Gaugemaster Rolling Road

[Newportnobby]

This months Railway Modeller carries a review of the Gaugemaster Model LT multi scale rolling road at the princely sum of £299.95!!!!!
Forgive me if I'm wrong but just how much does a cheap controller, piece of straight track and the necessary rollers cost?
Also, Gaugemaster haven't updated their website which states "Some of you may remember this unit, no longer in production but highly collectable is our model LT (Loco Tester)."

http://www.gaugemaster.com/articles/product-spotlight/rolling_road_rundown.html

[Jimbo]

What is 'collectable' about a rolling road!?!? Surely you only need One at a time!?!?

[Jimbo]

.........just think how much track you could buy for Three Hundred quid! 

[Big bad John]

.........just think how much track you could buy for Three Hundred quid! 

About eight and three quarter scale miles of code 55 

[Railwaygun]

DIY approach

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=36256.msg425556#msg425556

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=30523.0

[Bob Tidbury]

 I was lucky to get one Direct from Gaugemaster in the marquee at Chatham Dockyard Show the year it absolutlly chucked it down with rain and they had to close the show early because all the electrics were getting wet ,we had an extension lead almost floating in a puddle next to our metal table leg.
The rain was so heavy it burst the chanel in between the two sections and one poor guy was trying to keep the water of his layout by holding an old door to direct the  water off it.
Ray got mine trade price and it cost me £65 so I think I had a bargain That was in the days that I could afford things .,I wish I had got a set of the 00 rollers at the same time then the whole thing would be worth a tidy sum.
Bob

[Newportnobby]

Was that from the time a chap with a red flag had to walk in front of cars, Bob?

[Bob Tidbury]

To be honest Mick I can't remember what year it was I was hoping someone else might have been alive and visited the Show ,all I can remember was we were on the M25 and half way back to Watford about a half an hour before the show should have officially finished .
Bob

[DesertHound]

Hang on a minute ... isn't this new Gaugemaster LT the same as the old one, except for the rollers being DCC Concepts ones instead of their own proprietary ones? Maybe I'm wrong as I'm not sure of the gubbins inside the "box", but I can't imagine what would be different. I did see a mention of one with picture in a recent model railway magazine and thought "oh, that's surely the wrong picture, that's the old one!"

To be honest, I rather like them, the originals that is with their brass rollers. Having the DCC Concepts ones on the top, well I have those rollers and I just plonk them on my track. Would I pay 299.99 for one, sorry no, I wouldn't. I have been keeping an eye out on ebay for one of the second hand ones as I would love one for my loco repair desk - there's something about the permanence of them - sturdy, complete with ammeter and it has a sole purpose - testing locos (and running them in - ok, that's a second purpose).

Perhaps I will pick up a second hand one one day. I have seen a "shop display one" on ebay, as seen in the link NPN posted at the start of the thread - now that would look the business on the repair bench. I think ultimately I'll either settle for making my own (nowt wrong with that - I'm inspired by what has been posted above) or I'll get something like Keithfre has done. Actually, come to think of it, there's nothing wrong with the DCC Concepts ones I have - just need to buy a cheap analogue ammeter and build my own little test bed.

Thanks for bringing this to the fore.

Dan

[DELETED]

Not sure I understand your beef with the GM product or the comparison.

I'm sitting behind a shop-bought computer.  Arguably I could have made the same thing for <50% of what I paid and if I made everything myself then probably more than 65% saving.

Your rolling road product conatined a number of components which needed designed and tested, a few attempts to get it right (hourly charge then they'd go out for fabrication costs).  Being a UK product I would hope that GM went through the CE process also.  Don't fprget the warranty.  Then they have to work out how much they can sell for v.s. how much the development costs are.

In your link they mention a retail display -this probably took a few people / man/hrs etc.

To be honest I don't see the problem.  If it's OO then consider £100-400 being run-in in a very neat package.  If it's the other DCC packages you were talking about then no I don't see the point in a built-in controller when , for like me, I just buy another plug-in panel at £30.

....for me, I can plug-in a few parts, track, conrollers.  Make a baseboard out of a few bits etc.  My time isn't included, nor is the documentation or the fact of proving it works yet alone passing it onto high street sales or tax so what is the comparison??

Nothing wrong with making your own but compare apples with apples I think.

Rich

[Newportnobby]

Fine, Rich.
You go ahead and pay 3 times as much as you need to.
My post was to show those who don't know how they could save money.

[DesertHound]

Hi Rich

I'd be the first to defend UK manufacturing, and also think Gaugemaster are a great company. I often pop into their Ford shop if I get the chance and I'd recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. They are fantastic people with a fantastic ethos / customer service. I've bought many things there. Now onto the product ...

You make some good points, many of which cut straight to the discussion we're having on another thread about manufacturing returning to the UK. You got me thinking about the cost of producing this item (the rolling road). Let's say it is being sold at "fair price" (i.e. cost plus a reasonable but not extortionate profit margin). If that is the case then could it just be that it's too expensive for enough people to buy it in order for the company to make a return on their investment?

If so then perhaps it shouldn't have been developed (I say that a bit tongue in cheek because as far as I can see, it is a re-release of a previous product, and hence one would imagine the developmental costs to be minimal).

I'm not saying I know the ins and outs of what it cost to release / re-release this item, but I do think 299.95 is quite steep. I have been watching them secondhand for over a year now (they don't come up that often) and they weren't going for anything near this price (okay, they were secondhand). This makes me wonder what the market for them is at 300 quid.

Maybe I'm just getting old and still think I can buy everything for the price I did yesteryear, or the price sticker that Beatties put on it.

I think Mick started a good discussion and sometimes things said in jest can be interpreted by others in a different way.

Who knows - when I think of ipads, iphones and all that nonsense then 300 quid isn't a great deal, but somehow to me in model railway terms it still is. And perhaps therein lies the problem for our hobby if companies want to make money.

Like I said, no disrespect to Gaugemaster and certain none to anybody taking part in this discussion.

Cheers

Dan

[Jimbo]

No doubt it is a great bit of kit to have in your armoury, especially if you do a lot of loco testing/repairs, (I don't feel the need for one myself) but my main puzzlement was the 'highly collectable' theory, surely if you've got one why would you need/want a collection of them  , (Unless they are produced in different liveries  ) 

[Carmont]

No doubt it is a great bit of kit to have in your armoury, especially if you do a lot of loco testing/repairs, (I don't feel the need for one myself) but my main puzzlement was the 'highly collectable' theory, surely if you've got one why would you need/want a collection of them  , (Unless they are produced in different liveries  ) 

I don't think it means you'd collect more than one, I think it means "collectors" would each want one, just like some "collectors" buy an example of each locomotive produced to sit in their "collection". Maybe some people like to collect different examples of rolling roads, or maybe model railway control and test equipment.

[oscar]

I think the price may be set fairly high as they think not many will be sold, as hinted at on here?