My father's old layout has a couple of these that only move half-way, just like your video. When I get back to his house, going to take a crack at cleaning them .
Wonderful Video! I don't think there are the many of us "old timers" around who would have the patience and/or desire to fix vintage Lionel parts. Thank you for this!!
Great video .. I recently tried to hook up my O 22 switches and for some reason they chatter . I have a constant voltage plug connected to the D terminal on my KW transformer . The switch goes to a siding.
Lubricant on solenoid should be a few flecks of powdered graphite, not oil. This recommendation came from a now deceased Lionel Service Station owner and long standing TCA member Al Franceschetti who was my friend
Never going to need to do this, but I love your dedication & work to keeping the old stuff working. A great rescores for the peoples that need it. Thank you.
I haven't gone through the comments so if I repeat something someone else suggested sorry. For the Q-Tip, all you need are a bamboo skewer and some cotton balls. Wind the cotton around the stick. This also has the advantage that you can make them any length and you can bend/break them into a curved shape to reach odd places. The old ink erasers work great for cleaning contacts. They are slightly abrasive.The crumbs are easy to remove. Also I like DeoxIT. I know people love WD-40 but it is a water displacement fluid to prevent rust. "WD-40® Lubricant Spray. Stops squeaks. Removes and protects. Loosens rusted parts. Frees sticky mechanisms. Drives out moisture." For lubrication I recommend Door-Ease Lube Stik or similar. It has the added benefit of not attracting dust. Also I like a little ArmorAll on plastics to feed them and give them a little shine but some others might not agree. Wintergreen oil has been used to soften rubber but it's expensive. Test in a small area first since it's hard to say how it may react with your particular type of rubber. Can't go too wrong with a mild detergent and water. Just a few things I've learned from working on my father's Flyers over the years. "Use it up wear it out, make it work or do without." Great work. Keep 'em running.
Wow AWESOME!!!! I just inherited my first O gauge train bulk set. Was a friends fathers from the 40's-60's and there are 3 in box sets of these. Dirty so I will be checking these out! Thanks for the full info on them and I will be able to tear them down, clean/grease and get them operating!!!!
So great that you have inherited some old trains and tracks to restore and I'll bet you can get them all working with all the repair videos made by our postwar repair community.
The best instructional I've seen so thanks for sharing. I've found most problems deal with old solder not connecting with the metal parts underneath, so check those out first. And try to avoid burning your figures!
One thing you didn't cover that gave me a fit was how center rail power gets from track to the rest of the mechanism, that little tab just down from the post that moves the switch. I adjusted that tab and made it work but I'm not sure how.
Just took apart and cleaned up one of my switches, it worked but was sluggish. Did not have to re-solder any wires. I re-assembled and tested. I was running a wire from the transformer at 20 volts to the center rail. And from the U terminal I would use to contact the posts on the switch. Unfortunately I got nothing. But if I run the power lead to the outside rail and contact either of the outside posts on the switch the light comes on. If I contact the center post it arcs. Have no clue what I did but somethings not right, lol. Great video, by the way, very informative. Let me know if you have any ideas. Hope I didn't fry the solenoid somehow.
I don't have one of the switches lying around at the moment to test but I believe your test wires are just connected wrong? We know that one side of the power goes through the controller switch terminals, and the other side of the power must be connected to the track. As seen during testing the needle nose pliars act as a switch, just like the controller does, and only one side of the power flows through the switch. Hook the wires to the rails on the solo entry side of the switch track and maybe it will work fine?
Bingo! Thanks for a great video. I was going crazy trying to figure out why my Lionel O72 5165 wouldn't work on track power, until you pointed out the contact tab for the fixed power post. It wasn't making contact when the plug was removed. All's well now - thanks !
Precisely the purpose of this video and you are so very welcome fellow O train enthusiast. I am happy to share what I have learned with the community, I have learned much from other's repair videos, and I encourage everyone to do likewise thanks everybody.
Correct and there are so few combinations that the 3 wires can be connected that Lionel didn't even bother to label them, we are just supposed to keep hooking them up in different combinations until they work. If I remember correctly the wire coming out of the switch controller laying flat would connect to the switch track laying flat with all the wires in a row and if it doesn't work correctly just flip the entire triplex of wire over. I do know for sure that the 6019 operating track section is wired that way so when I add extra or new wire to them just to keep all 4 in a row on them.
