I blong to a Z scale group here in Southern California.
I can run my Marklin, MTL and AZL/SZL engines for several hours at the train shows.
I normally will rotate the engines every hour, not for maintenance, but to give the viewers something else watch.
There are a few Z scale groups on the Yahoo group site, plus Trainboard and Z Central Station.
Theere area few Aussi members there. If you checkout www.ztrack.com which is a magazine, the editor is currently offering
courtesy copies of the publication.
As far as lubrication, I have found the Marklin oil satisfactory, but there is also "La Belle".

Robert
Zo Cal

Thanks!!!!!

The Saphir is a very nice train. One tip about those, and other trains like it, that I read not so long ago is not to uncouple the four wagons if it's at all possible and to leave them together. The reason is that it's easy to bend or break the conducting strips on the couplers. If that happens the rear power wagon will not be electrically isolated and will pull against the lead power car - thus the train will go nowhere, and will do it with a great whirring and slipping of wheels.

Do you also have the 87933 extra intermediate wagon set? It makes up a very nice seven wagon train, just like the prototype.

You could try to repair them, but they are difficult to get back into the right shape. Or you could buy replacements - Marklin charge an arm and a leg for both the item and postage, or you could try one of the big German dealers like ETS or Lokshop.