World of experience with a dreamlike setting
The Königssee lake and the Watzmann mountain have been fortified. In June 2015, a new visitor attraction emerged in the Berchtesgaden district of Bavaria in the form of the Hans-Peter Porsche TraumWerk model railway and toy museum. In the building complex just off the A8 motorway, you can marvel at tin toys of all shapes and sizes and one of the largest model railways in Germany. An entire armada of professional cleaning machines, which are used daily, and operated exclusively by internal staff, make sure all exhibits are clean and highly polished. It's better to play it safe when it comes to protecting valuable assets. Of which there are a lot here.
Mirror finish
"Cleanliness is a key concern for us – not just for the sake of appearance, which is paramount to us, but also for technical reasons", says general manager Mussak. "Dust automatically becomes an enemy of anyone who runs such a complex model railway as we do". The importance of polish in the TraumWerk is reflected by the size of the in-house cleaning team. Ten of the 35 employees take care of the daily all-round clean. The cleaning team, which looks after a combination of housekeeping and building cleaning, is headed by Martina Hogger. The specialist in building cleaning is there from zero hour – with her heart and soul. "We really enjoy the work here", says the lady from Upper Bavaria with an infectious laugh. Team Hogger works every day of the week - including Mondays when the TraumWerk is closed. While conventional maintenance is scheduled for the opening days, Monday is devoted to the deep clean. Including activities such as washing carpets and upholstery or the thorough cleaning of filigree exhibits in the showcases.
As agile as a bumper car
The flag ships of the Kärcher fleet in the TraumWerk, consisting of 16 machines, are the B 150 sit-on scrubber-drier and the baby sister B 40, a handy walk-behind machine. Whereas everything on the B 150 is twice as large (150 l fresh and dirty water tanks, working width: 90 cm), the B 40 has 40 l tanks and a working width of 55 cm. "The key aspects for our purposes are the manoeuvrability and easy operability of the machines", says team leader Hogger.
In terms of functionality and technology, sit-on and walk-behind machines are similar. "For the TraumWerk machines, we consciously went for roller instead of disc technology. That’s because they produce a high surface pressure over a small contact surface", explains Weber from Kärcher. "They clean reliably - and literally pore deep – even the highly-structured floors such as the large area stoneware tiles laid here." Stoneware floors have pores that extend downwards. "Consequently, they don't like to surrender the dirt they have collected – unless you attack them with the right technology, that is", says Weber.
Among the machines regularly waiting in turn on a Monday is a Puzzi 10/1. The washer dryer has a 10 l freshwater tank and is used for both fibre-deep thorough cleaning on the needle felt floor in the play islands but also for upholstery cleaning in the restaurant. The Puzzi operates according to the spray extraction principle. Water and if required surfactant-free detergent are applied via a spray hose. The loosened dirt is then sucked up straight away.
Ladies stockings as an "accessory"
The genuine all-rounders among the Kärcher machines used at the TraumWerk are the versatile wet-use wet/dry vacuum cleaners. Only five of these are in use – with tank sizes from 35 to 65 l. The wet/dry vacuum cleaners are used here, there and everywhere. From outdoor use for cleaning the TraumWerk Express to careful de-dusting of the equipment in the so-called fiddle yard, the area of the model railway not visible to visitors. The cleaning of the exhibits in the showcases is even more careful and detailed. The wet/dry vacuum cleaners, whose turbine performance can be steplessly adjusted – albeit with a very special type of "accessory" – score here too. "To prevent small parts ending up in the filter, we use standard ladies stockings", says Hogger. This unconventional but practical "accessory" is simply tensioned over the suction pipe, and then there are no problems. "Even cleaning can be a really creative activity" says TraumWerk boss Mussak with a broad smile. "You need to think and improvise – just like in real life!"
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