Thanks for watching and I obtained it on ebay and do a search for Lionel controller wire and you can find packs or rolls of the 3 strand, 4 strand, colored wire too.
Hello and I watched my video again at looks like at 2:15 you can see the little screws on the back which hold the cover on. Nothing to it just remove those little flat blade screws and cover comes right back exposing the insides.
If you look at the rails. You'll find a plating metal plating that metal plating in wears off. If it has a lot of rust you're going to lose a lot of plating cuz you're going to need to clean it up with WD-40. But that's okay the steel is good. If you a fair amount of WD-40 to clean a real Rusty piece up and a toothbrush and keep rubbing it and get the rest off it. Then take some soap and water and detergent over faucet with a toothbrush and warsh all that rust and WD-40 off then Pat it dry with a towel. Let it dry for today or two and then recalled it with a thin coat of WD-40 WD-40 has some oil in it which protects it from rusting again. So if you have a new looking piece you really don't want to use too much WD-40 you just want to watch it with detergent let it dry. You want to put non detergent machine oil 20 weight. Oil with detergent attracts dirt in machinery will use non detergent oil 20 weight. You want to keep it from gumming up. Reason you find gummy on everything is because people are using the wrong type of oil. Don't want to breathe in that smoke it's bad for the health. Another thing I like about old Lionel equipment it was made of Bakelite. The old black rotary telephones are made out of black Bakelite. now the coal that use in the coal machines that Lionel makes they use Bakelite for the fake coil. Bakelite was used in a lot of early machinery electronic parts widely used in the early nineteen hundreds and all sorts of Industries.
Thanks for watching and that sounds like an annoying problem I'm luckily enough to have not experienced. I'll bet you use the Marx 34" path remote switches and I like those from my limited experience with them and I do own a bunch of the Marx 34" curve tracks. I have encountered worn plastic inner guide rails on Lionel O27 42" path switch tracks and the previous owner must have been running a bunch of trains through it fast on a main line or something like that. I was able to break it off and solder on a piece of a metal rail donated by a 42" curve track and it actually worked really well even with the Lionel operating cars with contact shoes going through fine.
I love the video but how did you get that screw out in the corner that was almost stripped? You mentioned it but didn't show how you got it apart. The switch i have has what appears as a plastic over the nut and i cannot get it off and the screw head is starting to strip. Any help on how you got it out is much appreciated. Thank you Bill
Hello and I'm not exactly sure where plastic over the nut would occur since these O22 switches that I have seen all have had the flat head screw heads on the bottom. Is there a different type of fastener jammed in there? I had to use a small chisel with an excellent edge on it placed on the outer edge of the screw head and knocking it with the hammer it loosened right up.
Very interesting video. A friend of mine has a Lionel small layout (I model in HO) and he tells me every time his engine (a diesel w/ 4 wheel trucks) goes through the diverging route on this turnout, the engine slows down quite a bit. His other turnout on his layout does not do this. I tried to help him troubleshoot it over the phone (we live far apart), but so far no luck. Have you seen this issue before and would you have any idea what the issue might be. Thanks. Phil
Two points. First, I didn't see you install the locking arm that prevents the switch points from changing once the solenoid moves the points to the desired position. The locking arm is a spring loaded arm that drops over the linkage when the points have reached the desired position, left or right. Second, the most difficult part of these switches to fix are the control tabs. You have cleaned them well and that is important, but if the brass/copper contacts have been bent up by mistake it is almost impossible to repair the switch.
Thanks for watching and Yes indeed the the locking arm was MIA from this switch and I don't even realize it until I repaired the next one which wasn't missing the part. Thanks for pointing it out I've been waiting for the comment, thank you. I hadn't repaired one in years and when received a bunch with some trains I purchased I decided to do the video. As for the contacts being bent up and damaged luckily I haven't encountered that yet.
I don't know if you still monitor this but I'm doing a layout that requires 8, O22 switches. I've heard the modern ones are no good and the post war are the ones to get. Can you speak on that? I'm having a bit of a hard time finding all 8
Thanks for watching and I don't know anything about the newer O22 switch tracks but if it is like a lot of other Lionel, from my experience, postwar is best. It would be tough finding 8 in one deal even on ebay, and unless you are passionate about using the taller O gauge track, I recommend and use the wider turn O27 42" path K Line switch tracks. The Lionel ones aren't too bad but I like the K Line better and they have some with light bulbs or the LED ones. Here is a carpet layout I did with O27 profile track, but with the wider diameter curves with the 42" switch tracks. th-cam.com/video/Z7N4e7FfA8E/w-d-xo.html
Excellent I'm glad the video helped you achieve success with the switch. I can't imagine that the manual o42 switch has any insulated rails or electrical contacts for the switch motor but the basic rail frame may be similar.
