Who makes an 031 switch, with a shorter motor housing than the Lionel 022?

Sure, Lionel.

The Lionel 6-23010 and 6-23011 switches.  They're were great for small places as they had removable pieces and could be made to fit in really small spaces.  As a bonus, the lamp stand can be removed if you want an even more compact switch, it just houses the lamp and not the actual switch motor that throws the switch, that's in the bulge alongside the straight rail.

I used a bunch of these in a yard switch ladder, they allowed very tight spacing on the hard tracks.

I have purchased the old K-Line supersnap track switches, still available under the 0-Line label (see Trainz) and the motor housing is virtually non-existent. It has a slight bulge over the straight part of the switch about 1/2 an inch.

JohnF

RMT shows them available on their website.

I believe he may be in the UK, which is going to make shipping a challenge.

How about an under table switch motor?

Here's a K line 031...

Here is a pic of an 022 and 6-23010 switch that grj mentioned mounted toe to toe. Easy to see the difference in the motor housings.

Unfortunately the newer 6-23010/11 switches don't track as nicely or smoothly as the old 022's do. And some rolling stock will derail on the small crescent shaped tab just inside the entrance to them, just before the swivel track. It must have something to do with small differences in the wheel flange spacing from truck to truck. I have had to file this tab on a couple of mine to reduce the interference with certain cars.

Another issue with them is they are not as robust or reliable as the older 022 switches. Out of six installed on my layout I have had 3 with burned out bulbs, mostly in the controllers, and two that have ceased to operate in one direction or the other. The one in this picture is one of the latter. And I just don't fancy the idea of ripping up half my yard (it's the main yard ladder feed switch) to get it out and repair or replace it. I just manually flip it for the once in a while it's needed.

The nice thing about the 022's is that you can make most common repairs to them without the need to rip up track to take it out. But that's another subject, and there are older threads on this forum that cover how to do 022 repairs.

Rod

@Rod Stewart posted:

Here is a pic of an 022 and 6-23010 switch that grj mentioned mounted toe to toe. Easy to see the difference in the motor housings.

There is one more "feature" to the 23010 type switches -  you can remove the lantern housing completely(but only once) for an unobstructed curve.

I used to have a bunch of the 2010-3011 switches, and a few had the lantern's removed for a really tight spaced yard switch ladder, it was a perfect fit for the job.  With the removable sections to shorten them, you can make very close-spaced yard configurations.  That and no lantern in the way makes it very easy to fit them into tight spaces.

  Thanks very much for all of this great advice.

  A couple of months ago, I saw a layout where a guy "solved" this problem by cutting or shaving off the upper edge of the 022 motor housing at a 45 degree angle, so that passing trains on the parallel track wouldn't hit the housing.  It looked pretty darned bad.   

  Mannyrock

Cjack,

That O-Line switch appears to be what I may need, since I only need one.  $39 for a new switch seems like a good deal to me.

But, have had any major derail problems with these switches, as have been reported on some of the later Lionel 2310 switches?

Thanks for any info.

Mannyrockyou

@Mannyrock posted:

That O-Line switch appears to be what I may need...

But, have had any major derail problems with these switches...?

The O-Line ' K-Line / RMT SuperSnap switches are really smooth operating through them.

I agree, the O-Line/K-Line switches are great. Virtually everything rolls through them, from prewar to modern. So far the only thing I've seen that won't cooperate with them is the Marx locos with the large drive gear.

I had many 022s from my teen and later years and refurbished them to operate well. Then when I had to install 13 of them on the "dream" layout (still under construction), many in tight spaces, I decided to eventually replace all of them with the economical OLR switches.  They operate well, and resolved the space issues.  Only minor problem is that on a few switches there are sparks from a pick up roller when certain motorized units pass over a particular section of the switch.  A bit of black electrical tape resolved that problem.  Did not hinder me from from continuing to purchase them.

Enjoy,

Michael