All said above is great info but…. actually the posters question is about subway tunnel track choices, not 2r or EL track with ties.
All my tunnel track is Gargraves 3-rail Stainless Steel with plastic ties and jumpered outside rails. To be honest, I never had a reason to clean track.
Operators tend to over lubricate wheel sets and gears. I generally don’t believe in doing so as everything has always run just fine through the years. My DCS numbers are always good. My tunnel modules boxes have removable tops should I ever need to do any maintenance or dusting. I have probably cleaned more rolling stock wheels vs. track.
As for details in track used for tunnels, less is better. No need for details. In fact, I covered the ties with strips of pine wood reducing the look of the middle rail. So the bottom line is, spend the extra money and use Stainless in humid and potentially damp areas for trouble free operation.
Agree Ben, Atlas track was not a good choice for that application and the eye level viewing should have been much higher. Tubular is better for those big heavy - chunky MTH 3r wheel sets/trucks.
S.
(No ties)
