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I wonder if anybody makes a yellow bayonet bulb that would fit into the lantern socket of a Lionel 022 switch.

I have a really important switch in the center of my layout, but the switch is positioned so that when I am at the operating board, the switch is facing at a diagonal angle to me.  This means that when I look at the lantern cover, I am not looking at it straight on.   I am looking at the corner (edge) of the lantern.  As a consequence, I don't see just a red lens or a green lens facing me as the switch operates.  I see a half of a red lens and a half of a green lens, which is quite confusing.

Accordingly,  I plan to pop out the red and green lenses from the lantern, and just leave the lantern open, but with a yellow (caution color) bulb inside.  I am also going to mount a little metal flag on top of the lantern, positioned such that I can immediately see whether the switch is open or closed, based the direction in which the flag is pointing.

I would prefer to have one of the painted "carnival" type bulb, as the LEDs really give me  headache.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

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You could also wire another "object" that you can see from your control panel with the lighted lantern on the switch. If the other "objects" light is lit, the switch would be in 1 direction,,  If the "object" is out, the switch would be in the other direction.  You could use a building, tower, end of siding bumper, etc. 

Wow.  Lots of great ideas.  I may have to rethink this.

Kooljock, good point about just looking down at the control board.  But I like having a lantern bulb on all of my switches so that I can instantly see that they are all powered up when I turn the transformer on.  I think a white light would be too bright, so that is why I am thinking yellow.

I may try to notch the lantern first, as Rob suggested, which is something that (stupid me) never occurred to me.

As a sidenote, I taped a little white pointer on top of the lantern, which points to which track is open, and found it amazingly helpful in working that center switch.  I can see at just a glance which way the train is going to go. (It only takes one brain step, i.e., which way is the pointer pointing, instead of two steps, i.e., what color is the lantern and which direction does that mean!  Very helpful as your brain gets old.  :-)

Mannyrock

@Mannyrock posted:

Kooljock, good point about just looking down at the control board.  But I like having a lantern bulb on all of my switches so that I can instantly see that they are all powered up when I turn the transformer on.  I think a white light would be too bright, so that is why I am thinking yellow.


Mannyrock

If the switch isn't powered up, neither will the controller be.

Yes, true.  But, when the throttle is turned all of the way down to zero, and I turn on the transformer, the controller light will come on, telling me that there is some track current in the track, but that does not tell me that the direct constant voltage current is flowing to the switch.  With the bulb in, the lantern comes on immediately, very bright, and that tells me that the constant voltage is working properly. 

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