Phil,
In short, I have used both Gargraves and ScaleTrax extensively, and ScaleTrax wins hands down. Gargraves flex is difficult to bend. It kinks, and the ties shift which means you have to adjust each one to keep the spacing after you manage to bend it. It takes a long time to bend, and after several pieces your hands will start to hurt. You can bend scaleTrax with a couple of fingers and the resulting curves are smooth without kinks as you see in the photo below.
My original set of ScaleTrax (and switches) from 2004 still work flawlessly. The second batch the switches do have problems. I believe the difference is from changing manufacturers. As mentioned the frogs short. I will not make light of it, it is a problem and I don't like it and they should fix it. But its not like you need to remove and rebuild the switch. You need to slide or nudge a rail from touching the other, put a drop of glue in the gap and your done. Thats not enough justification in my opinion to give up all it other advantages. The switches operation and switch machines work great and I have never had any problems with them.
There is nothing wrong with Gargraves/Ross. The wooden ties are a big plus and switches work well. I chose ScaleTrax because I wanted the most realistic looking scale track available. To me, the low profile rails makes a big difference when creating realistic photographs and video which is a big part of my hobby. The only thing better would be 2-rail.
I'm not sure why you had trouble loading the website. The link is correct and worked for me. I wonder if anyone else is having trouble???
Rich
