I’m in the process of purchasing a large G scale collection. There are some Aristo wide radius [ 10’] switches that have a guard rail made of rail instead of thin plastic we see on the older switches. Does this switch operate any better? this is a new switch still in the box #ART-30380.

I have one of those. The biggest problem I found with that one vs the metal rail is the wheels seem dip in the frog more then on the newer ones but not enough for derailments. I find I have less problems with the metal guide rails then plastic but only at the frog not the guide rails I seem to get more derailments on the newer plastic ones then the metal rail ones. I personally like the look of the metal vs plastic.

Actually the problems with the WR switches are well documented.

The issue is not so much the frog as the too wide flangeway on the stock rails causes by the plastic guard rail, or in this case of an older switch, the metal guard rail.

It’s more difficult to properly set the flangeway width with the metal guard rails, you need to remove them and reinstall them (I may be wrong here, it’s possible you can unscrew them and reposition). The plastic guard rails are easily shimmed with plastic.

The frog issues were that the top of the frog was above the rail heads, that can be sanded flush, and when you do this, you usually need to deepen the flangeways at the frog.

Here’s a page from my site, an article by Ted Doskaris, that shows the older version of this switch with the metal guard rails: https://elmassian.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162&Itemid=196

There’s 2 other pages on my web site about this switch.

Greg