# 022 Lionel Postwar Switches



## 3155 warrior (Feb 7, 2012)

I purchased some O22 switches at a show, what is the best way to bench test and service them with the least amount of grief. Thanks for your help.


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

T-Man has a fabulous thread on O22's, here ...

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=1050

TJ


----------



## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

Here is my post on fixing 022 switches: http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/164691.aspx?PageIndex=1


----------



## NorCalTransplant (Dec 6, 2011)

Servoguy always coming in with his link to another site...

You should write that up and post it (copy paste) here brother, maybe even in T-Man's thread. It's great stuff too.


----------



## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

It is on my list of things to do.


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

For Search hits:

O22 switches
O-22 switches
022 switches
0-22 switches


----------



## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I did the TJ search and tagged some 022 switch and 1122, and 022 control.A general search of 022 switch will give the whole field. That is zero not OH!


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

T-Man said:


> 022 switch ... That is zero not OH!


Good point! I'm guilty of that mistake, perhaps. But you're right ... full number i.d. ... zero-two-two. Noted.

Cheers,

TJ

It's just to clarify everything on MTF but the ebay misspells does make an interesting search.


----------



## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

I just checked eBay, and some of the people listing 022 switches list them as O22 or O-22. It might pay to check all combinations.


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

You should see how many different ways people can spell Fastrack!


----------



## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

I think it was Ben Franklin that said about someone that the guy had little imagination because he could only think of one way to spell a word. I notice on the forum and on Craig's List some rather unique spellings.


----------



## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

And then there is the mixup of there, they're, and their and "should of" rather than "should have," "to her and I," or "I am laying down," rather than "I am lying down," and a few more I can't think of right now.


----------



## Stillakid (Jan 12, 2010)

*Servoguy's Switch 022 Advice*

I have just finished a long project of restoring 55 022 switches. Here is what I have found and what I recommend. I hope I don't miss anything. This involves oiling and soldering and a little adjustment. When you are done with the switches, they should operate very smoothly.

1. Remove the switch motor cover, the switch motor, and the back cover of the switch.

2. Lubricate the following places in the switch motor: The latch should be oiled at the pivots and where it slides over the moving piece that is connected to the solenoid. Lubricate the lantern pivot and the gear. Lubricate the slide that is attached to the solenoid. Lubricate the two rivets that hold the slide with the contacts. Put two drops of oil in the solenoid. Test the switch motor by putting a lantern in the lantern holder and turning it. It should turn very freely. 

3. Solder all the crimp connections on the bottom side of the switch. These are often high resistance due to corrosion. I either wire brush them with a small soft wire wheel in a Dremel tool, or use a fine sandpaper wheel in the Dremel tool. There are a total of 6 places to solder: Two for the center rails, one for each of the rails that are the rails for the non-derailing feature, and two that connect the two outside rails together. To sand the clip that connects the two outer rails, I had to reverse the sanding disc on the Dremel tool. Don't put too much solder on this clip, or the solder may interfere with the operation of the switch motor. Use a Scotchbrite pad to clean the clip where it contacts the switch motor frame. This is the ground connection between the switch motor and the outside rails. Clean the corresponding area on the switch motor, and put a little WD-40 on things. Tighten the screw that connects the center rail to the strap. Work the screw back and forth a couple of times to burnish the contact area. Test the connections between the outside rails and the center rails. I use a cheap meter that you can buy from Harbor Freight for this. The resistance should be less than 0.1 ohms. These cheap meters usually don't read zero ohms when you short the leads together, but whatever they do read with the leads shorted you can use as your "zero." 

4. Clean the silver contacts with WD-40. Most of the tarnish should come off of them. Do not use anything abrasive to clean them as it will probably damage the silver. Leave some WD-40 on these contacts as it is an excellent contact cleaner. 

5. Use a wire brush on a Dremel tool to clean the 3 contacts on the bottom of the switch that connect to the switch motor. One of these is a flat brass strip that is spring loaded and connects to the fat center rail. The other two connect to the two rails that are used to make the switch non-derailing. 

