09-10-2009, 07:21 PM
The largest model railway in the world, Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, doesn't oil or any other fluid on their 12 kilometers of track. They just use track rubbers to clean and vacuum up the dust afterwards.
This is what one of the workers there says. "The reason why we dry-clean is also quite simple:
Any fluid leaves some residue on the tracks and the chance to completely dry the track is minimal. Damp track, however, is a magnet for dirt and dust which in turn is picked up by the engines and that results in higher maintenance of rolling stock. We tried it and had to state that some wagons picked up that much dirt that the wheels didn't turn anymore. Some engines just barely were able to pick up current due to dirty wheel boxes (especially the American ones)."
See their video on Youtube. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbx4ceLnSA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthecentralstation%2Emyfreeforum%2Eorg%2Fabout2319%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbx4ceL ... r_embedded</a><!-- m -->
This is what one of the workers there says. "The reason why we dry-clean is also quite simple:
Any fluid leaves some residue on the tracks and the chance to completely dry the track is minimal. Damp track, however, is a magnet for dirt and dust which in turn is picked up by the engines and that results in higher maintenance of rolling stock. We tried it and had to state that some wagons picked up that much dirt that the wheels didn't turn anymore. Some engines just barely were able to pick up current due to dirty wheel boxes (especially the American ones)."
See their video on Youtube. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbx4ceLnSA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthecentralstation%2Emyfreeforum%2Eorg%2Fabout2319%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGbx4ceL ... r_embedded</a><!-- m -->