I decided to see how slow my Hornby Railroad 9F steam locomotive could run on my layout. So I cleaned my track with surgical spirit, and the loco wheels got cleaned too, and I gave it low power from my (cheap) standard Honrby controllers. I was very pleased with the results. It stopped a few times as it went over dirty track, so I wiped that over too and each time the problem was solved until = perfect results. One wheel rev every 20 seconds (with an HM2000 controller upgrade later on it managed 35 seconds - on another video).
For speed reference I have a Hornby J94 hurtling around the track, so you know I haven't just slowed down the video.
I did try running an old model train on a club layout the other day, which uses 2nd hand track, which was only cleaned with a track rubber, so might not have been perfect. I think it needed some more cleaning. That train couldn't run slow at all without stopping. Other models couldn't run slow either. People at the club said this sort of thing isn't uncommon, even on their own layouts.
So I am really pleased with the performance of my layout. It is 6 months old, so new nickel cadmium track, and I regularly keep it clean using surgical spirit and dust monkeys soaked in surgical spirit. Hopefully it will remain that good over time.
Also my track is suffering with expansion or shrinkage yet either, even though it is in a shed, and temperatures have gone up and down a lot, as indicated by my in/out electronic thermometer (from Maplins). I think being stuck to ballasted GM200 foam which itself is wood-glued (not tacked) to the wooden layout board, allows for a bit of give here and there.
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