Upgrading Gargraves 2 rail turnouts for good scale 2 rail operation?

Looks are deceiving.

I turned my 3-rail layout into a 2-rail by removing the center rail on Gargraves track and Ross switches.  It worked but looked awful.  When I completely rebuilt my layout using Mianne benchwork I also bought new 2-rail code 148 track (Atlas, Micro-Engineering, and Signature Switch).  Never been happier, but it's not cheap.

Save yourself some headaches and get the turnouts from Signature Switch.  I tried making my own, then did as I am now suggesting.  Not the cheapest way out but well worth the $$$ spent.  Turnouts are the one area you should not scrimp on, if you do, your model railroading life will be miserable.

I still run 3-rail wheels on the code 148 track, Brad at Signature Switch made the switches just for my purpose.  I can run 2-rail wheels but have found I need to replace most of the trucks to do so.  For now, I'm keeping things like they are because I get ZERO derailments (unless I make a boo-boo like not setting a switch correctly).

Bob:  how do you throw your signature switches?

Would a caboose industries ground throw work.

Would an under the table Tortoise Electric switch machine work?

I had never heard of signature switches until last week.

Thank you!

To use the gargraves switches, you might just have to add a piece of styrene to the guard rails across from the frogs.    I did this some older Roco switches to tighten the clearances.    I glued a 1/16 inch square piece of styrene the same length as the guard rail to the top of the guard rail and offset it toward the running rail to keep the wheels from picking the frog.     It worked fine for me.

I have also run 2 rail equipment on Gargraves track and switches  years ago before  I fully converted to 2 rail.    I think at the time, I had mostly the older style switches that moved a big section for the points.

John, all would work but I installed Caboose Industries ground throws on all of them.  2 are hard to reach so I embedded control rods (think RC plane) in the rubber matting I used to cover the top of the layout, but I have the Caboose ground throws at the end of the control rods.  You can just see the ground throws at the right of the photo.  The rods go under and to the left of those 4 engines.  I used a Dremel to cut the channels for the rods.  That's a Williams/Samhongsa 4-6-2, 2-8-2, MTH 2-8-0, another 2-8-2, and a MTH 0-6-0 in the foreground.

I have 3 others I want where I want to use control rods on, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Thanks for the comments suggestions. Nice photos Bob!

As I said I have Atlas and Roco turnouts on much of the visible yards. But I got the 2 rail Gargraves turnouts and track really cheap so will just work to make them work better for the yards behind the scenes. Yes as far as I can see if I build up the bottom of the frog to O scale wheel height then glue on some plastic strips to back of the guard rails I think this will tighten it up so the wheels will stay on the track better. I am using Caboose ground throws for these.

@John C. posted:

Would a caboose industries ground throw work.  Yes,  As long as you have the proper throw distance and  there is enough spring to hold the points against the stock rails.

Would an under the table Tortoise Electric switch machine work?  I use Tortoise for all none easy reach turnouts.

Another device you may consider is a d.p.d.t. slide switch to provide correct frog polarity.  I use a lot of these especially in the storage  yards.

Signature switch points throw the same as any 0 scale turnout.  The big difference is that the Signature switch is way more precise than any of the switches mentioned.

Below will be a photo of a slide switch in one of the storage yards: