problems with hornby couplings
 

has anyone had problems with the hornby 56 (new) and 60 couplings?

my two 60's and my brand new 56 keep derailing the wagons in tow on 2nd and 3rd radius curves.:confused:

all hornby want me to do is send them back for "investigation and repair" for upto 8 weeks (the postage alone would be astronomical!):mad:

any thoughts?

I got the locos back from Hornby yesterday and I can honestly say I am not impressed with them.

They don't appear to have actually looked at any of the locos, infact the only difference in the contents is 12 couplings, 6 medium width, 6 full width. If it was a known problem, why could they not just send me the couplings.

In the end I had a £17 postage bill for a set of couplings I could probably have bought for £3!

Then I put them in the NEM pockets and low and behold there was no change on the 60s, still derailing, worse still, I can't get them out again.

The up side? I now know what the problem is, the couplings are catching the body on the 60s, thus are fixed by taking a file to the coupling and the corners of the 'plough'. Although they still don't pull the Rudds I have.

The couplings in the NEM pockets need to self centre on straight sections after curves, If they don't this tends to cause derailments. Have had this problem with one of my Bachmann Mk 1 coaches. A slight ajustments seems to have cured it.

Hope this helps,

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Thanks john, but the problem seems to be when entering the curve rather than leaving it, although it is more prominent on reverse curves, which I am looking at removing because my voyagers dislike them too.