1800's Train Switch Model - What is this thing?

LegendsCreek Oct 21, 2014

  1. JB Stoker

    JB Stoker TrainBoard Member

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    Good Grief! Believe what you want. The entire purpose of the Sprague switch is to allow passage through closed points from the frog side without destroying the switch and probably derailing the train. Stub switches HAVE NO POINTS.
     
  2. LegendsCreek

    LegendsCreek TrainBoard Member

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    I am not allowed to post a link to the video as I am a new member, but you can copy and paste it yourself if youd like to see. You should be able to get 1080p once youtube finishes processing it.

    [video=youtube;rGZdGurOmss]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGZdGurOmss[/video]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 21, 2014
  3. wcfn100

    wcfn100 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the video, that's very neat.

    I misunderstood what rail 'F' was and it wasn't making sense. That video makes sense with the drawing (as it should :)).

    It's a stub switch with a safe return, the 'points' aren't what change the routing as it's always rail "F". Physically moving the rail changes the routing, just like a stub switch.
    But you believe what you want Stoker. ;)


    Jason
     
  4. LegendsCreek

    LegendsCreek TrainBoard Member

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    Haha. I enjoy all the enthusiasm, and learning about this even more so!
     
  5. JB Stoker

    JB Stoker TrainBoard Member

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    The patent has to do with the spring closure mechanism for points, not the stub part of the switch used to demonstrate this. Stub switches were in common usage long before steam locos were invented. It also does not have to do with patenting point type switches, rails, ties, spikes, and wheels which are also used to demonstrate the operation of the spring point closure mechanism. If you want to believe that this patent had to do with stub switches , rails, ties, spikes, point switches, paper, and ink, you are free to do so. I guess you could also believe he was patenting writing.
     
  6. wcfn100

    wcfn100 TrainBoard Member

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    Yeah, I'd try and change the subject too. LOL


    Jason
     
  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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  8. LegendsCreek

    LegendsCreek TrainBoard Member

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    Does that mean they granted him the patent?
     
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I would interpret it that way.
     
  10. LegendsCreek

    LegendsCreek TrainBoard Member

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    After a bit of digging I am betting this is the original patent model. I looked at other patent models and I can see the tags on them. This has no tags tied to them but could have possibly fallen off with time. The inventor who lived in my house and passed away in it collected things from the 1800's onward and I know a lot of people gave him gifts as he was famous for the things he invented and the record albums he created. An appraiser came into the estate and made a list of a very small amount of things he considered valuable, but 90% of the good things he didn't see because they were hidden, so we were fortunate that they accepted our bid for the whole estate rather than tearing the place apart and auctioning everything off. We bought the home and it was intact as it was left by his wife when she passed last year.
     
  11. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I can only wonder how many careless people have become owners of such estates, and simply filled up a dumpster. It's hard to think about. When my grandmother's sister sold her farm, the person who bought it simply came in and burned the old house down. The attic was full of antiques, and they didn't even look.
     
  12. LegendsCreek

    LegendsCreek TrainBoard Member

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    I can't even fathom something like that! The way I see it is that when you buy a home with history to it, you should respect the history and learn as much as you can about the people who made the home what it is. If you don't care about it, you don't belong buying the home!


     
  13. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Aunt Hazel wa stunned when she learned about that burning. She let the guy know just how much he'd lost. The fool just stood there with his jaw on the ground. I remember the look on his face. He hated us thereafter, which was idiotic as he'd made the damned blunder, not us.
     

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