I can readily answer your first question. The Real World has a multitude of manually operated switches. Usually these are in industrial areas or on short lines that don’t have a lot of traffic. Basically the train stops, the brakeman or conductor climbs down, unlocks the switch lock, then throws over the switch by hand.
The automated, remote control switches you’re thinking of are more likely to be on high volume, high speed lines that are controlled by a centralized dispatcher who has the ability to actuate the switch from his desk, even if it’s hundreds of miles away.
On model railroads, I suppose it comes down to what kind of railroad you’re modeling, and what kind of operations you enjoy.
It also depends heavily on how much money you want to invest in switch machines, controllers and extra wiring and power supplies.
I have a few automatic interlockings that I’ve wired up, using Tortoise switch motors. I did this for two primary reasons… They control an important junction on the layout, so they get a lot of use, and the location of them is just beyond a comfortable reach…
Ultimately, I want to be able to operate all of my main line switches remotely, maybe even going to the expense of using DCC decoders to control them. But in the yards and the switching areas, it’s all done by hand, just like the prototype.
Hmmm I think I am real, and almost in the professional category. I don’t know that I would make that assumption. MOST of the model railroads I operate on (some are owned by official “model railroad masters”) use manual turnouts. Of the 20 or so I regularly operate on, I can think of one that is mostly remote, and two that are 100% remote. Remote in the sense that one can change the turnout from a switch or mechanism not right next to the turnout.
So instead of reaching over a flipping the turnout the obvious direction,… one has to find the control panel, figure out which way the switch should be thrown, throw it, watch for the indicator light to change, go back to the turnout and look to see if it really threw as expected and then proceed… To me the remote is way much more time. The train has to stop the same number of times regardless of method of changing a turnout. Of course there are always exceptions. If one is working a massive yard and the control panel is a routing panel (that is I push one button to line up the entire yard for a given track) then the remote would be way quicker.
No, there is significant difference. If one has a large layout to be controlled by a very few number of people, a remote dispatch, or a computer remote is essential. Also a huge reason to use remote is if one does not wan