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This
is a very rare item from 1946 and I only know of two in existence in
the hands of two different collectors. It is so rare that many
have believed that although it was cataloged, it was never made.
Obviously that is incorrect. Both known examples came
from the Estate of E. Z. Schwafel, who operated a toy & hobby shop
in Sunnyvale, California.
It was intended to operate
the 587 target signal and 588 semaphore. Only the 587 was
available and all of those were produced before World War II.
This is the reason you find brass spring loaded buttons on the
bottom of the chassis of most 1946 locomotives. Those brass
buttons contacted the spring loaded strips on the trip joining them
electrically during the time when the two buttons on the locomotive
were each on a different strip. In order to operate the signal
you needed two track trips. One in the controlled section of
track to turn the signal red for the oncoming train and kill power
to a section of track in front of the signal, and one just after the
controlled section to turn the signal green again and restore power
for the train at the signal.
Technically this should have worked as the chassis was electrically
isolated from the rails. (Some models beginning in the late
50's had a "hot" chassis, but that wasn't a concern in 1946 models.)
As you can imagine, the period of time when one button was on one
strip and the other on the other strip was very short and would get
even shorter if the train speed was increased. Another factor
was that Gilbert was using very shallow flanges on the locomotive
drivers in 1946 and they tended to derail. Also the cars in 1946
were very light unweighted plastic and were also prone to
derailment.