Do You Prefer RCS or Gargraves Switches?

For the club modular layout and my home layout RCS. For TimeSaver, Gargraves. Gargraves was the least expensive. I was not especially impressed with the plastic base on the switch. Ballasted and painted, it looks so-so.

RCS has the best variety and the real spiked wood ties are extremely realistic. Gargraves and RCS use the same track pins, so you have your choice of track.

Gilly

For trouble-free operation I highly recommend Ross.  You'll save some money with Gargraves but be prepared for sporadic derailments or else tweaking of the switches.  You might need to make some longer guard rails, adjust their spacing, etc.  I had several Gargraves switches on my layout along with a bunch of Ross.  All of the Gargraves but a couple have been since replaced by Ross switches.  

Smooth-running track will show off all of your trains and for me Ross switches are ultra-smooth.

I also recommend Ross.  These are well built devices that are worth the cost.

There are places to skimp and save money.  Roadbed, subroadbed, track and switches are not those places.

George

Ross: wood ties vs plastic mold, better frogs, better quality. Gargraves has improved but Ross is still my choice.

I am a huge Gargraves track fan, but not quite so much so regarding their O-42 switches.  The O-42 switches I bought have short plastic rails after the frog. 

The plastic inside rails have given me a couple of different problems. They don't seem to mate up as well with next section of track as my Ross switches do.  In addition, the plastic rails are non-conductive.  You can still set them up for non-derailing operation using a short piece of track, but it's not as straight forward as with the Ross switches.

The plastic guard rails on my O-42 switches are taller than the steel track rails.  by far, I have more derailments there than anywhere else.

I also have a couple of O-54 GG switches.  They are built differently with all metal track rails.  Those seem to be just fine and have worked very well for years. 

BTW. I have: 38 Ross, 6 Gargraves, 6 Realtrax switches. When it comes to switches, Ross gets my nod.

I was not especially impressed with the plastic base on the switch

What Gilly said.

A couple of years ago Gargraves made some changes to their switches, has anyone had any experience with these "new" switches?

The MSRP from both makers is almost the same.

I couldn't agree more!  Why spend money on these fantastic trains and have a sub-par foundation to run them on?  Doen't make any sense to me.

Quality is my major concern.  As said above, I want smooth seemless turn outs another member mentioned.

I have heard nothing but positive remarks about RCS over the years! 

The plus side of all this is I can order about everything I need directly from one source-Gargraves flex track and the switches. 

You guys convinced me, I am going with RCS.  I will be very happy with them.

Thanks!

You won't be disappointed with your decision to go with RCS

Good choice!

Think there is no comparison, and went with all Ross switches.

Ross.

Ross for the switches and Gargraves for the track

I would use Ross switches if I could afford them. Gargraves 042 switches don't work well with MTH steam engines, derails them everytime, at least not with my MTH engines.

I can use Williams(pre-Bachmann) engines with Gargraves and no problems.

Lee Fritz

All I can say is I had Gargraves track and Gargraves switches for many years and for many years I would get derailments 99.999% of the time at the switches. Made me want to tear my hair out. I switched out all my GG switches to Ross last year without changing anything else and the same trains that derailed go through the new switches as smooth as a hot knife through butter.

Gargraves did change their switch design several years ago. I had both the older and newer versions and had problems with both.

Gargraves makes great track. Switches....meh!

Clearly Ross over Gargraves for switches. They look much better (the wood vs plastic thing that has been mentioned by others).  I started with a couple of GG and had nothing but problems with them operating erratically - lots of derailments.  Needless to say, some 2 dozen switches later, all are Ross.  And the few times I had questions, Steve was there immediately to answer and resolve any and all questions.  I love GG track, but not their switches.  Ross all the way.

Jim

Above simply states my plan!

Wish the Ross switches were a little cheaper but I'll start saving now.  Worth the investment!

Ross turnouts and Gargraves track.

Thanks Dewey, definitely my plan!

My first RCS #6 switch arrived today.  Now, I've saw these in magazines and thought they looked nice, but this switch blows me away!  It is beautiful and nicely made.  A quality product to say the least!  

I can't wait to get the rest of my switches and start building my layout. I can see my Vision Line Challenger gliding through a RCS now!  The closets are getting full of trains!  Need a layout!