I've had the Hornby R8211 rolling road for some years now and it's given great service.

Whilst tightening up the rollers I managed to strip the thread on one of the screws, and damage the thread on another, so I purchased R8212 replacement set. However, not wanting to throw away the damaged parts, I wondered how they could be of further use.

Whilst the R8211 is a good piece of kit, it's biggest drawback is its inability to let you run diesel locomotives with bogies on it. This got me thinking, so I took a few measurements and played around with a few ideas and came up with this - a block with a set of rollers that is not connected to the rolling road, but can be used in conjunction with it, thus enabling diesel bogie locomotives to be run safely.

Whilst I used MDF (an off cut from another project) for the block I made, any non conductive material could be used, the only criteria being the dimensions, which are , 45mm x 18mm x 18mm, with 3mm hole 11mm from the base on the centre line. Into which is glued a short length of 3mm brass screwed rod, which protrudes 10mm. This allows the rolling road roller bracket to slide over the screwed rod and be held in place by a 3mm nut. I've used nylon nuts to retain the rollers but brass or steel could be used. Also, to enable a steam loco with 5 driving axles I cut off the threaded part of knurled screw of R8212 and drilled a hole in its place, which I then tapped 3mm. Into this I glued a screw, cut to a length of 9mm, the same as the original so that it can be used with the original captive nut, which was also re-tapped 3mm. The 9mm length of the new screw is critical, because if it's too long it will short out against the body of the rolling road, and if it's too short it will not tighten up properly.

I hope the photos make it all clear.

The set-up I've shown will work with most medium sized classes, that are too large for the rolling road on its own, but I do need to make a second, so that I fit a Deltic on it!

Edited, to correct my mistake. I used 3mm brass screwed rod and nuts not 4mm.