A transport roller rack for automatic film developing machines, which employs gear driven rollers arranged in a staggered pattern, and spaced so closely together that the film follows nearly a straight path between the rollers. This renders the rack more jam-proof, and frees it of any need for stationary film guidance means, but on the other hand materially increases the number of rollers to be driven. A highly efficient gear drive is used which easily handles the increased number of rollers, and whose construction also eliminates any problem of binding between the gears driving adjacent rollers which rotate in the same direction.Each roller has a driving gear at its end. Every other pair of adjacent rollers rotating in mutually opposite directions have these driving gears at the same given ends and is mesh with each other. The intervening pairs of adjacent rollers rotating in mutually opposite directions have their driving gears at the ends opposite the said given ends, and also in mesh with each other. Thus, alternate pairs of counter-rotating rollers are driven by corresponding pairs of roller driving gears but from opposite sides of the rack.