I find a few of these switch tracks on craigslist every year and have restored them with great luck. If you need one they are available on ebay my friend. Happy Railroading!
I have 5 022 and 1 5123 switches which after cleaning and checking continuity on the connections and the solenoid will not operate. One clue was that the light would not illuminate. Is there anything else I can do or are these switches scrap?
Thanks for watching and if nothing is working AND the good bulb won't light it is possible the switch isn't getting any power either from loose center rail pins, or perhaps a loose connection on the spring loaded tab inside the constant power port which I finally remembered to cover at 12:50 in the video. Good luck on the repairs.
How about the center pick up rollers on the engine perhaps? I'm becoming more critical of them on all Lionel engines and cars so I just did a video for us, good luck on the repairs : th-cam.com/video/hm9ubDWUkF8/w-d-xo.html
Anywhere from 6-12 volts and you kind of want to match the switch performance with the bulb brightness and not too much juice or the switch lantern could melt. Thanks for checking out the video.
I noticed that you did not insulate the underside of the switch electrical runners from the bottom metal cover. I cover these runs with plastic electrical tape. I think the original design used a thin piece of cardboard to provide this function. I use silicone spray instead of WD-40 around plastic parts. I also use a light coat of conductive grease on all contacts after cleaning the contacts. As you show, I try to get the switch to operate completely at 6-8 VAC. These switches are a very robust reliable design.
Point well taken about insulating the underside of the switch track from the metal cover. The rails all sit higher than the bottom level that the metal cover should reach however soldered areas sit lower and I do see that Greenberg's Repair and Operating Manual for postwar Lionel trains does mention an insulating paper piece to be reinstalled during assembly. It is truly possible that all the O22 switch tracks I have restored were all missing the insulating paper but still worked during testing. The weight of the engine over the switch on a dented cover is all it would take to create a problem if the clearances are tight. Happy Railroading!
My father's old layout has a couple of these that only move half-way, just like your video. When I get back to his house, going to take a crack at cleaning them .
I'll bet you can get them working much better and thanks for checking out my video.
Wonderful Video! I don't think there are the many of us "old timers" around who would have the patience and/or desire to fix vintage Lionel parts. Thank you for this!!
Thank you for watching and I enjoy sharing with others what I've learned about these old trains.
Great video .. I recently tried to hook up my O 22 switches and for some reason they chatter . I have a constant voltage plug connected to the D terminal on my KW transformer . The switch goes to a siding.
Lubricant on solenoid should be a few flecks of powdered graphite, not oil. This recommendation came from a now deceased Lionel Service Station owner and long standing TCA member Al Franceschetti who was my friend
Never going to need to do this, but I love your dedication & work to keeping the old stuff working. A great rescores for the peoples that need it. Thank you.
Thanks for watching and I have made my repair videos just for that and I enjoy sharing what I have learned.
"Were just building trains-we're not building rockets." Good quote. Good video. Thank you.
Thanks for watching and just trying to help our railroads and keep our sanity.
@@trainzone1073 So cool. Love your video style.
Very well produced. Every step was explained and each potential problem addressed and repaired. Great Job!
Thanks for watching and just trying to help keep the railroading dream alive for all of us.
I haven't gone through the comments so if I repeat something someone else suggested sorry. For the Q-Tip, all you need are a bamboo skewer and some cotton balls. Wind the cotton around the stick. This also has the advantage that you can make them any length and you can bend/break them into a curved shape to reach odd places. The old ink erasers work great for cleaning contacts. They are slightly abrasive.The crumbs are easy to remove. Also I like DeoxIT. I know people love WD-40 but it is a water displacement fluid to prevent rust. "WD-40® Lubricant Spray. Stops squeaks. Removes and protects. Loosens rusted parts. Frees sticky mechanisms. Drives out moisture." For lubrication I recommend Door-Ease Lube Stik or similar. It has the added benefit of not attracting dust. Also I like a little ArmorAll on plastics to feed them and give them a little shine but some others might not agree. Wintergreen oil has been used to soften rubber but it's expensive. Test in a small area first since it's hard to say how it may react with your particular type of rubber. Can't go too wrong with a mild detergent and water. Just a few things I've learned from working on my father's Flyers over the years. "Use it up wear it out, make it work or do without." Great work. Keep 'em running.
