Gargraves switches

Frank G Haymes posted:

I was at my LHS yesterday and notice that they were caring Gargraves track.

Have they improved their switches?

Go with Ross.

Frank,

  On my last layout, which was an 11x4 ft. switching layout, I had 6 Gargraves switches. I had the layout for around 8 years and I had no problems with the Gargraves switches. Maybe every month or two one switch needed some adjusting of the points with a small needle nose pliers. Considering real railroads need to do maintenance, I didn't have any issues with that. Having said all of that, my switches were from the 1990's. I believe the more modern ones have stronger points.

Tom

Go with ROSS they take a pounding and keep working. We only use ROSS switches at NJ Hirailers.

Gargraves no longer has the flexible points.  They are excellent.

I'm not sure with new ones but there use to be a problem with Gargaves tracks if they were not laying flat ( yes it can be on a up or down angle but the switch has to be like on a flat board or something) or there was jumping problems. 

I have a layout with 4 loops, 3 being interconnected and having several continuous sidings for stations and the like.  I have the  3 interconnected loops with a total of 11 Gargrave's switches with track laid and all wired up and operating.  I am strictly a pre and post war operator.  In my initial trails I have had no problems at all.  I have run my City of Denver through all the loops and sidings for up to 20 minutes with no problems.  Same for my 763E pulling 3 2623 Manhattan passenger cars.  Also, my Flying Yankee did great.  I have yet to try some of the prewar locos with shorter spacing between pickups but if a problem exists I have figured out a way to reduce the open space on the center rail through the switches.  I was concerned up front about the ability for me to run my prewar favorites but no longer have any concern.

All of my post war locomotives handle all the switches well.  All of the switches are of recent production with the cast frogs.

The 4th loop which will be an  independent loop, with all 72  curves and a crossover using 72 switches have yet to be laid.  This loop will be primarily for my City of Portland.

Obviously I am very pleased with my Gargrave's switches and track.

Jim

Gargraves switches are nice for non scale items but Ross works better with scale engines. You can put 2 Gargraves 042 switches back to back with less space then with 2 Ross switches, also Ross has a longer straight section after the switched area, however Ross has all metal rails with their switches and Gargraves in certain sizes uses a plastic rail on one side of the frog.

Lee Fritz