Lionel 022 Lantern broken off, How to fix

[The wise young man]

I really screwed up on this one, I was putting together a layout and I broke off the lantern holder thing, (see picture) I have tried hot glue, soldering, and superglue, and none make it stay, is there a way I can fix this without taking it in for repairs? also I don't think I can take it off, becuase at the bottom its not a screw, can anyone please help me?

Thanks in advance,

 

Just for clarification this is not the same switch its another that I highlighted where It broke off,

 

also this holds the little plastic lantern and spins when the switch is thrown.

[ADCX Rob]

Epoxy should work. 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Forget epoxy, tried that and it's not nearly strong enough.  I tried a number of different concoctions and was never successful at repairing them.

There are a couple of ways to fix it.

1. You can drill out the rivet from the bottom, taking care to keep as much as you can.  Replace the lantern holder from a scrap switch and solder the rivet at the bottom of the switch.  You'll need a reasonably high power soldering iron, 100 watts or more, to solder the rivet back in.  The trick is making sure it's aligned.

2. The second way is the way I do them nowadays.  I bought a rivet kit and I just remove the lamp holder as well and using new rivets I put the lamp holder back on, then the light bracket.  If you don't have the proper rivet press or tools, do it the soldering way.

[servoguy]

Check out my post 022/711 switch operating pblms.  There are some more suggestions about fixing the lantern holder.  I have not found a way to repair a broken piece.  It is die cast zinc, and nothing seems to bond to it very well.  I have harvested some of the lantern holders from 042 switches which are manual versions of the 022 switches.  You can also buy the part new.  If you do buy a new one, make sure it is straight as one I bought was not straight and trying to straighten it resulted in breakage.

Bruce Baker

[gunrunnerjohn]

I've gotten my stock of lantern holders from dead switches.  I've picked up several assortments of switches and parts that were clearly not worth trying to fix, and harvested parts for the repairable ones.