Buyers beware! Dave Lotz Pooler, GA -----Original Message----- From: Paul Lubliner [mailto:paullubliner@aol.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2014 12:46 PM To: dave_lotz@bellsouth.net Cc: reneeorton@hotmail.com Subject: Fwd: Fake rare left hand dwarf semaphore on eBay TO ALL: PLEASE help me out here with the eBay item # 191115691954 . It is being listed as an original vintage item. It is NOT. I CAN'T forward the "item" directly from eBay to anyone. I have attempted to send this, but since I filed a report about this being a fraudulent listing to them, eBay is actively preventing me from forwarding it! This without question, is a reproduction of a very rare 3 position, left handed RSA dwarf semaphore spectacle fitted with new old stock switch lamp lenses (not the correct smooth surfaced semaphore roundels) Just take a look at the above rear side photo and note the lack of most of the required cast-in square bolt head recesses (which should also have an accurately centered hole on the center of each recess) and apparent overall reject quality of the casting. Those recesses had to be perfectly cast into the spectacle in order to retain the square head bolts on the rear face so only the front side nut needed to be tightened when replacing the roundels. Back in the day with only glass available, dwarf semaphores were a constant nuisance to signal maintainers as the glass roundels were very prone to breakage. This was an attempt to alleviate some of that nuisance by the intelligent designers at the RSA of the ARA all the way back in 1910. Therefore, this can not be an original. I politely brought this up to whoever the guy is, but he pleads simple "ignorance" by way of it being "from an estate sale" which somehow also precludes it from having been stolen off the owner railroad. I cannot get eBay on the phone. This is as bad or worse than Brian Maiher's conversion of many standard switch lamps to Nunn type revolving Train Order signal lamps by replacing the base casting with one of his own manufacture a few years back. At that time I and a couple of friends reported those item's listings to eBay who after the fact, called me (from the U.S. no less!) and actually thanked me. It appears these days, eBay is conspiring to assist in perpetrating fraud. This is getting really nuts! Thanks. Paul
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