Guys, just wondered if you had any recommendations for rolling roads, we seem to be limited in choice this side of the pond and the only one readily available is the offering from DCC Concepts which seems to have slightly mixed reviews. I'd be grateful for any suggestions.
I'm an HO guy, but I did find this test stand: http://www.trains.com.tw/railstand/N160-teststand-en.asp?titleID=988 It is pretty expensive but looks to have a lot of features. If you want to look for North American versions, I would suggest looking for 'test stands' or 'locomotive rollers'. I have only heard 'rolling road' in the context of Vehicle on Flatcar transport, which might be why you can't find anything.
I had seen that one but it does look pretty poor, this is the one I mentioned previously https://www.amazon.co.uk/DCC-Concepts-DCM-RRA6-Rolling-Road/dp/B073H66GG2 Thanks for the heads up on terminology though, I have a bunch of US stock that doesn't get run right now and I want to try and upgrade the lighting on some of them, a rolling road would allow me to play about with LED & resistor combinations.
I see a good amount of these in HO scale; Bachmann has one in their new tool/accessory line, but not in N scale. The DCC concepts version looks almost exactly like the Bachmann HO version. Marklin makes one in Z, but not N. You can search rolling road or test stand or whatever you want and get a good amount of products, but they are all frustratingly HO/OO. The only real one that I can find that is not the DCC Concepts or a Chinese knockoff is RailStand, and even then, they are hard to find.
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Rick, no offence meant but if we, as modellers, cannot discuss the various options available to us, be they with your sponsors or not, then I find that rather draconian. You wouldn't go to a Ford garage and ask for BMW part would you? If those that sponsor your website don't have the particular part I am looking for is there really such an issue with suggesting other retailers? How much do ebay pay you to sponsor the hundreds of pages of links on this site?
Lawrence, This isn’t about what we do or do not get paid by any advertiser, rather a showing of respect for them. We have no problems with folks discussing different manufacturer’s products here, and something that is esoteric gets a lot of leeway. Hence this was a friendly reminder not to stray (i.e., if these were reasonably available, then we would suggest folks link to our advertisers). What is more disconcerting is the almost total lack of these in n-scale. Possibly because it is much easier to have a reasonable length of track in a small space, it I would certainly appreciate having a set of these, as well.
Hi Rick firstly apologies for being a bit arsey in my response, one of those days I'm afraid, at least you only got one barrel, I have both barrels reloaded for someone else I take your comment about the lack of availability, one retailer told me he wasn't making any more as it was too much hassle and there was no demand! I may just bite the bullet and get the DCC Concepts unit and if it is okay with you guys, I can post a review of it for interested parties, if not just say the word. Whilst a small section of track can be used, if you want to work on a loco whilst running but not going anywhere (in my case lighting) these are ideal, I would not recommend them for running in locos as that does require bi directional curves to properly test the mechanism, but perhaps more for maintenance. Again, apologies if I offended at all and the guidelines have been taken on board.
Lawrence, Yes, if you get the DCC Concepts product please post a review for using in N-scale. I agree, these are not for "breaking in" a loco, but would be very convenient for decoder install work, especially sound with custom lighting. In terms of feather ruffling, this was only a slight breeze