MTH Classic STD Gauge Track & Switches?

See the MCCoy track thread below.

Buy Ross.

 

The MTH 42" switches are copies of the old Lionel. I have not worked with them, but they are said to work OK, except that a lot of them come out of the box with the limiter microswitches out of adjustment. I would also be skeptical of the frogs, which on the 72" switches are made of sheet metal that is too thin, causing them to drop when a heavy engine crosses them. I suspect the frogs are the same gauge metal on the 42", with similar results. 

 

The MTH 72" switches are JUNK, pure and simple. I installed three of them to build a yard at the toy train museum and I spent two or three hours PER SWITCH getting them to work right. For starters, you have to grind down a piece of rail on the mating section to make it fit onto the switch. I'm not going to go through it in detail here, but suffice it to say that I never, ever, want to install another MTH switch. I've been told that SGMA's experience is similar. 

 

Both MTH switches cause problems with large gear engines such as the early Super Motors or a Boucher. The gears will ride up on the inner channels and guard rails, and will chew up the plastic channels. You can modify the switch so that a large gear engine will run through the straight path with the gear on the outside only, but you can't make it go through the diverging path. This was also true of the original Lionel switches. Old American Flyer switches will work with large gear engines. Ross switches will supposedly accommodate large gear engines, but I cannot confirm that out of personal experience. 

 

It's a pity they MTH switches are so awful mechanically, because they are beautiful in appearance. They give a real "tinplate" look to a layout. However, function is everything, and they are just too much trouble. 

 

So the answer is to buy  Ross switches. They work great and they are made in USA. They look like real switches with tinplate rail, rather than the tinplate look of the MTH units, but they work. The design also makes it a lot easier to build a yard ladder if that's what you want to do. I'll take a switch that looks blah and works over a switch that looks pretty and doesn't work.

 

 

I have had no problems with my STD 42 switches. Many forumites report significant problems with the STD 72 switches.

"You can modify the switch so that a large gear engine will run through the straight path with the gear on the outside only, but you can't make it go through the diverging path."

I have reworked MTH 42" turnouts so that large gear locos go through both ways. Grooves need to be cut in the check rails to clear the large gears.

The only problem with the Ross turnouts is he didn't make a 42" and most prewar STDG trains were built to run on 42" curves.

Again, this topic has been hammered both here and on the StandG Yahoo list...

Let them hammer the topic over and over because it means more and more people are discovering Standard Gauge trains and tinplate in general.

Mike, I have 56 switches on my Standard Gauge layout; about six or eight Gargraves, one old Rydin, and the rest MTH, both 42 and 72.

 

I have a little bit of difficulty with some of the Gargraves with conductivity and losing the DCS signal as the loco goes over the switch.  The Rydin gives me frequent derailments in one direction - picking the point that has not thrown and locked all the way over. It is an older switch and has some wear.

 

The MTH switches have worked the best for me - although they do require some tinkering to get them set up right.  Once set up, they have worked dependably for me.  I power them all on aux. power with a good 14V power source (Z4000 aux. posts), and run fairly heavy wire (at least 18ga., with as big as 16ga. on the longer runs) to be sure the switches get a good jolt to throw then over hard and lock them.  I had some problems earlier with lighter wiring (22ga.) and feeble response.

 

You want to not be afraid of using a pair of pliers on them to get them set up right.  I have some heavy locomotives (Standard Gauge Hiawatha, a few 408's) but have not had SWHi's problem with the frog.  The construction of the MTH switches is not, shall we say, overly robust (a little tinny, as in 'tinplate'); tolerances are more than a little loose; and they are not 100% plug and play right out of the box.  But I wouldn't call them junk.  They certainly could be improved on, but until then it's part of the tinplate experience.

 

The only reason I used the Gargraves and Rydin is that the switch motor/ lamp housing on the MTH switches is sometimes in the way of other trackwork.  This is one of the biggest limitations on using the traditional switches.  I would love to see a version of this switch with the switch motor/lamp housing that is interchangeable from one side to the other, as some older O Gauge tinplate switches were.

 

I built my layout before the Standard Gauge Ross was available.  If Ross made a switch that was sized to be interchangeable with existing 72 and 42 Standard gauge switches, as well as compatible with tinplate tubular track, I would seriously consider them.   Until then, MTH switches are still the best game in town.

 

Like the post says, the MTH are just new versions of the old Lionel turnouts. The added benefit of being 70 years younger helps a lot, but they still have their inherit problems.

 

The Rydin turnouts work well, especially the S-144 wide radius versions, but the achilles heel are the switch motors. Many have replaced them and had huge success with the Rydins.

 

I chose the new Ross turnout for my layout. I would buy more if I need them. They are real nice turnout with a moving frog system. The wheels never encounter a gap in the rails and there is plenty of room for gears. Simply put, any thing I have run does not derail. Period. It uses an LGB switch machine so there is plenty of power to throw the turnout. The only downside is it operates on DC so you most likely can not use track power.

Here are a couple of pics of the Ross 72" switch.

 

Hope this helps,

 

ARNO

 

 

Thanks Arno, that's the first good picture I've seen of the Ross switch. I love the little pinball flipper in the V of the switch. It even looks like the guard rail channel might be wide enough for large gear locomotives. I sure wish those had been available a couple of years ago when I was building the yard on the museum layout. It would have saved me hours of work getting the MTH switches to work properly, not to mention that I could have built a proper yard ladder rather than the bunch of bananas I had to set up because of the big footprint of the MTH switches. Hurrah for Steve Ross!

"Let them hammer the topic over and over because it means more and more people are discovering Standard Gauge trains and tinplate in general."

Sure, I can agree with that. I just wish all the conversation and review of STDG turnouts could be compiled in one place.

Arno, I think you got lucky with your Rydin turnouts. I had two of them fail because of metal fatigue, the points disintegrated...Once during an SGMA operating session and the parts had to be glued in place to keep the line running.

I am starting a permanent STDG layout and plan on using a pair of Ross 72" turnouts for a siding. My layout will be small and I would use 42" turnouts if Steve made them.

Just FYI: The Ross STDG turnout was developed with assistance from SGMA members who provided Steve with info and testing on various STDG trains, the goal being to have a STDG turnout that most "everything" could run through.

 

Which shows a very high level of intelligence and common sense on the part of both Steve Ross and the participating SGMA members. Some of our "major" manufacturers could learn a lesson.