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They don't have curved diverging legs, so they are neither 42 or 54. They are more like a #4.
AFAIK they appear to be 100's. Look identical to the 100's I recently purchased other than the labeling.
Bruce
I have at least 4 different types of 100" Gargraves switches on my layout, from several decades of production. The below pictures are of the most unusual.
They don't have curved diverging legs, so they are neither 42 or 54. They are more like a #4.
so, what does a #4 equal to, radius wise?
They don't have curved diverging legs, so they are neither 42 or 54. They are more like a #4.
so, what does a #4 equal to, radius wise?
No radius. The diverging leg comes off straight. The #4 means that if you put straight track on both legs, for every 4 units measured down the straight leg, the diverging leg moves 1 unit away. The frog is defined as an ratio then converted to an angle, just like it is on real railroads.
You can connect track of any radius that you want, but you can't change the frog angle.
Now that I have explained that, it looks like the four switches with the boxes are older offerings from GarGraves, which don't have a radius. The other two are newer ones from the current design. You can tell this by looking at the points.
GarGraves catalog says it is 100" radius, but that is not exactly clear. 3 rail train curves are expressed in terms of circle diameter, not radius (like 2 rail curves). So which is it? 100" or 200". Either way, it's big! Like over 8 feet for the 100" diameter or almost 17 feet for the 100" radius. My guess is they mean diameter.
I believe this is the latest point design. At least, it's my most recent purchase.
Why be leary? Try them. Some of the oldest were very good also.
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