Model Railroading > Puzzle switch, in the great outdoors

Home built puzzle switch in 7.5" gauge, on a track near Austin Tex.

Also a three way switch leading into the barn

And finally a double headed passenger special

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Does your Double Slip Switch ("Puzzle") have movable point center frogs?
No. 10 layouts usually have movable points, No. 8s may or may not.
Thanks for sharing.

Great bit  of trackwork there Shane.Double Slip is awsome.
Regards,DK

Beautiful!!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Yes center frogs are moveable, note operator in center as well as on point ends.



railstiesballast Wrote:
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> Does your Double Slip Switch ("Puzzle") have
> movable point center frogs?
> No. 10 layouts usually have movable points, No. 8s
> may or may not.
> Thanks for sharing.

I ain't a youn'n but I've never heard a double slip switch called a puzzle switch.

Cheers, old dog learning new tricks, Jim

Fantastic switch work, good job but a lot of work to build it I bet.
 

Stanley Jackowski
Valrico, FL

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> I ain't a youn'n but I've never heard a double
> slip switch called a puzzle switch.
>
> Cheers, old dog learning new tricks, Jim

You must have lived a sheltered life. It's common usage.

-LD

eLarryDoyle Wrote:
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> SPDRGWfan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I ain't a youn'n but I've never heard a double
> > slip switch called a puzzle switch.
> >
> > Cheers, old dog learning new tricks, Jim
>
> You must have lived a sheltered life. It's common
> usage.

Seems to be a term used regionally in certain parts of the country. Not used in the northeastern USA. Double slip switch is standard in these parts.
>
> -LD

We had one at Los Angeles Live Steamers for years. Took it out, and now is a wall ornament on part of the line

Absolutely beautiful trackwork in that yard!
 

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

We called them puzzle switches on the NYC in the east.

Took me a while to recognize where this is but, I finally did.

LarryDoyle Wrote:
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> You must have lived a sheltered life. It's common
> usage.
>
> -LD

Not really; I never worked in the industry, but been a train nut since a wee lad in the early 60's and ready plenty of books and magazines over the years.  Most of my interest has been western trains, mainly SP and D&RGW.  I noticed someone mentioned it was a term they used on the NYC in the east.

Nope, never heard the term.

The UP/CRI&P had a Puzzle switch at N.Topeka, Kansas that I was around in the 1930s. wag216



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/19 12:32 by wag216.

Railroaders actually called them that (on some railroads). The Illinois Central had one at Dixon, Illinois near the freight house. In Jim Boyd's book, "Monday Mornin Rails" he has photos and dialogue. It really seemed like overkill at the location but the railroad used it until the end, as far as I know. If I would put something like that on my model railroad in a similar set-up I would be chastised.


Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Railroads usually avoided them because of all of those moving parts which required regular maintenance and lubrication.
Expenses most railroads could do without.

It was a common term on the WP even though the only one I ever saw was on the Oakland Terminal right at the base of the wooden overpass of the SP mainline near 16th Street. It was called a puzzle switch because some of the dumb switchmen could not figure it out to throw it correctly! Frank

During my tenure at Los Angeles and Houston on the SP, from 1970-87, there were leads of double slip switches in both the Cornfield at Los Angeles and Englewood in Houston and at Metrolink in Los Angeles 1992-2006 at Union Station plus one at San Bernardino.  In all these cases the language used was "puzzle" switch unless it was time to order replacement parts.
I had not, until now, met anyone who did not know the name puzzle, but some were taken aback by calling them a double slip switch.

WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> Also a three way switch leading into the barn

Lap switch.