Years ago I recall seeing ads for a track gauge called the rollie holder.It was a round metal piece with grooves for the rails that rolled along the rails as you spiked it down.I thought it was a great idea at the time,but not hand laying track back then,I never got one.Now that I am hand laying track,I would like to try one but can not find any info on them.Does anyone else remember these or have any info on them or even if they are still available?
I remember the roller track gauge, but I've never owned or used one.
My personal choice is the three point gauge, since it can make the gauge micrometrically looser on curves. Also, you don't have to wonder whether the gauge is exactly perpendicular to the rails. Since it's a triangle, it will be.
My own three point gauges have been in use for quite a while. They're brass castings...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with hand-laid specialwork)
Choo Choo Charlie,
Rollee Holder's.....This place has them:
http://www.railwayeng.com/gauges.htm
Take Care!
Frank
a more modern version: DCC Concepts DCG-RGFB100 OO/HO
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
The plastic Rollee Holders would be fine if you're just spiking down track but I'd rather use the brass DCC Concepts units if I were soldering rails to PC ties. Either would have been nice to have when I was building my 50+ turnouts for my current layout. Had to do it all using a single NMRA gauge.
Hornblower
The rollee holders are Not plastic...they are machine lathed precision metal.
Looks exactly what my friend turned on his lathe to guage the track when he was doing 9mm finescale. He's since gone back and relaid all the track and turnouts to standard N scale dimensions, although he has retained the code 40 rail.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
zstripe The rollee holders are Not plastic...they are machine lathed precision metal. Take Care! Frank
Maxman,
I have them....the ones I have are Metal. Also have some weight to them. Like it was cut from a hardened steel rod. I can't chip them or scratch them.
So, which is it, plastic or metal?
Frank provides a link to Rollee Holders and says his Rollee Holders are metal.
maxman points out that the link says they are Lucite, a form of acrylic.
Are there two types of Rollee Holders, one plastic and one metal?
Rich
Alton Junction
All I know for a fact is....I have had mine since 1960, along with Metal three pointers when I hand laid brass track and switches/turnouts. They look exactly like the ones on the site. Don't know if they are the same MFG. That was 54 yrs ago, I was 18. Time flies, when you're having fun.
The switches came already soldered, two stock rails, frog soldered to two divergent rails and a set of points with throwbar in a box for 1.25, all brass. I remember that very well, cause I bought one from my local hobby shop in 1957, rode my bike four miles home opened the box and low and behold...no ties and I had been thinking on the way home, wow got my first hand laid switch. LOL
Didn't have spikes or a small enough pair of needle nose pliers, either. Where's the internet and who do you ask for help? Oh and the hobby was dying back then too!
zstripe All I know for a fact is....I have had mine since 1960, along with Metal three pointers when I hand laid brass track and switches/turnouts. They look exactly like the ones on the site. Don't know if they are the same MFG. That was 54 yrs ago, I was 18. Time flies, when you're having fun. Didn't have spikes or a small enough pair of needle nose pliers, either. Where's the internet and who do you ask for help? Oh and the hobby was dying back then too!
Didn't have spikes or a small enough pair of needle nose pliers, either. Where's the internet and who do you ask for help?
Oh and the hobby was dying back then too!
Hey, it is dying a slow death !
Frank, with the metal rollers, I assume you cannot use them with the power on or else they will short the track.
Or, are they somehow insulated?
There are several different varieties from several different maufacturers. Back in the 1970's I remember seeing them as being made from a green Lucite rod. Pretty much anybody with a lathe can make them. I used some owned by other people a couple times bu always preferred the 3 point gauges, such as those sold by Micro Engineering.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Sorry I started such an argument. I just noticed that the Rollee Holders product shown in the link Frank provided appeared to be made of some sort of clear red plastic (I failed to read that they are Lucite). I still don't know whether Lucite is heat resistant enough to use when soldering rails to PC ties.