Wow AWESOME!!!! I just inherited my first O gauge train bulk set. Was a friends fathers from the 40's-60's and there are 3 in box sets of these. Dirty so I will be checking these out! Thanks for the full info on them and I will be able to tear them down, clean/grease and get them operating!!!!
So great that you have inherited some old trains and tracks to restore and I'll bet you can get them all working with all the repair videos made by our postwar repair community.
The best instructional I've seen so thanks for sharing. I've found most problems deal with old solder not connecting with the metal parts underneath, so check those out first. And try to avoid burning your figures!
Great that you found some use in the video and always check those solder joints on the bottom for sure.
Wait... you can do this without burning your fingers???
Thanks! This will be one of my go to sources as I repair a whole pile of these switches!
Excellent thanks for tuning in and I wish you luck with the switch tracks Happy Railroading!
@@trainzone1073 Thanks...Happy Railroading for you as well...looking forward to more videos from you. Thanks. T4
just added a small loop with some vintage track i bought from a show. cant wait to see if it works. very informal.
I enjoy restoring the old trains and almost everything works, everytime, since the old stuff is really great quality.
Hey awesome video. I just bought about a dozen 022 switches off ebay can't wait to start the restoration process thanks to your video!
Excellent and I'm happy to have helped bring your railroad to the next level.
Love these switches. I've had similar success buying asis parts switches.
Yes they are very durable and thanks for watching.
Thanks so much . I repaired one switch only 3 to go . Very helpfulll. Thanks
my first switch was saved!! thank you. ive got 3 more to fix lol
Good luck on the switch restorations and I've still yet to see a Lionel O22 switch that didn't work and I've restored at least a couple dozen.
Enjoy your videos I usually pickup a trick that helps.Thanks for sharing.
Awesome, we must all be constantly progressing on our train repairs.
One thing you didn't cover that gave me a fit was how center rail power gets from track to the rest of the mechanism, that little tab just down from the post that moves the switch. I adjusted that tab and made it work but I'm not sure how.
This will come in handy. Just picked up 15 O22 switches in OK condition for $100. They work, but need some cleaning and tuning.
All of mine have ended up working, good luck on the repairs.
Just took apart and cleaned up one of my switches, it worked but was sluggish. Did not have to re-solder any wires. I re-assembled and tested. I was running a wire from the transformer at 20 volts to the center rail. And from the U terminal I would use to contact the posts on the switch. Unfortunately I got nothing. But if I run the power lead to the outside rail and contact either of the outside posts on the switch the light comes on. If I contact the center post it arcs. Have no clue what I did but somethings not right, lol. Great video, by the way, very informative. Let me know if you have any ideas. Hope I didn't fry the solenoid somehow.
I don't have one of the switches lying around at the moment to test but I believe your test wires are just connected wrong? We know that one side of the power goes through the controller switch terminals, and the other side of the power must be connected to the track. As seen during testing the needle nose pliars act as a switch, just like the controller does, and only one side of the power flows through the switch. Hook the wires to the rails on the solo entry side of the switch track and maybe it will work fine?
Bingo! Thanks for a great video. I was going crazy trying to figure out why my Lionel O72 5165 wouldn't work on track power, until you pointed out the contact tab for the fixed power post. It wasn't making contact when the plug was removed. All's well now - thanks !
That is fantastic and thus why I made such a video, saw the problem myself once, railroad on.
you have solved every problem with my postwar switches and controllers thanks so much
Precisely the purpose of this video and you are so very welcome fellow O train enthusiast. I am happy to share what I have learned with the community, I have learned much from other's repair videos, and I encourage everyone to do likewise thanks everybody.
You show everything well, except for which wires go where from the controller to the 3 terminals on the switch itself.
Correct and there are so few combinations that the 3 wires can be connected that Lionel didn't even bother to label them, we are just supposed to keep hooking them up in different combinations until they work. If I remember correctly the wire coming out of the switch controller laying flat would connect to the switch track laying flat with all the wires in a row and if it doesn't work correctly just flip the entire triplex of wire over. I do know for sure that the 6019 operating track section is wired that way so when I add extra or new wire to them just to keep all 4 in a row on them.
