Shop Window Display Design

[PatB]

As per the title, I'm in the process of designing a small display for a (non-railway related) shop window. It won't be anything fancy. I'm looking at a small loco and a handful of wagons, with the shop logo on their sides, shuttling back and forth on 3m of track across the window, just above eye level.

 

Whilst I would have liked to go with a larger scale, this is a strictly budget project, largely utilising stuff from the bits box so it'll be 00. Track will be good old Streamline Code 100, laid on thin polystyrene packing foam for quiet running. Shuttle electronics will be homebuilt, as will the basic controller. Roger Amos' second book contains a design for which he claimed near silence from XO4 motors, so I'm intending to use that. Stock will be, initially, from the back of the cupboard. For this exercise I've got a Hornby Thomas, a Hornby J13 and a Hornby Toby. At a pinch I've also got a pair of Lima 09s which I'd be prepared to sacrifice.  I like the running of Toby's chassis, but I want to steer well clear of Thomas implications so I'm looking at using the J13. Thomas can provide chassis spares as necessary as (apart from wheel colour) he's mechanically identical. I'm not especially confident of the running reliability of the 09s.

 

I estimate that, at a reasonable speed, the loco will be covering about 3 actual miles in an 8 hour day, which is a fair bit. Maintenance, as such, isn't too much of a problem as I can perform servicing at least weekly whilst sitting the shop, and I can do a track clean daily. However, the modern (for a given value of "modern" ;)) Hornby chassis give me some pause wrt long term longevity with their sealed can motors and plastic frames. If the display is a success, I'm considering moving to something older but more rebuildable such as Triang Jinties or Dublo R1s.

 

The high mileage also makes me wonder about stock wheel bearings. What sort of life, in this kind of continuous use, can reasonably be expected of pinpoint axles in plastic axleboxes? Do I need to consider adding brass bearing cups? Or are any affordable (read cheap, available secondhand))  r-t-r wagons better in this respect than others? Currently available stock is a hodge-podge of recentish (last 15 years or so) Hornby, and Mailine and Airfix/GMR of indeterminate vintage. If I need to actually buy stock, Dapol's unpainted range is attractive as an inexpensive blank canvas, given the need to add custom paintwork/decals anyway. Might I be better off looking at older (maybe Dublo again) stock for longevity?

 

All thoughts and comments much appreciated.