6. Clean the two contacts on the switch motor that mate with the two pins on the bottom of the switch that connect to the non-derailing rails. Bend these two up a little so they make a good contact, and put a little WD-40 on them. Clean the two brass contacts on each side between the silver contacts with a wire brush on the Dremel tool. These two contact are where the power comes to the switch motor from the center rail. One or the other is used depending on which side the switch motor is on.

7. Put a little WD-40 on the contact spring that contacts the pin for the constant voltage plug. Snap the spring a few times to make sure the contact is clean. If the rivet that holds this spring is broken (I had two switches with broken rivets), you can repair it by soldering it back together. Clean both surfaces with a wire wheel in a Dremel tool, and tin each surface with solder. Then hold the spring in place and heat the spring until the solder softens, and then hold the spring in place until the solder cools. You need to make sure the spring is somewhat bent when you do this so that it makes a good contact with the pin.

8. Put the switch motor back on the switch. Put a drop of oil in each of the screw holes so you can get the screws out 100 years from now. Check the switch for smooth operation. It should operate smoothly with minimal friction. Check the resistance between each of the outer terminals and the appropriate non-derailing rail. Once again, the resistance should be less than 0.1 ohms. Check the resistance between the center rail and the constant voltage pin. It should be less than 0.1 ohms. Check the resistance between the center terminal and one of the outside rails. It should be less than 0.1 ohms. Check the resistance between each of the outer terminals and the center rail with the switch points about half way beween the two outer rails. They should be about 7-8 ohms. 

9. There is a solder tab on the constant voltage pin that is usually very near the pin. If you bend this tab away from the pin, you can use a blue crimp lug for a constant voltage plug. These crimp lugs don't come loose like the Lionel plugs do. Some switch motors have a pin that is too large to use the crimp lug, so for these, you will have to use a Lionel plug.

10. Put the covers on and again check the switch for smooth operation. You may have to move the switch motor cover around a little to make sure the lantern does not bind against the cover. 

11. Check the end of the fat center rail to see that it is not bent down. If it is, your little 0-4-0 switch engine may stall on the switch. If you bend it up too far, it will open the electromagnetic couplers for you. 

I hope I didn't miss anything. If I think of something else, I'll post it later.


----------



## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

tjcruiser said:


> Good point! I'm guilty of that mistake, perhaps. But you're right ... full number i.d. ... zero-two-two. Noted.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> ...


This way we are on the same page. The e bay misspells always make an interesting Search. For correct spelling my fav is vintage lionel under all cats.
The stuff is found is the most obscure places.


----------



## servoguy (Jul 10, 2010)

My post is a lot longer than what you posted, Stillakid. You only got the first part of it.


----------



## Stillakid (Jan 12, 2010)

*Servoguy's Switch 022 Advice-Part 2*



I run my 022 switches from the 20 volt fixed tap on a KW transformer. I do this primarily because I have most of the switches wired in pairs so that the two switches throw at the same time. This allows the train to control the switches and so make a very complex path around the layout. I have changed the bulbs in the switches to 18 volt bulbs to prevent melting the switch lanterns. Install two switches so that the switch points face each other, wire the outer two terminals of the switch motors together. Then when the train throws one switch, the other will switch also. 

Here is something I forget in my list of things to fix. Occasionally, the lamp socket for the switch lamp will be loose. It is held in place by two tabs that bend around the bracket that holds it. You can tighten the tabs up with a pair of pliers. Be gentle as the lamp socket is thin. 

I found one switch motor that had a high resistance in the connection at the terminal. I soldered this one but I haven't made a habit of soldering all of these connections. I may regret this decision later.

Bruce 


Here are some more hints on servicing the 022 switches:

I bought some 18 volt bulbs recently ( part number 1445, bayonet base) and they would not go into the socket. They were too long. I took a switch motor apart to try to discover the problem. The switch motor was OK. So I took a soldering iron and reduced the size of the solder ball on the tip of the bulb. Now it fits and it is an easy fix.

I had two switch motors that had the lantern support broken. These were die cast zinc, and there is no way to repair them. I repaired one the hard way, and here is the easy way I used to repair the second one. Use a #43 drill to drill a hole into the rivet from the bottom. This is the tap drill for a 4-40 screw. Drill all the way through and make it as straight as you can. Be careful not to damage the wire going into the lamp holder. Then drill the rivet out with a larger drill. Remove the rivet and what is left of the lantern support. Tap the hole in the rivet with a 4-40 tap. Then, with the tap still in the rivet, check the new lantern support for proper fit to the the rivet. In my case, the support didn't turn freely on the rivet, so I took my Dremel tool with a sanding disc and carefully reduced the OD of the rivet until the support turned freely. Then I cleaned up the marks from the pliers that I used to hold the rivet while I was tapping it. I also sanded off the end of the rivet where it went through the bottom plate of the switch motor so that it didn't go quite all the way through. This way, the 4-40 screw I used to hold the rivet in place would be tight. Now install the support and the rivet under the lamp bracket and use a 4-40 screw with a star lock washer to hold it in place. Make sure you properly clock the sector gear on the support with the rack gear on the slider.

I bought a 5132 and a 5133 some time ago. While I was lubricating them, I noticed that the sector gear on the lantern support did not always stay engaged with the rack gear on the slider. After much time trying to figure out what was wrong, I came to the conclusion that the lamp bracket allowed too much vertical clearance for the slider. I used a pair of channel locks to gently bend the lamp brack down to reduce the clearance. The switches have been working with no trouble for about a year. Make sure the gears are properly clocked before you bend the bracket or you will be talking to yourself.

Make sure the fat 3rd rail is not bent down and rubbing on the movable points assembly. If you need to bend it up, don't apply pressure to the rails. They are die cast zinc, and not very strong. 

If you need parts, you can buy a manual switch at a swap meet and use the parts. The points assembly is the same and the screws and nuts all work. One word of caution when working on these switches: The screws are 4-36 which is not common at all. You can still buy them on the Internet, but you are not going to find them in a store like Home Depot or Harbor Freight. The terminals use this same thread. Lionel must have made this choice prior to WWII as 4-36 is no longer a common standard.

I have a couple of switches with cracked screw base lamp sockets. I squeeze them gently so that the split is nearly closed and apply a little solder to the outside of the socket. 

Bruce 

I found a new problem last night. When I tested a switch after repair, it showed a high resistance between one of the terminals and the insulated rail that makes the switch non-derailing. It turned out that the pin that makes contact with the switch motor was loose and there was corrosion on the end of the strap that connects the pin to the rail. I didn't try to reset the rivet, but put some WD-40 on the pin and rotated it with a pair of pliers and the resistance went to zero. Since there is pressure on this rivet from the switch motor contact, it showed zero resistance when I reassembled the switch. The pin would not take solder as I believe it is aluminum.
Bruce 

I have been going through my switches and correcting the electrical problems, and have found a few new things to check. 

I have found another switch motor miswired from the factory. This is the second one. The two wires that come out of the coils near the fixed voltage pin should go to the pin and not the flat spring. If they go to the flat spring, the only thing that will be powered from the fixed voltage plug is the lamp. To fix this, I unsoldered the wires going to the fixed voltage pin and flat spring. Then I carefully unsoldered the wires to the solenoids. I soldered a short piece of flexible wire onto the solenoid wires, and covered it with shrink tubing. I used the soldering iron to shrink the tubing to minimize the heat on the other components. I pushed the shrink tubing into the hole that the wires came through. The wires were routed through the rivet that holds the flat spring, and I didn't want the wires shorting to the flat spring. Then I soldered the short piece of added wire to the pin and reattached the two wires I had removed. 

I found a switch motor where the fixed voltage pin was not making contact to its solder lug. I soldered the pin and the solder lug together. 

I found a switch motor that had the copper strip between the two outside rails split in the middle. I soldered it back together with a minimal amount of solder so the switch motor could be put onto the switch.

