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Not sure if theres a thread already cobering this but I was wondering if anybody knew the story behind what led Hornby to release a model coach in the 70s that was so short of scale in its length.....was it a design error or did they just not notice at the time by which point it was too late  as tooling had been finished.....im sure the Jouef Mk3 was out before the Hornby version and whilst it had its own flaws it was the better scale model.

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Hello Hornby first issued a BR MK3 Coach in 1977 alongside newly tooled BR Class 43 HST power cars. The incorrect seven sided window was produced instead of 8 to allow the carriage to be used on smaller curved 3rd radius OO Gauge track without derailing. 

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1 hour ago, RyanN91 said:

Hello Hornby first issued a BR MK3 Coach in 1977 alongside newly tooled BR Class 43 HST power cars. The incorrect seven sided window was produced instead of 8 to allow the carriage to be used on smaller curved 3rd radius OO Gauge track without derailing. 

 

1st radius surely?  You'll get a scale length one around 2nd radius... just...

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23 hours ago, frobisher said:

 

1st radius surely?  You'll get a scale length one around 2nd radius... just...

Ah typo apologies I ment to say to navigate on 2nd radius! I really should type more slowly! :(:wacko::nea::unsure::sorry:

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On 22/11/2021 at 19:03, DavidBird said:

I got the Jouef ones around 1st radius curves quite happily... mind you that was on the carpet, with no platforms...

The problem was not going round 1st radius curves, it was the overhang that meant that the coach would foul lineside accessories that plugged into the track. At that time, the interoperability and 'plug and play' of the system was more important than being 100% to scale; it should be noted that continental HO coaches were routinely shortened  right up until the 1990s so this wasn't an unprecedented approach. 

 

The original Mk3 2nd and 1st class releases were shortened by losing an entire bay of seats and associated window, but when the buffet was released in 1980 it had 8 windows with the compression achieved by shortening each one a bit. The 2nd and 1st class coaches were altered to an 8 window configuration in 1984.

 

By the time the Mk4s were released in 1989, the hobby had lost much of it's 'toy' market and was increasingly directed at grownups so they were released at full length - they could go round 1st radius curves but the advice was that some lineside accessories might need repositioning. 

Edited by andyman7
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