Making a Spring Switch

American Flyer made one in the pre-war era.

I've done this many times, it's a great technique. I use Ross switches, but as long as the points can move freely, any switch could be made to work. The trick is to find the right amount of tension for the spring. It is a bit of a delicate balance. You'll need enough to just close the points, but not too much so that the lightest cars can't push them aside.

I have this clockwork O gauge spring switch in the collection, but I've never tried to run trains through it:

I'm not sure who made it.  It has a single leaf spring under the plate that holds it in the diverging position, and can be switched to the straight through route by pushing in the lever on the side... but it has to be held in position.

I know that's not exactly helpful in modifying a Marx switch, but thought it might give you some ideas.  Are you thinking about using the late model plastic switch with points?  I don't see how it would be possible to turn the early metal Marx switch into a spring switch, with the way the turnout operates.

Looking forward to seeing the results...

Its my luck to have the metal variety and we all know what fun it is to drill out pop rivets and then sit back when about to reassemble the switch and say, now what? I think it could be done but I was thinking that a modern version would not be a half bad idea..of course..it could be bought out of a box instead of requiring the major surgery that I have in mind. Since its for a street car bump and go sort of diverging route trick..spring switches were  a Eureka! moment that lasted about two seconds..as they say..now the fun begins.

I use Tortice switch machines and they come spring loaded, maybe you could make something up like that with spring wire and some wood. 

Clem

Don't Fastrack manual switches do this out of the box?

That's certainly good information but unfortunately the street trackage I have buried under paving is  Lionel \Marx tubular and I also want to determine if this spring switch can be done with common prewar \postwar track. It would be interesting to see the product you mentioned in a diverging route situation and what I mean by that is a siding type configuration, only in this case the siding is a route that meanders from from the usual parallel placement that extends far enough to be an entirely different route which has in mind, a bump and go trolley.

I was also thinking this would make for a neat Christmas setup avoiding the usual going around in circles.  

I just acquired this American Flyer "Automatic" clockwork train switch, and thought about this thread.  It would be possible to modify a Marx windup track switch to do the same thing by relocating the pivot point, but I don't think it would work out for the electric trains.  I'll get some pictures of it in a day or two, but for now, here is a video of it in action: