Gargraves and Ross Custom Switches track

["Ira Schneider" <ira_schneider@iname.com>]

I am glad the model train manufacturers are not responsible for building REAL railroads.  They all seem to
use warped tape measures.

I just bought some Gargraves and Ross Custom Switches track for use at home.  I already knew that Lionel
track wasn't the correct size, but I thought that Gargraves and RCS were.  Boy was I wrong!

Here are the measurements I got (measuring center rail to center rail):

     Lionel O-31:                                28-7/8" diameter
     Gargraves O-32:                        32-15/16" diameter (their specification says 32.80")
     Ross Custom Switches O-42:  40-13/16" diameter

For the Gargraves and Ross Custom Switches track, I put 8 sections together to make a circle and measured
across the circle at each track junction.  I adjusted the tracks until all 8 measurements were within 1/16" and
recorded the average measurement.  For the Lionel tracks (since they are fastened down to my layout),
I just measured across the existing semi-circles.  This measurement is probably less accurate since I may
have deformed the circles when I layed the track out.  However, I measured 5 semicircles, and 4 of the measurements
were approximately the same (within 1/8").

How is anyone supposed to plan a layout given that you don't know the actual diameter of the tracks you
are using until after you buy them?  I originally believed that the Lionel O-31 tracks made a 31" diameter
circle.  No wonder the tracks didn't look right when I laid them out on the roadbed.  Now I know enough 
to measure the tracks BEFORE I lay out the roadbed.

I am also disapponted in the Gargraves-style track pins.  They seem rather flimsy.  My first attempt at
putting two pieces of Gargraves tracks together failed miserably.  The pins not only didn't want to go into
the rail, they eventually bent!  I finally figured out that I had to try to put the track together, pull them apart again
(with the track pins now sticking out of the rail that started without track pins), tap the track pins into the
rail, then join the tracks.  This is OK once you know about it.

With my limited experience using Gargraves-style track, I don't think it is reasonable to consider building any
modules for TTAT using this type of track at the module boundary.  The pins are just too flimsy to be repeatedly
assembled and disassembled.  I don't know about the Gargraves-Lionel transition pins, but I would be
concerned about the Gargraves end of the pins.




Ira