I found one switch that had an intermittent sliding contact. It appears it was not properly adjusted from the factory. I bent the spring down to increase the contact pressure. Do this carefully, as I also had one where the PO had bent the spring too much, and there was too much friction.

I have put a diode in series with the lamp to reduce the brightness and also reduce the power and heat. It works well, and I think the lantern brightness is now more realistic. If you do this, put some of the diodes in one way and some in the other way to balance the load on the positive and negative cycles of the power. This is going to stop the problem I have had of melting switch lanterns.

This part of the layout has 20 switches, 5 crossings, and 137 pieces of track. As I have corrected the electrical problems with the switches, the trains run much better and the speed variation is almost non-existent. The engines do slow down a bit on the curves since the drivers have to slip on a curve, but that is all. This part of the layout has only one feed. 

I also found two of the crossings had poor connections. One was a 4 terminal open circuit. I used a sanding disc on the Dremel tool to clean off a little area near each crimp and soldered everything. This included the outer rails as well as the center rail. 

Bruce Baker 

One more problem and a recommendation. 

I had one switch that was intermittently staying in one position. The problem was clearly with the sliding contacts. When I took the switch motor off of the switch, I saw that the insulator that carries the two sliding contacts was turned slightly. This allowed one of the sliding contacts to move far enough that it was off the end of the fixed contact. I carefully rotated the insulator so it was straight, and the switch now works reliably. One more thing to check.

I have found enough fixed voltage pins that are are not tightly riveted to their solder tabs that I recommend that every switch motor have its fixed voltage pin soldered to its solder tab. I wish I had been doing this to all the switches, but I didn't realize it was a problem until I had several switches finished. 

After all of this, the switches work very well. I ran one of the diesel switch engines for about 20 minutes and never had a switch fail to work perfectly. When I dropped the voltage to 18 or 16 volts, the switches were still reliable, but at 14 volts or lower, I would get an occasional failure. I checked all the sliding contacts for any sign of erosion, and didn't find any, so I am going to leave the voltage at 20 volts. I am using the 20 volt fixed output on a KW. 
After dong all of this, I also checked the voltage drop from the transformer to the furthest point of the layout. I am measuring about 0.25 volts on the center rail and about 0.375 volts on the outside rail. This engine is pulling about 2.5 amps, so this is a resistance on the center rail of 0.1 ohms, and for the outer rail, 0.15 ohms. Some of this track is 50s vintage and some of it is rusty, and all of the switches except 2 are 50s vintage. I am quite pleased with these results. I put the 2046 Hudson on the track, and it will reliably go around the layout at 9.35 volts at the transformer. It is only pulling a tender. 

Bruce Baker 

And there is much more..............


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

This is great, one suggestion. Break it up into reasonable sized paragraphs so it's more readable. 

My only other suggestion is to re-think WD-40, that stuff turns gummy after a year or two.


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> This is great, one suggestion. Break it up into reasonable sized paragraphs so it's more readable.


Done.

Great tips. Insider knowledge, so to speak!

How about some under-the-hood pics to go with the narrative ???

TJ


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Much better TJ, it's good to have this reference. Maybe it should be pinned with the other "how-to" threads?


----------



## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I was thinking of uploading more pictures to the members gallery for the switch. I can start an album on the switch and have it public. That way they are easily availble. Jim doesn't have to time ot edit here on line before he gets locked out when the edit time limit is up. Thanks Jim for posting this! We do have the quote feature to isolate a questionalable section.


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, I assumed that since only mods don't have edit time limits that you guys would do the work.


----------



## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

I copied it and it is huge. The subject matter wanders latter or goes on a curve? It was one reason I thought Bruce would like to edit or at least compress. If someone posts a revision I can replace the origiinal. NO doubt there is some good stuff there.

The link for the album for the switch. Since I created it you can find it under T-man gallery


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

The original thread certainly could use some pruning, I'd agree with that.


----------



## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Can you check that image (gallery) link above, T-Man? Pulls up no images on my end.

TJ


----------



## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Yes so far there are no images.

I can only give some general pictures. Bruce has a lot work done so unless someone does it the pictures hase to refect the action.


----------

