Lionel prewar 47 gate question

I'v been into pre-war O gauge for 40 years and have never tried to take one of those apart. Sorry, can't help.

  The crossing gates should be fairly straightforward to rewire. The operating mechanism is a coil and plunger (also called a solenoid). One wire of each coil goes to ground (usually the metal accessory itself), and the other coil wire goes to one of the terminal posts. Note that one terminal post is usually connected to ground, so connect the coil wires to the other terminal post. The lamp wire gets connected to the same terminal post as the coils. Here is a parts list for the #47, and here is a schematic of the postwar #252 to give you an idea of how to wire the accessory.

Larry