I have 52 Ross switches on the layout, and they are truly the best switch on the market. And as mentioned above, Steve backs them up. I have sent two back to him over the years for the throw bar repair. Both switches were from production runs in which the throw bars were known to break. This was at least 5 or 6 years ago, and I have not had a problem since.
I only use the Z 1000 switch machines. Stay away from the Z 250 machines, the ones with TMCC capabilities built in. They have a very high failure rate.
The only other issue you need to know about is running Lionel Post war engines and operating cars with slider shoe pickups through Ross Switches. The design of the Ross Switch will cause the engine / car to uncouple when the slider shoe crosses the center rail of the switch. Operating cars with slider shoes will activate when going through a Ross Switch. Jim Barrett has a fix for this problem in one of his back shop videos. It involves filing back the slider shoes, and insulting the car body from the track ground. I decided not to alter my post war operating cars, so I leave them on a siding and operate them in place, and never run them on the layout. I run the Williams remote control operating cars on the layout. The only fix I know for the slider shoes on post war engines and tenders is to disconnect them, or just cover the metal pin with tape. The slider shoe still does a good bit of bouncing when the engine goes through the Ross Switch.
I hope this helps,
Richard
