HST Mainline Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 HiI have a "circle" from the first batch of R3's back in '22, and they are not the best. As mentioned, several places on the internet, they cannot form a circle.I know that I can "destress" the track myself, but that does not fix the main problem: I want the track I buy to be as intended. Also, destressing is a hit and miss.Hornby said that they will try and fix it in later batches. So, what is the status? Has anybody bought some of the R3 curves lately and can either confirm og deny that the problem has been fixed?Also, can anybody tell if the problem is also present on R4? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobby11 Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 Can't speak for R3 but I bought a circle of R2 separately and have had no issues. If you want to have something which is perfect then model railways isn't your hobby, there's always some adjustments need to be made, whether that be track, locos, stock, couplings, etc., it's part of the hobby."De-stressing" is really simple to do and works fine, I didn't find it "hit and miss", but if you want to have trains running well then in addition to that you also need to have a baseboard and the track fixed to that. That way you ensure it's level and will run well. Regardless of what people might think Hornby's TT120 is not like the old Triang stuff of the 50s and 60s, not even those cheap 00 sets with an 0-4-0T and wagons, and doesn't take too kindly to being laid on a carpet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterM67 Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 I have a Scotsman set from the August batch and an Easterner from the September batch and have experienced no issues with the R3 curves from either set.I'll admit that I did go through the destress process with the Scotsman set prior to use so if there was an issue I may have corrected it without realising. I took a photo of the Scotsman curves prior to initial use and after destressing. This shows the 2 halves of a circle not joined. There is a slight offset at the top which I suspect is within tolerance.Sorry no equivalent picture for the Easterener as everything just worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallymatt Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 Even on the original curves, they did fit together to make a perfect circle, distressing was biggest help but so was making sure the sections were level, I did a test with some carpet tape. Line all the rail joints perfectly and mine was bang on. All model railway set track is liable to have a bit of a twist in it until it’s secured down 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ntpntpntp Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 I had one of the early Easterner sets. As soon as I laid it out I realised the curves needed "de-stressing" by gently bending very slightly in and out to free the rails from the sleeper moulding, before this was suggested by Hornby and others. This sorted out the problem.It really is quite common for sectional track not to line up perfectly, I've seen the same with other brands and scales. It always pays to mark a properly measured centre-line and lay the track to this line by pinning or gluing (I prefer to glue). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HST Mainline Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 If you want to have something which is perfect then model railways isn't your hobby, there's always some adjustments need to be made, whether that be track, locos, stock, couplings, etc., it's part of the hobby. In all respect for your opinion, I have been doing this hobby for 20+ years. I never had to destress tracks.I don't find it "ok" to have to fix problems with stuff I buy. I think that is a fair requirement to have.I will eventually buy a set of R3s and check if the problem has been solved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobby11 Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 In all respect for your opinion, I have been doing this hobby for 20+ years. I never had to destress tracks.I don't find it "ok" to have to fix problems with stuff I buy. I think that is a fair requirement to have. I haven't had to either, but as I said it's not a major issue and from track I've purchased since that initial set I haven't had the same issue. The world isn't perfect and sometimes stuff slips through the net, s**t happens. This was blown up out of all proportion at the beginning and is a simple fix. I was simply making the point that if you want everything to be perfect model railways isn't the right hobby, as I'm sure you are aware after 20+ years in the game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 For those wondering the exact nature of the problem, see this topic from early this year when the sets first came out: https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/track-geometry-error-343141?ccm_paging_p=4&ccm_order_by=&ccm_order_by_direction=note I’ve selected page 4 where I took a somewhat scientific approach with before and after de-stress results. There is a lot of further information in the earlier pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HST Mainline Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 Today I've received a new order of 12 R3 curves. I can now confirm that the issue is gone. They form a perfect circle without any need to destress. As it should be! It is great to see that Hornby have fixed the problem. 