Gargraves/Ross Switches Questions

by shadowed area I will assume your seeing the wooden stringer under all 3 rails its there to stabilize the track make it ridged. unless your a true scale modeler the difference you mention on various track won't matter as most brands will connect using the proper track mating pins and so on.

On Ross track there are two stringers underneath the sectional and curved track in addition to wooden ties and spiked rails. Ross does not offer flex track but has a large selection of curves and switches.

Gargraves  design is similar except they attach the track sections through a groove in the wooden ties on straight sections of their flex track. The is no additional reinforcement. Their sectional curves use a similar method except they use plastic ties.  Switch selection is limited and they use a plastic base on their switches. One thing I did not like about Gargraves is even if you carefully ballast the track you may still see the shiney metal underneath.

I’ve built layouts using both systems but my latest one used all Ross track and switches and in my opinion it was the right decision.

Using  all Ross track and switches is more expensive than a combination of Gargraves track and Ross switches. Many modelers do the latter.