Hello everybody,
who uses a rolling test stand for their loco's? The reason for this question is that I bought two sd40-2's from Kato which are their latest production models. These units are in CN colours and have the blinking ditch lights. One of the units ran a lot slower then the other. So re-lubed it and also put thin oil into the tower bearings and it is now matching speeds with my other Kato's. This got me thinking that the lube when applied while the unit is running can better distribute itself and for this a rolling test stand would be ideal.
Unfortunately these test stands are quite expensive so the second part of the question is has anybody made one from scratch?
Thank you for your information.
Frank
"If you need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm."
I had a guy in a hobby shop I go to every once in a great while keep trying to sell me one of those for the longest time. Save your money and just get a loop of either easy track or atlas fast track or sectional track and attach it to a piece of plywood and make yourself a little test track. I happen to have a bunch of easy track mounted to 3/4" scrap pieces of plywood that runs around the perimeter of my work shop part of the basement. Maybe a total 30' of track if that mounted with some cheap shelf brackets from Lowes and if Ineed to test run a locomotive after working on it or lubricating it I just put it on the loop and let it run.
You can even use just use a couple of lengths of flex track or what ever old stuff you have lying around and save yourself the money. I can't see wha that thing can do that a simple loop of track can't.