KPF Speed-Cat

[Adrian L]

After spending many hours calibrating my loco collection at just two speed steps, I decided to have a look at the speed-cat product..  The website is all German, but I have managed to understand the basics..  Here is the link to the website http://speed-cat.de/kpf/shop/index.php

I could not find a link to ask questions about the product (I am sure it was there but my poor understanding of German language did not help)..

Does anyone have one of these things?  
Do you need their roller stand or can you adapt the speed-cat roller unit to the Marklin roller stand?

Do I need their XL HO roller stand or will the normal size one suffice?  The longest unit I have is the 37770 SVT 137 at 48cm..

If you have any thoughts on the product I am interested..

[Stefan Lersch]

Hi Adrian,

the first question is: do you need it? I'm calibrating my trains on my layout. You need to know  that the speeds on the layout and the speed-cat can differ. That's because on the layout you have friction and on the speed-cat almost none.

On the other side is calibrating the trains much faster on the speed-train. Unfortunately I can't give you any information about it because I don't have one. But then again I have N scale and I have my doubts about it in that scale.

[Adrian L]

Hello Stefan,

Thanks for your reply.

I use m-track on my layout.. It is cheap and it has served me well for the last decade, but we recently went from drought to flood conditions down here and for the first time the old m-track is becoming rusty and a chore to keep clean..  It is not helped by the fact that they layout only gets used every three weeks or so now that Miss 11 is getting older (Girl Guides, Netball and other things distract daughters from important things like model railways)..

I had to limit the calibration to 2 speed steps because only the old C-Sine locos could run at the slowest speed fpr the 14 step mode on the track.. Everything else would find the nearest rust spot and stop... Perhaps if WDP supported 4 speed (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) stops it might work a little better..

Anyway, I was hoping that the speed-cat and roller stand would allow me to calibrate all the locos to the 14 speed step standard..

Cheers
Adrian

[Stefan Lersch]

Hi Adrian,

I think the education of your kids went wrong. I only use the 2 point calibration although my tracks are fine and our rains are not hard. I do this because a) 14 points take much too long and b) it's simply not necessary. The 2 point calibration is that exact that different locos run pretty much the same speed when WDP sets them to a same speed. I bet you wouldn't see the difference. If you make a traction of 2 or more locos then simply let them run on your layout with the same speed but with a certain gap between them. After a while measure the distance between them again and put the fastest in front of your traction and the slowest at the end.

But maybe someone with speed-cat experience answers you.

[supermoee]

Hello,

the speed cat can only be used on their roller stand.

I have one and I can tell you: save your money by not buying it. The price is the way too high for this lowest quality peace of plastic. The speed measurement is quite poor and not effective. You can see a video of it here:

http://www.myvideo.ch/watch/7334190

put together a test track and do it with contacts.

rgds

Stephan

[Manfred G.]

Hi Adrian,
I fully agree to Stepan's opinion. Save ypur money and use the good old fashioned way to determine the spped on your layout. It works quite good.

br
Manfred

[Adrian L]

Thank you for your replies Stefan, Stephan and Manfred..  Sounds like using the two speed steps is all that I need.. Thank you for your frank and honest feedback.  I really appreciate you all for taking the time to help me...