Yes you are correct and I forgot! Thanks so much. When I hooked them up to some track powered by a lockon in the way you would in a layout, everything worked fine. As soon as I read your comment, I rcognized my mistake.
I have been working a lot on a different layout with twin coil switch machines by Tenshodo or NJ International and they have three contacts for the coils, but in those, one IS the "hot" leg; I forgot that in the Lionel 027 switches the power comes internally from the connection to the center rail. All working fine!
about to post again re altering these. look for it! thnks again
You misunderstand how the switch is wired. The post nearest the switch machine is connected to the outside rails. The other two terminal are connected to the coils. If you will put the transformer across the rails, one lead on the center rail and the other lead on the outside rails, you will have the switch powered. Then if you touch the terminal nearest the switch motor to either of the other two terminals, the switch should operate.
These switches tend to develop poor connections. The connections are inside the switch, under the bottom cover. I wrote a post about how to restore them to proper operation. The post is not on this forum. If the switches don't operate properly, I suggest you find my post and restore the switches.
I have bought several old 1122 switches from different guys, and find the same failure to operate, which surprises me; I would not thing they would all fail in the same way. using a hot and "ground" firect from the back of an RW, when I connect one to the post with the metallic colored mount (closest to switch machine housing, and touch the other lead to either of the two remaing posts, nothing happens, although the light does go on. If I touch the two leads from the RW simutaneously to both of the other posts, I get a buzz. This suggests to me that the solenoid coils are not burned out; if they were, running a current through both of them would fail and there would be no buzz. If that is a valid supposition, then the fact they the switch doesn't operate when one leads goes to the post closest to the housing (believe this is the input of the hot lead) and the other lead is connected to either of the other two posts indicates there is an open sircuit between the post next to the housing and the solenoid winding.
My problem is that it is surprising that all of these switches have failed in the same way. But maybe I shouldnt be surprised.
Anyway, any thoughts? I can do some home repairs on this stuff, but unriveting the bottoms is beyond my skills. And maybe I should have less confidence that they would work well just because they looked good.
AAhh--Buyer beware.
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