Locomotive Lubricant


Carey, I've seen this on a Bachmann 70 tonner and and P2K SD-24. When I got them new, I opened them up, cleaned up the obvious factory sloppiness, and pulled the gears to check them for being true and for burrs. Surprisingly, both locomotives had small burrs on the gears and filing them down got the gears to mesh more closely. I put a small amount of LaBelle #106 grease in the gear boxes and closed them back up.

In the last two months, I've had to open both locomotives back up for other problems. In both gear boxes, the grease, instead of being sort of semi-liquid like I'm used to, was dry and had rolled up in tiny balls between the gears. Running them without the shell, I could see the grease kind of bouncing around in the gear box. I cleaned out the gear boxes and replaced the grease with a about two drops of ATF. My unscientific guess is that both engine ran about 10% quieter and smoother. Since I use a tiny amount, I haven't seen any signs of it being flung outside the gear box. Don't know if I'm not doing something right or unlucky, but I've now seen this in two locomotives. I've got a bunch of engines coming up for annual maintenance so I'll see if the grease problem repeats itself. I did buy the grease new but I suppose it's also possible I got a bad batch.
 
Must of been a bad batch Jim. I've never had any Labelle grease dry out of a gearbox within a year. I even have one loco that is an MDC 4-6-0 with NWSL gears for it. I just tore it down to redo paint and some details on it and the grease on the exposed gears was still as fresh as the day it was originally applied. It was a lot dirtier, but there was no indication of it drying at all.
 
You're right, Carey, it has to be a bad batch. I just opened up an SW 1200 that I lubed with another tube of #106 that I had had for, cripes, 20 years or so. I decided that was too old so I bought a new tube. The grease on the SW 1200 look fine while all the ones I've used the new tube on have this balling up issue. I guess it's time to chuck this one and get another tube, although the ATF does seem to be working just fine in the engines I've used it on so far.
 
Fellows, just a note that what you are seeing that is hard is not grease that has actually dried out, but the thickening agent (probably soap) that is depleted of its lubricating oils. This soap acts as a storage for the oils and friction and heat will cause the oils to bleed out at a controlled rate. Some thickening agents will actually act as a lubricating agent along with the oils.

So, when you see this soap like substance, it doesn't mean you have bad grease, but all the lubricants that was stored in it are used and it needs to be replaced. How long a grease last depends on how well it is matched to the use of the mechanical device considering: rpm, temperature, contamination, and etc.;)
 
The info about using ATF is interesting. There are several types (A, F, Dexron II), does it matter which?

As for Labelle products, we've always had great results with them.
 
Dexron II is what was suggested, and maybe its successor if there is a III. I highly doubt that any commercially sold automobile ATF is going to do more harm than good due to individual additives.
 
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