What Happens During HZERO’s Three-Week Maintenance Shutdown and why it is necessary
Every summer, the lights at HZERO dim for a few weeks and the great machine comes to a halt. Or so it seems. Behind the scenes, in fact, begins a meticulous, invisible, but essential—process: the extraordinary maintenance of our model railway layout. During these three weeks, our specialized team carries out delicate and complex operations to ensure the system runs perfectly and that every visitor continues to enjoy a high quality experience.
One of the first steps is assembling the mobile scaffold tower: a custom-built structure with wheels, twin towers, and a central bridge, specifically designed to fit the unique shape of the layout hall. Its height can be adjusted up to 3.4 meters and its length up to 8.25 meters, allowing us to reach every corner of the model. Our head technician, Luca, even attended a dedicated safety training course to learn how to assemble (and disassemble) it properly and adapt it to the evolving needs of our cleaning and maintenance tasks. At first, we mainly use the towers to clean from the outside. Later, the bridge is added to reach and clean the innermost sections of the landscape from above.
Meanwhile, the layout must be “prepped” for the next stages. All trains are removed and taken upstairs for inspection, cleaning, and routine maintenance. Every access hatch is opened so staff can move easily and efficiently throughout the layout. Then the entire surface is covered with large protective sheets to shield it from dust. Cleaning starts from the top—from the ceiling and the metal beams holding the lights and video projectors that create the immersive HZERO experience through animated wall ilustrations.
From this point, tasks are divided among our maintenance crew. Some work in the workshop to disassemble, clean, and service the carriages and locomotives—gears are cleaned with special solvents, worn-out parts are replaced, and everything is reassembled and lubricated. Meanwhile, others clean the tracks using dedicated track rubbers.
At the same time, we carry out one of the most complex and invasive operations of the entire shutdown: replacing a section of track and a group of exit switches in the freight yard near the harbor. These components had been worn down by time and the many hours the layout runs daily. This intervention requires removing overhead wiring, cutting entire sections of the layout, replacing the rails, and then carefully restoring both the electrical circuits and the surrounding landscape. A new layer of cork is also added between the wooden base and the tracks to reduce the sound of passing trains. During this reconstruction, a section of the track layout is slightly redesigned to improve reliability and avoid derailments. Two extra switches are added—bringing the total to 149!
Once the protective sheets are removed, we begin cleaning the landscape using the scaffold tower, small vacuum cleaners, and fine brushes—removing dust from every inch of the layout. It’s a long and patient process, even though we already perform regular weekly cleaning on our usual closing day. Once all surfaces are clean, the final step is to return the trains to the layout and perform a full system check to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Thanks to these three weeks of work, every detail is reset, every gear finely tuned, and every track ready to roll again. When we reopen the museum doors, our miniature world is ready to welcome visitors—adults, children, enthusiasts, or simpli the curious. And each time, just like the first, everything comes back to life.
We’ll be all set to open again soon, ready to take you on another journey through the miniature world of HZERO, better than ever!