👍 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HST Mainline Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 (edited) Comparing the "new" R3 to the first batch R3 it is also clear to me what the problem was. The outer rail is longer about 0,5 to 1 mm than it is on the corrected curves. So it was probably a matter of a manufacturing fault. It should be possible to correct the fault by simply comparing a good piece to a faulty piece and file off the excess rail. No destress is needed. You will need a good piece though. You can't know for sure if the track is off or not, each track piece from the old batch have different lengths on the outer rail. It will be an individual assesment on how much to file off. Edited March 5 by HST Mainline Additional information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox 17 Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 44 minutes ago, HST Mainline said: Comparing the "new" R3 to the first batch R3 it is also clear to me what the problem was. The outer rail is longer about 0,5 to 1 mm than it is on the corrected curves. So it was probably a matter of a manufacturing fault. It should be possible to correct the fault by simply comparing a good piece to a faulty piece and file off the excess rail. No destress is needed. You will need a good piece though. You can't know for sure if the track is off or not, each track piece from the old batch have different lengths on the outer rail. It will be an individual assesment on how much to file off. I had 4 sets which equaled 48 curves and everyone had the correct length rails, both inner amd outer, and when destressed there was no need to file anything off with all rail ends meeting as they should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moawkwrd Posted March 5 Share Posted March 5 Yeah I don’t think this has been an issue for ages, possibly for more than a year? Not sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 May I suggest people start by reading my post towards the bottom of page 2 of the thread I linked above. In summary, the original “faulty” R3 curves needed distressing to make the correct circle but were dimensionally correct and certainly didn’t require rail ends to be adjusted or filed to make them so. Consequently, I’m quite surprised and concerned by HST’s post and definitely suggest you test any older R3 curves you have to confirm correct fit, after distressing if necessary, before getting out the file. And I just did a comparison using the R3 curves which were unused from my digital Scotsman set delivered last year and can confirm these didn’t need any adjustment before making the correct 706mm circle without reverse camber. That corroborates what all have said about later batches being correct. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HST Mainline Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 (edited) By destressing it, you are bending them out of shape. It gets better, but it is only a treatment of a symptom. But you risk destroying the sleeper band in the process. The track is attached to the sleepers, by destressing it you are basically breaking that attachment. I cannot recommend doing that. I took the simple approach of laying the two tracks on top of each other. It is easy to see that the older track's rails are longer than the newer track. The curve is exactly the same. So the tracks are bend correctly into shape, but the rails are longer, causing the weird circle that we get. I have made some pictures, but it is difficult to photograph proper. The new track is the bottom track. The picture shows that the top rails are slightly longer than they should be. It varies from track to track which side (left or right or both). The picture also shows some evidence of uneven cutting of the tracks. Edited March 6 by HST Mainline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox 17 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Without destressing the curves the track diameter is less than its specified radius by a considerable amount, and, the ends of a circle overlap by about an inch or more. Once destressed, and without cutting/filing any rail, the circle was the correct diameter, the rail ends met, and there were no gaps in either rail at any of the 12 joints. There was nothing wrong destressing the curves, nothing was broken, many did it and we were all happy with a full and correct sized oval of track. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moawkwrd Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 You’d have to be very careless and apply a lot of force to break track when gently destressing them. Think there are a few videos on YouTube showing how easy it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox 17 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 4 hours ago, HST Mainline said: I took the simple approach of laying the two tracks on top of each other. It is easy to see that the older track's rails are longer than the newer track. The curve is exactly the same. So the tracks are bend correctly into shape, but the rails are longer, causing the weird circle that we get. The curve was not the same, you could actually see the stressed curve was slightly tighter than it should have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ntpntpntp Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 De-stressing was found by many folk to sort out the problems. It worked fine for me, I'd tried it on the curves in my set before it was put up as a suggestion on the forum etc. (I've seen similar problems with other brands/scales of sectional track). No significant pressure involved and no risk of damage, just a slight bend against the curve and you could feel the track release its grip a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox 17 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Here are the two different curves of stressed and destressed.Here you can see the overlap of stressed curves giving a smaller diameter than it should be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HST Mainline Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 I don't know what else to say. Perhaps there were different problems. My pictures are pretty clear, and so are the other pictures from you guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobby11 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Is this still going?!! 1. There is the simple fix, de-stress them. 2. It's been solved in all subsequent releases. @HST Mainline the only way to truly show whether the rail is or isn't 1mm longer is to actually remove it from the sleeper web and lay it on a piece of rail removed from a newer piece of track. Any comparison actually in the sleeper web can give a false look. SK said that there was no difference between the rail in the original (warped) track and the later stuff except that the newer stuff had been de-stressed before leaving the factory. Surely it's time to move on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HST Mainline Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 1 hour ago, Hobby1707822967 said: Surely it's time to move on? Yeah, I just wanted to post my findings. It backfired. Sorry for that. I will move on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now