Excellent information! Thank you so much.
Thank you for watching and hoping folks can get their switches working.
Excellent. Thank you for posting.
Happy you could get some ideas out of the video and I'm hoping there are hundreds of repaired switch tracks now, properly operating for our trains.
@@trainzone1073 I’m ordering some 22 gauge three conductor wire. Hopefully a few more will get fixed and enjoyed my the family.
WD40 was another of Al’s no-nos. It ends up leaving a gummy residue
This is awesome, I have tons of these needing restoration, also 100th like.
Thanks for watching and I'm glad to help out.
Thank you TZ love your vids !!
Thanks for watching Happy Railroading.
Would you be willing to put in the description what wire you used to repair the switch?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks for watching and I obtained it on ebay and do a search for Lionel controller wire and you can find packs or rolls of the 3 strand, 4 strand, colored wire too.
I'm looking for a video of taking off and replacing the back plate. Everybody bypasses that part. I have a very used O22 switch that needs work.
Hello and I watched my video again at looks like at 2:15 you can see the little screws on the back which hold the cover on. Nothing to it just remove those little flat blade screws and cover comes right back exposing the insides.
If you look at the rails. You'll find a plating metal plating that metal plating in wears off. If it has a lot of rust you're going to lose a lot of plating cuz you're going to need to clean it up with WD-40. But that's okay the steel is good. If you a fair amount of WD-40 to clean a real Rusty piece up and a toothbrush and keep rubbing it and get the rest off it. Then take some soap and water and detergent over faucet with a toothbrush and warsh all that rust and WD-40 off then Pat it dry with a towel. Let it dry for today or two and then recalled it with a thin coat of WD-40 WD-40 has some oil in it which protects it from rusting again. So if you have a new looking piece you really don't want to use too much WD-40 you just want to watch it with detergent let it dry. You want to put non detergent machine oil 20 weight. Oil with detergent attracts dirt in machinery will use non detergent oil 20 weight. You want to keep it from gumming up. Reason you find gummy on everything is because people are using the wrong type of oil. Don't want to breathe in that smoke it's bad for the health. Another thing I like about old Lionel equipment it was made of Bakelite. The old black rotary telephones are made out of black Bakelite. now the coal that use in the coal machines that Lionel makes they use Bakelite for the fake coil. Bakelite was used in a lot of early machinery electronic parts widely used in the early nineteen hundreds and all sorts of Industries.
Thanks for watching and indeed the cleaning/oiling is so important to get these old switches working again.
I changed over to Marx. The plastic rails on Lionels dry out and brake off .
Thanks for watching and that sounds like an annoying problem I'm luckily enough to have not experienced. I'll bet you use the Marx 34" path remote switches and I like those from my limited experience with them and I do own a bunch of the Marx 34" curve tracks. I have encountered worn plastic inner guide rails on Lionel O27 42" path switch tracks and the previous owner must have been running a bunch of trains through it fast on a main line or something like that. I was able to break it off and solder on a piece of a metal rail donated by a 42" curve track and it actually worked really well even with the Lionel operating cars with contact shoes going through fine.
I love the video but how did you get that screw out in the corner that was almost stripped? You mentioned it but didn't show how you got it apart. The switch i have has what appears as a plastic over the nut and i cannot get it off and the screw head is starting to strip. Any help on how you got it out is much appreciated.
Thank you
Bill
Hello and I'm not exactly sure where plastic over the nut would occur since these O22 switches that I have seen all have had the flat head screw heads on the bottom. Is there a different type of fastener jammed in there? I had to use a small chisel with an excellent edge on it placed on the outer edge of the screw head and knocking it with the hammer it loosened right up.
Very interesting video.
A friend of mine has a Lionel small layout (I model in HO) and he tells me every time his engine (a diesel w/ 4 wheel trucks) goes through the diverging route on this turnout, the engine slows down quite a bit. His other turnout on his layout does not do this. I tried to help him troubleshoot it over the phone (we live far apart), but so far no luck.
Have you seen this issue before and would you have any idea what the issue might be. Thanks.
