knife switches so it would look good without ugly extra wires. Then I had to find matching screws for the bottom of the knife switches because they didn't come with any. Then I ran a black insulated wire up through the base hole along the existing black wire harness inside the underframe so that you don't really notice it & then connected it to the bottom of the knifes. I would have figured, for the money, they could have included all that or at least put it on some instructions. Unless the paper work was missing, I don't know. But anyone without any kind of knowledge of toy trains would be lost on how to hook that up if you wanted to use those switches. Maybe they're assuming that they're just for show, but for that kind of cash I want them to work!

The screw you referenced and the one on the other side hold the black back plate on. Which in turn holds the knife switch assembly. On mine the 2 terminals at the bottom are connected to 2 wires in a black sleeve that go directly into the light bulb. Mine is missing 3 of the 4 screws for the knife switches. I do not use them.

Too make things neater I would drill 2 holes in the Black back plate and run the 4 wires down the sleeve and connect under the layout. Otherwise the 4 wires were meant to dangle.

What MTH/LCT makes today is a reflection of what was made in the past. If they left the knife switches off people would be up in arms. If they added and ran wires with 4 terminals added to the bottom,buyers would claim not like the original. They wisely made it like the original.

Hey, thanks to all for the replies. I had forgotten about this thread after starting it a number of months back.

Railroaded – Interesting about the screw and internal wire. I need to grab my tower and take a look. And what was disappointing was that the paperwork included with this was simply one sheet directing you to run wires to the binding posts for the lights. Duh.

So there was an instruction sheet then. Guess mine didn't have one then because, even though this one was brand new in the box, I didn't even get that piece of paper you're talking about. I searched around everywhere & didn't find one thing about those knife switches besides this here thread. I just hooked up my tower the way I described above & it looks pretty darn good. You don't see my additional wiring, or at least if you do go & look, it's pretty well hidden & looks neat. Like I said, for the price I payed I'd have hoped for them to be pre-wired & have the proper amount of screws, but I guess they don't expect you to use those switches. Someone with no knowledge or small tools would have a hard time figuring it out or they might scratch or break something trying to rig it up. I was real careful not to damage the piece but it wasn't real easy to work in there.

not much there.

Yep, exactly. That's what came with mine.

Ok then, I guess you're right, I'm not missing anything. Why did they even bother? Thanks 4 posting so I could see it anyway.