Thinking about it a bit, how about a threaded tube with a Alemite gun fitting on one end, a handle to hold it with, a bolt and a cordless impact gun, fill the tube with grease and run the bolt in to feed the grease into the bearing, would be about as fast as a Alemite gun.

-Hudson

Ross Rowland - Can we adopt you as a rich uncle?

Here at the Steam Railroading Institute we have found a supplier that is making the block grease that made it for the reading. Since we started using it are main bearings and rod bearings run cooler like they did in the 80's and 90's. We do sell the grease too both in block form and pin form.

Kevin Mayer
CMO
SRI

Even 30 years ago, there was one mainline steam restoration group advertising in Trains Magazine's "Wanted" classifieds for 2-3 years for both an Alemite gun AND the "hard grease."

This might be a situation where some party, jointly with Heritage Rail and/or even the British groups, might want to reverse-engineer both a more contemporary applicator AND a long-term supply, appropriate for not just mainline steam but for places like Steamtown, Strasburg, etc.

I mean, heck, this just screams for a cordless lithium applicator by Ryobi, Makita, Black & Decker, Hitachi, or whoever........

IRM has used Steam Railroading Institute's hard grease for more than a decade. We get it in blocks and extrude it into sticks using a device that sounds exactly like what Frisco1522 described. It's a good hard grease, and works excellent for the service, speeds, and distance the 1630 runs. We run the gun off of the locomotive's main air reservoir.

I wonder what the feasibility of having a small run of new grease guns would be. Do any drawings exist for them? If not one could be reverse engineered. It's a quite iconic sight and sound to use the alemite gun, just like from 'back in the day'.

Thanks for the offer of adoption Mr. Morris. I've always wanted to railroad in Alaska. Perhaps we can make a deal??

Please PM me with terms. Thanks, Ross Rowland

Wasn't there, maybe 5 years ago, a thread that discussed hard grease and it's supply? I seem to remember that Jason S. and another well known steam guy looked all over the world and found a supplier. AND they had a substantial supply shipped to the USA. The thread talked about the difference between the grease used on rods and such and the grease used on main bearings. I think that this was back when SR630 was just coming off its 1472.

Anyone else remember that?

Dear Uncle Ross . . .

Seriously though, you are welcome to visit and we'll roll out the red carpet at the 557 Engine House any time. We could probably even arrange a tour of the ARR shops. It's going to be up a couple more years before the first time we will be able to pull the throttle in 557, though.

I didn't think the button head fittings and couplers were rare at all, a google search of "button head grease fitting" turns up a ton of options. Unless you needed a special or rare thread, maybe you could cut one down or use a custom bushing if needed....

I think I also know where a box full of brand new fittings is....

Video I shot of them shooting the rods on 4014 at Rochelle, IL yesterday. It is seriously loud and the crew members were wearing hearing protection.

The operator works the control lever back and forth by hand while the other guy feeds in the grease stick. To the uninitiated that's a bit surprising; one might think you just hook onto the fitting and pull a trigger until grease comes oozing out of the bearing.

Note also the fellow with the IR thermometer checking temperatures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HS9Ec3ZKDw

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Please forgive the thread drift but to Kelly:
What oil do you use at Strasburg for the driving axle journals? Thanks.......mld

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Alemite Grease Gun in action. The exhaust from these things is EXTREMELY loud. There is a toggle that you move back and forth to move the piston back and forth. We also have a the manual version, but note that it won't fit onto the fittings on the main crankpins.

The pneumatic version seems to be able to reach just about any awkward location on the locomotive and that includes the fittings on the floating bushing driving boxes between the frame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiHgAILnDks

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far, I am now a lot more knowledgeable on the topic.