I wanted to thank the other guy who had responded to this post with interesting information about his extensive experience with O22 and similar vintage switches, but his post seems to have disappeared ... ?
It's somewhat interesting to note that the prewar 711 switch has insulated running rails between the switch points and frog, for the non-derailing feature, and it does not use insulated track pins like the O22 switches. My 721 switch (second photo) has plastic rails in that area. Both 711 and 721 have very heavy die-cast bases. The prewar 711 switch machine appears to be interchangeable with those used on the postwar O22 switches.
I'm still hoping someone can explain the O22 switch with "automatically controlled" on the ID plate, as shown in first photo. Perhaps it was the earliest edition of that type of O22 switch?