Phil
Two points. First, I didn't see you install the locking arm that prevents the switch points from changing once the solenoid moves the points to the desired position. The locking arm is a spring loaded arm that drops over the linkage when the points have reached the desired position, left or right. Second, the most difficult part of these switches to fix are the control tabs. You have cleaned them well and that is important, but if the brass/copper contacts have been bent up by mistake it is almost impossible to repair the switch.
Thanks for watching and Yes indeed the the locking arm was MIA from this switch and I don't even realize it until I repaired the next one which wasn't missing the part. Thanks for pointing it out I've been waiting for the comment, thank you. I hadn't repaired one in years and when received a bunch with some trains I purchased I decided to do the video. As for the contacts being bent up and damaged luckily I haven't encountered that yet.
Can you repair the sliding contacts when they have been bent up?
I have never encountered that problem, I'll bet you can find a way as long as they don't break off.
Good job on the videos. Subbed
Thank you very much and just trying to help out all the fellow Lionel O railroaders with what I've learned.
I don't know if you still monitor this but I'm doing a layout that requires 8, O22 switches. I've heard the modern ones are no good and the post war are the ones to get. Can you speak on that? I'm having a bit of a hard time finding all 8
Thanks for watching and I don't know anything about the newer O22 switch tracks but if it is like a lot of other Lionel, from my experience, postwar is best. It would be tough finding 8 in one deal even on ebay, and unless you are passionate about using the taller O gauge track, I recommend and use the wider turn O27 42" path K Line switch tracks. The Lionel ones aren't too bad but I like the K Line better and they have some with light bulbs or the LED ones. Here is a carpet layout I did with O27 profile track, but with the wider diameter curves with the 42" switch tracks. th-cam.com/video/Z7N4e7FfA8E/w-d-xo.html
Great video. I repaired 072 switch. Do you know if you can convert o42 manual to automat I have the motors.
Excellent I'm glad the video helped you achieve success with the switch. I can't imagine that the manual o42 switch has any insulated rails or electrical contacts for the switch motor but the basic rail frame may be similar.
I found this for an 027 switch track, may be helpful
th-cam.com/video/Ml-mhybTHJ4/w-d-xo.html
Do you or anyone know where you can get replacement solenoids for the Lionel switcher track?
I find a few of these switch tracks on craigslist every year and have restored them with great luck. If you need one they are available on ebay my friend. Happy Railroading!
I have 5 022 and 1 5123 switches which after cleaning and checking continuity on the connections and the solenoid will not operate. One clue was that the light would not illuminate. Is there anything else I can do or are these switches scrap?
Thanks for watching and if nothing is working AND the good bulb won't light it is possible the switch isn't getting any power either from loose center rail pins, or perhaps a loose connection on the spring loaded tab inside the constant power port which I finally remembered to cover at 12:50 in the video. Good luck on the repairs.
I have an mpc 022 switch that turns on but when my train runs past the switch the train just stops. Do you have any suggestions?
How about the center pick up rollers on the engine perhaps? I'm becoming more critical of them on all Lionel engines and cars so I just did a video for us, good luck on the repairs : th-cam.com/video/hm9ubDWUkF8/w-d-xo.html
@@trainzone1073 Thanks for the help! My switches work fine now I just moved them around the layout and they work now!
What kind of voltage?
Anywhere from 6-12 volts and you kind of want to match the switch performance with the bulb brightness and not too much juice or the switch lantern could melt. Thanks for checking out the video.
@@trainzone1073 thanks so much
I have both pairs. I still oil mine. It's enemy is bone dry neglect.
I noticed that you did not insulate the underside of the switch electrical runners from the bottom metal cover. I cover these runs with plastic electrical tape. I think the original design used a thin piece of cardboard to provide this function. I use silicone spray instead of WD-40 around plastic parts. I also use a light coat of conductive grease on all contacts after cleaning the contacts. As you show, I try to get the switch to operate completely at 6-8 VAC. These switches are a very robust reliable design.
Point well taken about insulating the underside of the switch track from the metal cover. The rails all sit higher than the bottom level that the metal cover should reach however soldered areas sit lower and I do see that Greenberg's Repair and Operating Manual for postwar Lionel trains does mention an insulating paper piece to be reinstalled during assembly. It is truly possible that all the O22 switch tracks I have restored were all missing the insulating paper but still worked during testing. The weight of the engine over the switch on a dented cover is all it would take to create a problem if the clearances are tight. Happy Railroading!
do not use oil on the coil plunger replace contacts with new oils
I think Joshua Lionel Cohen was deaf