Look For The Union Label

The Union Switch and Signal M3 family of electric point machines set the standard for performance and reliability, however entering into the catalogue around 1953, the M3's design and technology have long since gone off patent and are free for fly by night competitors to copy. Today we will take a quick look at the US&S trademarks as applied to their M3 family as well as the marks of imitators so you can avoid getting scammed.

 

Before I begin I would like to state that the following is not an exhaustive list as I am sure there will be countless variations within the broad categories I will outline below. I have photos of hundreds of M3 family switch machines and I am just going to take the average and find the best examples.

First off is what I will call the small verbose branding.  We have a small USS trademark followed by three lines of text consisting of "US&S Co", "Made in USA" and what appears to be parent information cast into the lid of the circuit contact portion of the switch machine. I suspect this is the earliest design as it looks most similar to the few surviving M2 machines and would likely be within the 17 year patent period starting around 1950.

The next version sees the third line dropped reducing the text to just "US&S Co" "Made in USA".

This is followed by the large logo variant that keeps the 2 lines of text, but has a larger US&S logo cast into the detector box cover.

Next we have the boxed variant that features the late model boxed US&S logo followed by "US&S Co" and "Made in USA" on earlier 1990's vintage machines and then just "US&S Co" in the later ones that are being sold up to the current day.

 

Now that you've seen the real stuff, let's check out some of the fakes. At the top of the skeezy list is this M23 I found on the UP Moffat Tunnel sub without any branding at all! 😬

Our next imitator is made by Vossloh and sold as the VSM-24.

Some of these are branded JMI, which is a machining and casting outfit. I am not sure if JMI was making complete switch machines and had that business bought out by Vossloh or if JMI was just a subcontractor.

Here is one I unfortunately neglected to get a good photo of, a Patco Industries branded M23B. Patco industries is known for their rebuilding work and sells pretty much every part of an M3 for spares so I am not sure if this was built from scratch or just has a lot of Patco parts.  It's worth mentioning that the branded contact case cover is made from aluminum, not cast iron.

I have heard mention of a few other companies selling M3 family switch machines and of course there are the international variants like Westinghouse Brake and Saxby Signal Company, but these are all the photo examples I have. If you know of any others please let me know in the comments and if you have some photos you wouldn't mind sharing I can add them to the list! Just remember, if you are looking for a quality electric switch machine, just look for the Union label.