Odd Standard Gauge Manual Switch

I'd say that's German made. Maybe Bing.

thanks, I looked for a marklin or bing marking, with no success

john

According to the Toy Train Track Museum, that is an early Lionel Standard Gauge Switch thought to be circa 1920.

Bing would have been gauge 1 (g gauge) 45mm.

Standard gauge would have to be lionel, or American Flyer or Ives "wide gauge".

Thought to be Lionel's first attempt for the early 20's.  Quite plainly.... a paraphrasing of Marklin/Bing construction techniques for their 1 Ga Turnouts. Looks rushed into production, turnouts from just a year or 2 later have much higher production value in their stampings and assembly technology.

Thank ya kindly, another pic

bmoran4 posted:

According to the Toy Train Track Museum, that is an early Lionel Standard Gauge Switch thought to be circa 1920.

Thank ya kindly, Is there any reference material to see?

totrainyard posted:

Bing would have been gauge 1 (g gauge) 45mm.

Standard gauge would have to be lionel, or American Flyer or Ives "wide gauge".

Thank ya kindly, are there any reference books to show the switches?

j. constible posted:

bmoran4 posted:

According to the Toy Train Track Museum, that is an early Lionel Standard Gauge Switch thought to be circa 1920.

Thank ya kindly, Is there any reference material to see?

The Home Page:

https://railwaypages.com/toy-train-track-museum

As for your switch, the switch machine is identified and photographed about the bottom quarter of the page:

https://railwaypages.com/track-identification

Hello ..you have a Lionel standard gauge switches  1907-1911..split pin ...but your split pins are missing ..here is a layout with the switches .  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_-221KL1eE

cheers Carey 

This is a timely topic for me as I just acquired some old standard gauge stuff and wonder when it was made.  A pair of illuminated manual switches and a crossing.

The switches are similar to the photos that Charles Cooper shows of "open-plate turnouts - standard", but not quite.  They have an illumination design that I've never seen before.  Note the two binding posts on the side of the stand towards the track.  The post of the left is insulated and underneathe a short piece of wire connects it through the switch stand to the light.

I don't see the crossing in Cooper's museum.  IT has a wire to connect one pair of third rails across the daimond.  I assume there was one for the other pair that got broken off.  Note the long third rail gap on the crossing.  This must be from before Lionel began to put reverse units in their locomotives,, I believe in 1925-26.

These switches and crossing came with a full loop of standard gauge track of the older type with square ties, like those you can see on the crossing.  The track looks like the  "early Standard Gauge" photo in Greenberg's prewar accessories book.

Hello ...your crossing is first generation Lionel standard gauge track ..not skinny ties ...same as other switch ..and seen in video ..note the split  center pin ...offered 1907 -1911....your switch is the next generation with the split pin   and wide ties ... switch machine may have been changed as this type can be found with the earlier cast stand ..  by 1913 ... the split pin was dropped and only full pins were used  ..

Cheers Carey  

Those old Standard gauge switches are pretty cool. When I moved I got rid of the old track because of reliability. I think I kept an old manual switch, I will have to look.

As the next step in preparing for eBay listing, I put together a layout with all of my track of that vintage.  Altogether there are 12 curved sections and four straight plus the crossing and switches.  First time I've ever worked with (or even seen) those split third rail pins.  That was tough.  Any minor shape variations and those split pins won't fit.  Those older Lionel's are not for people without some mechanical aptitude.

There's an interesting variation in the curves,  Four of them combine the split pins with the new tie shape.  I suspect that the origianal set had just the loop and that later the owner bought the switches and four more curved sections - after Lionel had updated the ties.

Among the photos, yoo'll see one that compares the curve sections and another that shows the power connectors that are attached to a curved track.

Carey Williams posted:

Hello ...your crossing is first generation Lionel standard gauge track ..not skinny ties ...same as other switch ..and seen in video ..note the split  center pin ...offered 1907 -1911....your switch is the next generation with the split pin   and wide ties ... switch machine may have been changed as this type can be found with the earlier cast stand ..  by 1913 ... the split pin was dropped and only full pins were used  ..

Cheers Carey  

Let me see if I understand you Carey.  Are you saying the square ties mean 1911 or before ?  And the switch and four curves with new style ties must have been between 1911 and 1913 given old ties not after 1911 and split pins in switch dropped in 1913.

So I can advertise this as a full standard gauge loop with switches from over 105 years ago.

Having come so far on this journey, I'm going to go the last mile and try get the switch lights to work.  The wire from the binding post is broken where it enters the stand (see photo), but there is electrical  continuity between the end of the wire and the socket base.  You can see the end of the wire in the center of the photo.

I think I've figured out how to get at enough of the wire to solder it, by using a metal cutter on my Dremel tool to enlarge that hole