Skip to main content

Closed14 replies

Lionel/MTH Tinplate Switches- HELP!

JR John RomeoOGR Forum Member
Hello Everyone
My track work on my very large standard gauge layout is almost finished but I am noticing that a few of my O72 Wide Radius Switches are not fully switching when the remote lever is thrown. Any ideas, tips, tricks or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Also when is Ross going to produce his Standard gauge switches? Thanks John
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Pine Creek RailroadPine Creek RailroadOGR Forum Member
SH,
I must disagree with you about the old Lionel 072 Switches, they run just fine with the proper amount of power, and I had mine on track power and they worked just great, got to admit however having them powered from their own ZW made the entire layout work smoother. If you track power the old 072 Lionel switches a small layout works well, for a large layout however its much better to individually power each switch. Learning some of Barrys tricks such as the light bulb change, definitely helped my layout, because the old switches then drew a lot less power. I ran 8 sets of switches on the 1st level and 4 sets on the 2nd everything ran great, including the DCS control. Making sure the switches were in perfect running order prior to building with them, along with
using them in the FastTrack layout, everything operated smoothly. With these switches, having enough power means everything, especially if you are running back to back switches.
Now if you are talking strictly standard guage that might be a different story.

MOPAC,
Robert you are correct sir, I have my Fathers original 263E Work Train along with the new MTH
DCS 263E. Hope all is well in your world, nice to talk with you again!

PCRR
SH Southwest HiawathaOGR Forum Member
Mack is correct, I am talking about the new MTH/Lionel Corp. Standard Gauge switches. I believe they are the subject of this thread, not the original Lionel 072 switches, which are 0 gauge. I see that I inadvertently used the incorrect term "072" in my post, perhaps that caused confusion. I will correct that error.

quote:
Originally posted by Pine Creek Railroad:
SH,
I must disagree with you about the old Lionel 072 Switches, they run just fine with the proper amount of power, and I had mine on track power and they worked just great, got to admit however having them powered from their own ZW made the entire layout work smoother. If you track power the old 072 Lionel switches a small layout works well, for a large layout however its much better to individually power each switch. Learning some of Barrys tricks such as the light bulb change, definitely helped my layout, because the old switches then drew a lot less power. I ran 8 sets of switches on the 1st level and 4 sets on the 2nd everything ran great, including the DCS control. Making sure the switches were in perfect running order prior to building with them, along with
using them in the FastTrack layout, everything operated smoothly. With these switches, having enough power means everything, especially if you are running back to back switches.
Now if you are talking strictly standard guage that might be a different story.

MOPAC,
Robert you are correct sir, I have my Fathers original 263E Work Train along with the new MTH
DCS 263E. Hope all is well in your world, nice to talk with you again!

PCRR
F&G RYF&G RYOGR Forum Member
I would give a set of Ross switches a try. For now I purchased some Rydin switches. They are big 144 diameter and manual in operation. I have not used them, yet.

Crank up the voltage and the switches should work fine. I had to further insulate the aux power connection because the hot tends to contact the frame of the switch creating a short. Never had a need to use 24 volt bulbs to keep the light from melting like 022 switches. There is a way to cut the track to make everything join nicely together.
B bluecometkOGR Forum Member
I have been running MTH 72 radii switches since they came out, 12 in all green base and I have had 6 that needed nothing and performed out of the box, 5 that needed adjusting and services and 1 dead out of the box. Most worked after some adjustments and only one is having trouble with 200 series cars. Once all my rolling stock and varnish was checked and gauged I have had no issues with 11 out of the 12.One pesky switch has issues with 2 cars and weighting them has all but eliminated the derailments. As a note the derails were always at very slow speeds. In my opinion they work Ok not great not bad. I will be interested in a couple of the new switches when they are released/developed/ready


Just my opinions.
Views: 1,480
Post

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×

Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership

OGR Forum Supporting Membership

Help support this forum with an OGR Forum Supporting Membership.
You will be able to watch the videos in the INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO FORUM!
A one-year OGR Forum Supporting Membership is only $12 per year, so sign up now!


    OR     


Access the ALL the OGR VIDEO FORUMS AND  over 300 back issues of OGR
with a DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION!



$12.00 per 12 Months (plus tax if applicable)
×