How do 2 rail cars and Ross switches interact? I have heard that some cars are ok, only a minor drop through the frog but what are your experiences? Figure why buy 3rail cars and convert to Kadee when 2rail cars are already equipped
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I have no problem running 2-rail cars over Ross switches at the AGHR club
Although my home layout is all Atlas, our modular layout (Independent Hi-Railers, Midwest Division) is all Gargraves track and mostly Ross switches, and I have run a number of 2-Rail truck equipped pieces on that layout, without much problem. Backing through a turnout is sometimes problematic, however.
I made sure I solved that problem on my Atlas turnouts on the home layout, buy glueing styrene shims to the tops of the guard rail on the diverging route.
Yes, the wheels/flanges make a bit more noise when going thru the frogs, since the scale flanges do NOT reach to the bottom of the frog, and thus "drop into" the flange ways.
Some cars dip into the frogs, especially the Weaver cars with the plastic equalized trucks. The Atlas cars seem to shrug them off. Generally, I don't have problems with scale-wheeled equipment on turnouts at the club. "Straight" -- i.e. numbered turnouts seem to be fine. Curve-replacement -- i.e., O-72, etc. will be problematic when backing cars through them.
For what it's worth, I really prefer the Athearn 2-Rail trucks. The track beautifully and don't really make that much noise going thru the Atlas frogs. The MTH 2-Rail trucks also work very well on Atlas 3-Rail track.
