Finally, exactly what I am looking for, and a Scots Laddie to boot! I am a McDonald on my paternal grandmother's side. Your roller bearing idea is great, and meets my needs perfectly!
After my accident in 2013 which wrecked by back, I had to give up all of my sports and other activities, so I sold everything and invested it in tools and trains. It's now where I hide out and stay sane. The wife hates the clutter though! Lol.
Many thanks indeed. I've had to take a bit of time off as we now have a toddler and my back had been playing up, but I'll get back to making videos and documenting progress when I have a chance. Hopefully later this year.
Many thanks indeed. I really appreciate the support. I've also really missed making videos and I'm desperate to get back to building the layout. Hopefully it won't be too far away!
Great little setup there David for working at locos. The strip of acrylic is ingenious. My locos won’t be an issue sitting on there when you fix them up for me. 😂😂 Paul.
Great video testing board is a stroke of genius I think Dave Howarth did a similar thing with his rolling road but without the test gear as they are a pain keeping from falling over thanks for sharing .. Pete
Ah, many thanks. I'll have to go and check out Dave's video. I was sure someone else must have come up with something similar, because I can't be the only one who's found those rolling road modules a bit of a pain (and also dreadfully over-priced). Thank you for your comment and the support. Very much appreciated. 👍🏻
@@StrathpefferJunction I got my rolling road from Direct train spares which look a bit more stable and worked out cheaper then DCC concepts ones I saw what Dave had done to his a while back and put it on my to do list but still not got round to getting it done lol it will make running in so much easier .. cheers.. Pete
Oh, that's good to know about a cheaper source. It's crazy that these tiny we things are only marginally cheaper than Hornby's much more substantial rolling road. I had thought about making some myself using aluminium L bar and bearings, but I've already got too many jobs on the to do list!
Many thanks, John. I used to do a lot more of it (hence the equipment), but now my back's gone, I'm a bit limited. Still, it's really handy having all that stuff for railway modelling projects! 🙂👍🏻
Excellent work David, need something like that myself. I know what you mean about the DCC Concepts rolling road, its an utter pain putting locos on it with the rollers falling over etc.
This has genuinely been super useful. Even more so than I thought it would be. As for the dcc concepts modules, I really begrudge paying almost £80 for them. They're a complete rip off and will cost a fraction of that to make and package up. I also have no interest in N gauge or the other gauge (maybe o?) that's included. They should really make single gauge packs available. If I could be bothered, I could make about ten sets myself for about £20 max., if that!
Many thanks, Tony. I've got a few more in the pipeline, incl some reviews and also a wee build series. Just need to invent a time machine so I can go back and forth and get more than 24 hrs on a day!
I'm thinking of making a dc/dcc rolling road for all my OO guage locomotives and i could use 2 double double pieces of track so i can put all my rollers on one side. I will use it for all the diesel and electric locomotives plus steam locomotives aswell.
@@StrathpefferJunction for the first time, I've had 2 of my steam locomotives running on my dcc concepts rollers, it's abit fiddly to do but i managed it in the end.
I got the Sprog II but could not download or install the drivers, the support is really bad so I gave up on all this and bought the Railmaster which is great..
Many thanks, Keith. Yeah, I've used it about a dozen times just this week doing various jobs. It's one of those things I'm not sure why I didn't make earlier! :)
Very nice. I need something similar, but merg and pi sprog. Suspect I'll need to make it bigger as I'll ideally need n, oo and p4 tracks. Are the DCC concepts rolling road adjustable or fixed to one gauge do you know?
They're adjustable. They do just about everything except O Gauge, if my memeroy serves me right. In all honesty, they're well overpriced, but there aren't many alternative options. I found them a complete pain before I mounted them on the test board, but now they're mounted like that, they work fine and are easy to use.
Hi Andrew. Many thanks for the comment. There's a list of components (with links) on my website blog, plus links to the STL files: www.strathpefferjunction.com/making-a-test-board-and-rolling-road-for-analogue-dcc-model-locos It takes too long to print out lots of these for sale (each is about 3-4hrs given I use 0.1mm layer height for a quality finish and tolerance), but I'd be willing to do a special run for you as a one-off. Drop me an email via the contact form on the website if you want to take that forward.
I'll measure it when I'm home and let you know. The sprog cradle is a little quicker to print. I could probably do a very small batch, but if I get too many orders, I'll not get the layout finished! Lol. I'll be back later with that measurement.
Ok. It's 4mm thick acrylic (just realised I said 6mm in the video) and it's 13mm wide. The black spacers for the screws are M5x8mm...you might get away with 9mm, but I'm not 100% sure.
I used an A4 sheet of plywood I had lying around, so it'll be the length and breath of A4 paper (I can't recall off the top of my head those measurements, I'm afraid). Had I had a larger scrap, I would have gone a little longer by, say, 5cm and wider by 2cm, just to allow for a slightly longer length of track and to allow them to be very slightly further apart (to give locos a little more clearance from one another - they do clear, but not by a huge amount).
Hi Paul. I'm afraid I don't have a Bachmann Class 450, so have never fitted lights to the model. I would have thought the it might be possible using micro surface-mount LEDs, such as the 0402 package. The same type, different colour, may also be a possibility for arching on rails. You would need to hook arc light up to a suitable circuit. It would be possible to use a decent DCC decoder to programme flashes if the LEDs were installed on the model itself, or if installed by the third rail, you could use a simple reed switch and magnets circuit or an Arduino to instigate flashes. There's certainly a bit of work in arc lighting effects, but I'm sure it'd be worth it. There's a few forum threads on the topic which might be of use, such as this: www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/83341-third-rail-arcing-circuit
I'll see if I can do a quick diagram over the weekend. The reason I didn't do one for this video is that it really depends entirely on what you're hooking up and how you want it to work. I'll try do a simple one showing roughly what I did, in case it helps. As for the Sprog, it's a small USB dcc device. It enables you to programme your decoders via free JMRI software on your computer, and I think makes programming much, much, simpler. You can also back up cv settings to your computer, incase you have to reset the chip etc. The sprog3 is the higher power one that can also act as a command station and run a layout. In hindsight, the sprog 2 would have been fine for my needs. I think they're pretty much the same from a usage point of views, just that the sprog 3 handles up to 3 amps, whereas the sprog 2 is less. I find it very useful and do most of my no-loksound programming using it.
Hi. I've done a wiring diagram and put a link to it in the description. The diagram is what I have done. If you have different components and a different board layout etc., the requirements may differ. Make sure you check for continuity and shorts before you fire up any of the testers or plug in a decoder etc.
Many thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. I have considered commissions, but I just don't have the time right now, unfortunately. It may be something that I look at in the future, if life allows.
Hi Bob. That's if sorted. I published them, but forgot to turn on the download option. My apologies! It says it'll take a few minutes to make the download live, so if you check back a little later on, it should be fine. Any further issues, just drop me a line and I can email you the files.
