Lionel 445 Switch Tower Perspective

Great Question, and I have one on my layout, it’s really a crowd pleasing kind of accessory with the man going down the stairs, and one coming inside the upstairs room. I replaced the bulb with a 24 volt bulb to lower the brightness.... Of course I recommend your adding one of these Lionel Icons to your layout....Happy Railroading 

I believe the story is correct, but I don't remember where I first heard it (maybe a video covering PW accessories, magazine article, discussion with my dad or other train friends, etc.)

I will say the illusion isn't present in any of these models made since 1996 (which is only one standard version, 6-12917, IIRC, and the whole bunch of "burning" ones made since then). 

On any made in 1996 or later, the man on the balcony and the man on the stairs come out simultaneously, rather than the man on the balcony retreating inside.  The change from the solenoid that activates a single arm with the man on one end and the string for the other man on another part of the arm was changed to a gear box of some sort.  Good news = no more "cutting" the hole in the wall with the string(or getting stuck if the string or "sled" hangs up), but Bad news = no more illusion.

The newer ones also include a door that opens/closes on the balcony with the action.

So I think the only ones with the illusion aspect are the original PW, the 2324 reproduction from the MPC years(early 80's, I think - which may be the one Larry shows, if I remember the colors correctly), and the original Burning version from the early 90's (6-12768).

-Dave

Dave, I think your correct and mine is the MPC version.  I have gad the first issue, and wanted the Burning Switch Tower, but somehow never did.  

The most realistic scenario is one man seeing the approaching train and going down the stairs to hand up train orders.  A tower that size on a railroad was always a one man operation.

Thanks for the replies.  I guess there are different ways of looking at it, but I'll tell guests that it's one guy going inside to run down the steps.  Are there any other accessories that can have multiple opinions as to what's happening?

I bought a new (34 years old though) 6-2324 Lionel Switch Tower and it works great.  I'd like to thank DAVE45681 for the information in his post.  Without knowing that there are only two switch towers that work the original way, I might have ended up with the newer versions that have both men coming out at the same time.

Lonnie posted:

I bought a new (34 years old though) 6-2324 Lionel Switch Tower and it works great.  I'd like to thank DAVE45681 for the information in his post.  Without knowing that there are only two switch towers that work the original way, I might have ended up with the newer versions that have both men coming out at the same time.

Glad it helped!

You can never have too many Switch Towers though , so you could still get a newer one some day for added variety...

-Dave

Hi Dave, you are probably right, I may end up with another one someday.  It took me since 1953 to get my first one.  By the way, now that I have had a chance to see it up close, I realize that the man on the steps is standing on a platform, a stair lift, so he isn't walking up the step backwards, he's riding the stair lift back up to avoid climbing all those steps all day long.  No need to apologize anymore for a backwards walking man!

Lonnie posted:

Hi Dave, you are probably right, I may end up with another one someday.  It took me since 1953 to get my first one.  By the way, now that I have had a chance to see it up close, I realize that the man on the steps is standing on a platform, a stair lift, so he isn't walking up the step backwards, he's riding the stair lift back up to avoid climbing all those steps all day long.  No need to apologize anymore for a backwards walking man!

Would that make it the first accessory that took into account the Americans with Disabilities Act ?