Tortoise VS Switchmaster

[Anonymous]

If they had a fight who would win? What is the difference?

[cacole]

The Tortoise moves it's rod, which is almost straight, back and forth through an enlarged hole under the center of the turnout. The SwitchMaster, aka TorqueMaster, is a motor that requires the actuating rod to be bent into an L shape at the top and bottom, and be fed up through the layout inside brass tubing, and is more difficult to install than a Tortoise.

Someone posted pictures of the innards of a Tortoise recently. The SwitchMaster is a gear-reduction, low voltage motor that appears to have been purchased as military surplus where it might have originally been designed to be used on aircraft as a servo motor.

[jimrice4449]

Tortoise is easier to mount (see my post on "tortoise fool proof mount above) and it has two auxiliary contacts. To route power through my electrically dead frogs w/ a Switchmaster requires the use of a micro switch. When power to the Switchmaster is cut , the spring on the micro switch moves the points (of the micro switch) out of contact. When power is restored to the Switchmaster it can't overcome the micro switch spring (it only works when it can build up momentum from the opposite position).
The result is, unless I remember to reverse polarity on all of the Switchmasters (for which purpose I've installed a special DPDT switch on my control panels) I'll eventually run something into a switch for which the frog polarity doesn't match the track polarity.
Short answer...I've stopped using Switchmasters in favor of Tortoises and am (slowly) in the process of replacing the Switchmasters I've already installed.
If, after reading the above, you still want to go w/ Swichmasters I can make you a real good deal on some.

[rrinker]

I've seen a couple others too, besides Switchmaster, and every single one of them looks harder to install than a Tortoise, especially if you use a foam base like I do, instead of wood. Plus the Tortoise is the only one that has the contacts already for signalling and powering the frog. The others require you to also buy a microswitch or two, and mount that somehow that it gets pressed by the moving rod. So these other guys who claim to be cheaper than the Tortoise - maybe if you need to contacts. Add in the price of the microswitches and see where you stand. Tortoise is still the best. Priced high - because they are made int he USA. They'd be a fraction of the price if made elsewhere, but Circuitron is thus far resisting that temptation.

--Randy