Pennsylvania Trolley Museum's Way & Track Department is cleaning house and scrapping a lot of junk rail and other stuff that we'll never need. Included on the "it's gotta go" list are some tongue switches and mates in girder rail. These are the real deal - authentic Lorain Steel Company streetcar design tongue switches with flange-bearing mates. Most are for seven inch 140 pound girder guard rail but we have a few for nine-inch 152 pound girder guard rail. These include 50-foot, 100-foot and 200-foot centerline radius switches. Both right hand and left hand switches are available, although in some cases we may not have a mate of the correct radius and hand to go with a particular switch and vice versa. Some are solid manganese steel castings while others are the older ironbound design with manganese inserts and rolled rail arms. Most are in pretty worn condition but more than a few are absolutely never-used items that were bought by Pittsburgh Railways in the 1950s. Let us know what you need and we'll check whether we have it. Photo below is a sample of some of the virtually new castings.

Prices negotiable but has to be more than the scrap man would give us. New switches of this sort would easily have prices with five significant digits, so there are some real bargains to be had here.

Terms: 50% down payment within 30-days. Has to be both fully paid and the item off PTM property within 90 days or down payment will be forfeited.

For more information, contact me at lovejoy3314 "at" gmail.com

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.

Are there any made for railroad flanges instead of streetcar flanges?

"Are there any made for railroad flanges instead of streetcar flanges?"

There are a few with flangeways that might be wide enough to accomodate railroad flanges, but I'm pretty certain they would not play well with railroad back-to-back wheel gauge. Back-to-back gauge on railroad wheels is about 5/8-inch less than what was used on most legacy streetcar systems. As we dig through this stuff, if I find anything that might look promising for Electric City, I'll let you guys know.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.