Which of your models has the most hours of operation?

[1954G]

I thought it would be interesting to hear which trains you guys run the most, along with an hours of operation estimate if possible. 

 

I put 3 hours on my Tomix 400 series yesterday, making about ten hours since I imported it this spring. Since it already had a lot of wheel wear when I bought it (used, of course), I think it's the most-traveled train in my collection.

 

 

 

 

[HantuBlauLOL]

Probably my EF81-300, it was my oldest one still in operation.. From 10 years ago.

[Melandir]

I have a couple of flirts that I give to children to play on club layout during fairs, they are the most used trains

[kvp]

-Z gauge: v100 and v160 diesels: around 5 minutes each week for ~10 years = ~40 hours with regular cleaning and some parts replacement, the rest around 2 minutes a month (~half hour total each year, at least since i have them)

-N gauge: fairly even at around 1-2 hours / year for most sets (a statistical average of 10 minutes / month), my most used loco is a used spring worm drive ed75, also used for track cleaning and testing, it has ran ~30 hours since i have it (have to take it apart and reassemble it 3-4 times every once in a while to get it to run smooth)

-L gauge: v43/m41+bhv+bdt push-pull train and desiro (both are my own designs): around 1500 hours total for each, the push pull train with regularly swapped locos and running on its 2nd wheel set, desiro with its 5th or 6th wheelset and second motor set (the journal bearings in the jackobs bogie are slightly overloaded) -> these two are the most run sets during exhibitions, the push-pull because it's my oldest and most favourite (with both locos), the desiro because it's short, so fits into all stations and kids like it the most

 

The reason why most of my sets run so little is that i have many locomotives and emu-s and at home i keep swapping them after a few minutes of running since all my home layouts are small so it gets boring quick. If i went to more exhibitions, then i would put at least ~25 hours into each set per every long weekend exhibition. (i can't go to weeks long ones and i'm not willing to let other, usually minor club members drive my trains without supervision for weeks) So far i've only taken lego trains to exhibitions, except once a small z gauge layout with 3 steam locos for 3 days. (it took me the rest of the month to clean them of the dust they collected, so that was the only time they ran in public) Lego is easy to repair and i've done most of my wheel replacements when they break during exhibitions. I've bought many non runners in Z and N and rebuilt them to working condition, often with full wheel, pickup and brush replacement and a led headlight upgrade if it's possible. My oldest N lomotive is from 1964, oldest factory made lego train set from 1980 and the oldest japanese ones are from the the 1980-ies.

 

ps: A friend of mine has 3 self designed lego flirts, with the oldest being well above 3000 hours of operation, used at least 3 motor sets, got completly rebuilt around 3 or 4 times and wheels replaced way too many times. The set is at a 3 weeks long exhibition right now in daily service for around 16 hours a day (around +300 hours during a single exhibition and next month there will be another one for two weeks at a different city).

[cteno4]

Dr yellow, it always gets run lots at show by public request! Glad others in the club got them later so mine could take a vacation!

 

Jeff