Model Forum / General / Railroads / February 2009

Relevant anecdote:
In North Bay, Ontario, there is a motel called the Pinewood. It has a
nice display layout (about 15ft x 5ft) in a glassed-in cabinet located
in the hallway between the main building and the event rooms. You push a
button, and the trains run for about 5 minutes. Just about everybody
that walks by pushes that button. ;-) I estimate that the trains run an
average of 4 hours, perhaps more, each day.

The local MRR club maintains it. I chatted with them about maintenance.
They told me
a) that the track in the end curves had to be replaced after about 10
years because the railhead had worn down to the web;
b) that wheels occasionally have to be replaced because the tread has
worn to a concave profile;
c) that there is a wide variation in durability of motors and gear
trains, with Kato and Kato-built Atlas at the top of the list, and
Chinese-built Atlas and Proto 2000 a distant second. They hadn't run
ancient Athearn in a long time, but they were tough as a Mack truck.

Worth a visit. The dining room offers has very good food, too. ;-)

HTH

wolf k.

Nothing lasts forever.  Everything wears out eventually.  As Wolf K. points
out, years of running (and cleaning) will wear out track and wheels.  This
applies to motors, lights, power supplies, and everything else.  If you're
lucky, most of it will outlive you, though. :-)

-- Bill McC.

No fluid cleaners for My rails - thanks.

On "my" layout we have been running with Eoco clean cars for 13 years
now in very intensive traffic. 6 cleaning cars is running every opening
day (thats more than 100 days per year). Despite the cleaning cars are
"rubing" the tracks, we see no wear of the rail.

Klaus