LOL
Blame it on Frank, he posted the link to the plastic Rollee Holders and then said that they are not plastic.
LOL....Whether they are Plastic or not,, I really don't care! The one's I have are Metal, not colored, but look the same as the one's in the link, I was assuming they were metal, because mine are.
Melting point for Lucite:
The metal ones would seem preferable to the plastic ones since metal is less likely than plastic to twist or warp or lose its stability. But the downside is that an all metal roller will short a powered track so you cannot use metal rollers with the power on. Of course, unless you are hand laying track, there isn't much need for Rollee Holders.
I have found in the past when I hand laid brass turnouts, that using the three point track gauges was the best in soldering components in a turnout. The notches or pins on the underside would actually hold pieces in position while soldering, while the cylindrical gauges did not do a good job at doing that. Use of the cylindrical one's was best when spiking track in curves and straights.
And of course, there would not be any power to the track when using any metal track gauge, like a NMRA type.
Some of You may recall the thread long ago, about a poor guy experiencing dead shorts on His layout? Three pages later... come to find out He added a all metal end of track bumper to a siding, without cutting at least one gap in the rails. Three pages. LOL.
What would make these Rollee Holder gages preferable over the old MDC Roundhouse; or, Micro Engineering three point gages?
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Some hand layers prefer the roller gauges to the 3 point gauges because they do not widen track gauge on curves. 3 point gauges are specifically designed to provide gauge widening on curved track. The amount of widening increases as the radius gets smaller, and is controlled by the distance between the two points on the same rail (2 points go on the outside rail of a curve, and the single point goes on the inside rail). There is a group of folks within the hand laying community that believe that the narrowest track gauge allowed by NMRA specs is already wider than it should be for straight track, and provides plenty of gauge widening as is.
Most commercial track (Atlas in particular in HO) is gauged at the wide end of the tolerance. This allows a smaller minimum radius for a given locomotive rigid wheel base, with the drawback being the slop-induced "wallowing".
In turnouts, the maximum track gauge forces flangeways to also be at maximum spec. This encourages wheel drop in the frogs, especially if the wheels have narrower than spec treads (code 88 wheels for example). Going to the minimum track gauge narrows the flangeways (better appearance, too), prevents wheel drop with code 88 wheels, and increases minimum radius for a given locomotive.
Occasionally in turnouts, crossings, and other special track building, a 2 point gauge is usable in tight quarters where a 3 point gauge is not.
Hope this answers your question.
Fred W
Well, now, isn't that interesting!
I, for one, had no idea.
Thanks for that info, Fred.
I knew the reasons for the three point gage, that it spread the rails a bit farther apart in the curves. I didn't know that some people felt the NMRA specifications for track gage was too sloppy. Interesting!
For further information, Steven Hatch of Railway Engineering (produces custom turnouts and Lucite roller gauges in different colors) is quite opinionated on the subject. Some of his analysis is printed on his web site - http://www.railwayeng.com/
On the east side of the Atlantic, there is a Yahoo Group called OO-SF that supports a standardized non-standard narrower HO track gauge (and associated standards) that runs the standard OO equipment better than the typical commercial track.
And there's Terry Flynn from Down Under that has also published an improved narrower HO track standard to work better with existing wheels.
Back in the U.S., NMRA RP-8 discusses the dimensions of a 3 point track gauge to achieve the desired widening. RP-13.5 talks about track gauge and flangeways through the frog. S-3.1 and S-4.1 discuss the fine scale and Proto scale track and wheel standards, although I am currently unable to access S-3.1.
Tim Warris of Fast Tracks also had (has?) an excellent video that examined the relationships between track gauge and flangeways. From what I can gather, Fast Tracks turnouts use an extra sharp frog point that extends further than normal into the frog area to reduce wheel drop possibilities while keeping track gauge and flangeways wider.
References are provided as a starting point for those who care to research further.