That explains it. Aristo switches are not made to a specific, repeatable standard. Use those blocks on properly set up (G1MRA) turnouts…I’ve had them here with “broken axles”.
TOC
Perfect Manufacturer?
Locos perfect in operations? Appearance? True-to-scale as a model? Operational toy replica?
Here’s my list of “Operational Quality and Durability”. In order of best history of reliability:
1 - LGB locos manufactured prior to leaving German parts and assembly.
2 - Hartland with their chicken soup ever-running simplicity line of locos.
3 - USA with their overall “funeral counseling” approach to settling the few quality problems that do occur.
4 - Aristo-Craft with mixed reports of customer satisfaction from glowing to embers along with unsure responses to input for quality changes – e.g. wheel specs and track width(s).
5 - Bachmann - a true LS pioneer with a known street fighter Lee Riley who was championing the need for corporate focus on large scale now gone. The rest is yet to be history.
MTH and PIKO are the newer entries without brand name histories on this site.
Accucraft is a true quality model – the Lamb-Bor-Gee- Nee of the group - their population of consumers is smaller and in support they really get steamed up.