Hornby R621 and R8090

[Montfort]

Hello,
what's the difference between the Hornby R621 flexible track and the Hornby R8090 Semi-Flexible Track ? Thanks for your help because I'm a little bit lost.

[Mike Parkes]

R621 has rail joiners fitted and the rails are relatively loose in the sleepers compared to R8090 which is stiffer (and more easily broken IME). Peco Streamline is a better buy - R621 is £4.99 for 970mm less whatever discount you can find, R8090 is £4.99 for 915mm, Peco SL100 is £3.90 for 914mm and is also available with concrete sleepers (SL-102 £3.85). The Peco track has no track pin holes; their track fixing pins (SL-14) are very fine (and easily bend if hammered into hard wood); alternatives are double sided tape or glue to hold it in place or alternatively drill small holes for Hornby like track pins.

[Walkingthedog]

If you bend flexi it tries, quite successfully, to straighten out. If you bend semi flexi it tries to straighten
a little bit but tends to hold the curve. Personally I don’t like it because I found the rails sometimes came adrift from the chairs.
My thought is if you have never tried flexible track have a go with the semi first then move onto ordinary flexi.

[Walkingthedog]

With reference to track pins as mentioned by Mike, I always use Gaugemaster pins, far superior.

[Montfort]

Many thanks for your help.

[steel bat]

I remember when, as a lad and first using flexible track suddenly realising that I would have to trim the length of the rail on the inside of the curve!

[Montfort]

Yep !