This time I've decided to go for a well-recognized brand. Unfortunately the bigger the name, the higher the price is. My compromise is a product made by a company called DCC Concepts. And the rolling road I decided to buy is an item marked as DCM-RRA6. The Hattons store had it in stock for around £60 which was acceptable considering British Pound's low rate caused by Brexit.
The most advertised feature of this set is its multi-gauge capability. That's why the box contains a collection of elements allowing the modelers to build any rolling road they need. It's even supposed to support the 3-rail Marklin system.
And since we're already mentioning the 3-rail system...The product comes with a small plastic bag which looks like it was added there in the very last moment. The bag contains a piece of metal, three screws and a short wire. I'm not sure yet how to use it (no manual is included) but I bet it has something to do with the Marklin system.
The function of the remaining parts is clear and they allow us to create rolling roads for the following gauges:
- 9 mm (N)
- 12 mm (H0n3-1/2)
- 16.5 mm (HO/OO)
- 18.6 mm (EM/P4)
The set contains enough elements to build 6 rolling road pieces and that's the limit of what we can have at any time. Any combination is however possible, so one could decide to have - for example - 3 N-scale and 3 H0-scale pieces.
The assembly/disassembly is easy. Each piece consists of a plastic spacer and two double rollers attached using a screw. Once the screw is removed, the roller can be installed on another spacer.
The system is simple and permits quick reconfiguration BUT I've noticed it has a disadvantage, too. It's based on metal screws going into plastic parts. Such solution will sooner or later damage the threads inside the spacers and will render the parts unusable. I've actually seen small particles of plastic coming out when unscrewing the elements for the very first time. In other words - I would not recommend changing the configuration very often.
But as long as it works, we can create pieces of any gauge we want...
Let's go back to the mysterious plastic bag for a moment. It is indeed meant for the 3-rail system. And I suspect the solution proposed by the manufacturer is something like this (but still can't be sure, since the manual is nowhere to be found).
My focus however is the N-scale and the Kato Unitrack. For this case the DCC Concepts product works perfectly without the need for any extra tricks.
So how does it perform? I've tried the system with most of my N-scale stock and it worked with every single piece. Not every locomotive is however 100% compatible. For example - any engine featuring small details around its wheels has a chance of not fitting perfectly. It does not break the functionality of the rolling road, since it still works, but I would be careful and always check how the items position themselves together.
One of my locomotives had some contact issues BUT it was the one which always required a very, very clean track. I would not blame the DCC Concepts set here, since every other engine worked perfectly.
I've also discovered something new. When making a video for this post, I wanted to shoot a cool scene with my longest steam engine running on the rolling road. To my surprise, the locomotive turned out to be driven by only two axles and the final movie shot is really not what I wanted. But it only proves how useful this item is for anyone who wants to learn more about their collection.
Anyway, the movie is here. Enjoy!
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