[smiley]

I am quiet intrested in purchesing a hornby rolling road to run my locamotive in propley, instead of tail chasing on my layout.

First question, are they any good?

second question how does the rolling road get it power, do you plug in a standard hornby power clip, or do you have to buy some special after market power clip to make it work.

Your replies would be most helpful (because i have no idea)

many thx

smiley

 

[mossdp]

The Hornby Rolling road is useful. You just need to take a pair of extra wires from your controller and plug them into the terminals provided for you on the rolling road. There are two different versions of the rolling road. On the early one, the rollers did not carry power and it was only usable by locos that had non powered wheels on both sides that picked up current from the short track section that is part of it.

The later current ones, catalogue No R8211, have powered rollers as well as the short track section to pick up current and are useable by a greater variety of locomotives. The later one is much more useful. You can buy additional rollers for it catalogue number R8212 for larger locomotives. The older version and the older extra rollers had different catalogue numbers. Be careful you get the latest version. Neither version is suitable for long diesel locomotives with both bogies powered although it could be modified to suit.

Damian M.

QUOTE (smiley @ 13 May 2007, 12:49) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I am quiet intrested in purchesing a hornby rolling road to run my locamotive in propley, instead of tail chasing on my layout.

First question, are they any good?

second question how does the rolling road get it power, do you plug in a standard hornby power clip, or do you have to buy some special after market power clip to make it work.

Your replies would be most helpful (because i have no idea)

many thx

smiley

 

[smiley]

thx Damniem

All i am goging to use it for is steam loco.

But i must say thank you for the speedey reply and and stright answear.

Many thx

smiley

 

[Doug]

I have two of them and find them very useful for testing and running in locomotives. The first one I have was bought to use with the live steam locos and the second was to test DCC installations. I've used to two together in this review where I needed the extra rollers: http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index...-geared-locos-2

 

[smiley]

Thx doug that was very helpful

One last question can you use the rolling road as a programming track? For installing dcc decoders.

 

[Doug]

QUOTE (smiley @ 13 May 2007, 22:33) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thx doug that was very helpful

One last question can you use the rolling road as a programming track? For installing dcc decoders.

Yes you can, but the only limitation is the size which may limit your options for larger locos or multiple units. I have a couple of extra rollers on mine and I use two rolling roads sometimes as you see. At one time I used the rolling road with a dtdp switch to switch between DCC and programming.

 

[Brian Considine]

The H & M one is often seen at Shows for sale at a reasonable price (last one I saw was a tenner) - I used one for years until I bought a Gaugemaster one.

 

[smiley]

Thx all

For your help and replies.

I think i will treat myself to the hornby rolling road later today.

Mnay thx

Smiley

 

[Gary]

QUOTE The H & M one is often seen at Shows for sale at a reasonable price (last one I saw was a tenner)

Sorry dbclass50 and I know you used one and so did I but from personal experience I would not recommend the purchase of a secondhand H & M rolling road as it has brass rollers on one side and nylon rollers on the other which have too much lateral movement, wear unevenly giving inconsistent power pick up and causing loco wobble. When you think about it what would happen over time if you ran a loco on a track with a nylon rail on one side and a brass rail on the other? H & M produced quality engineered items. Unfortuneately their rolling road was not one of them!

The wheels on Hornby Live Steam locos can get a little hot with lots of moisture from real steam blowing from the cylinders. This would be a further handicap for the H & M rolling road with its nylon rollers and wood construction!

The Hornby rolling road performs much better with rollers made of the same material on both sides having no lateral movement and is a nicely engineered all metal product that I would have absolutely no hesitation in recomending to anybody!

If you can pick up an H & M rolling road for a tenner just as a running in instrument then fair enough but it will not offer the same solid performance and electrical conductivity for testing purposes as the Hornby version. On the other hand having spent £80 on a loco would you entrust a tool (a cheap secondhand rolling road) that induces wobble and power surging to help with the running in of said loco?

The H & M was fine for its day when all locos had a wobble anyway so you did not notice this trait in H & M rolling road!

Now that we are in 2007 and locos no longer wobble its shortcomings are very clear!

Also we have a lot of trader friends here. Do they really want their customers to plonk their brand new wobble free loco on a device that is going to induce a wobble "Triang Hornby M7 loco" style!

Is the Triang Hornby M7 0-4-4 loco the wobbliest loco ever built?

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[Brian Considine]

Well mine gave me years of trouble free service & no wobble - surely mine cannot of been the only good one, especially as I am the one that always gets the one duff in a 1,000,000 ?

It's a pity that the Grungemaster one is so prices, albeit extremely well engineered.

 

[Gary]

Thats what I thought and then I tried the Hornby rolling road.

Its only then that the things become apparent.

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[PaulRhB]

For bigger locos you could try the Bachrus saddles, they are individual rollers which are adjustable to different gauges too. The saddles simply sit on a piece of track, they aren't the cheapest but are beautifully engineered and I use them for running in and DCC testing in OO and HOm.

Pics and prices from this link.
http://www.digitrains.co.uk/productphil.html

Paul

 

[smiley]

I bought one today from from cb models for (£30) and a set of rollers for (£6).

And what a piece of nice enginering it is.

It has ran in two locomotive all ready, each was on the road for about a hour and they run beautiful know.

Thank you for your helpful replies and knowlidgeable answear

Kind regards

Smiley