The 172 code rail seems like a good compromise. Kind of right in the middle of high rail and 2 rail. It was only available though in aluminum. I’m guessing you would use it outdoors. But this was way before battery power. Not sure how that would have worked. The steel was offered I’m sure for those that favored magnetraction. This is at a time many were still heavilly into postwar. It did look good all ballasted up. Better than Gargraves in my opinion with the solid rails and tie plates. At this time I believe Ross didn’t offer sectional track nor did Gargraves. By then all my track was pretty much in place. I might have considered it. But back then Gargraves was less than $4.00 for flex track. I only remember it that one time at the Amherst show. Don’t know if it ever made it’s way to York.
I’m assuming if you bought the 30 inch rail and laid your own track. The ties would be laid out on a curve and then you would bend and add the rails and secure them with the tie plates.
I started out with ROW switches. Then started using Ross and then for a few years it became Ross-Curtis. Then they became 2 seperate companies. Both based in Connecticut. I have a few and I believe the big difference was the Curtis switches used an aluminum frog. Other than that they feature pretty much the same construction.
