Having done a fair amount of research on the subject lately, I have discovered a few interesting things. The two most popular gearbox greases appear to be white lithium of various brands(Labelle, Tamiya) and Red n’ Tacky.
Which is better? The most convincing data reported in this forum appears to be from bob2 who described his experience repairing gearboxes of locomotives that had heavy daily use on the O Scale layout of the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. He noted that white lithium grease was used exclusively and the gearboxes held up for years of daily use. He did not specify which brand of white lithium. My own experience is that white lithium grease tends to dry out but this in a setting of long storage of several months and in fairly dry climate. So it could be the regular use that may keep the grease from drying out or it could be the specific brand I used. If bob2 reads this post, I am curious about which brand of white grease the museum used.
Red n’ Tacky seems very robust. It is lithium grease as well but appears to lithium complex type designed for marked water resistance necessary for axle bearings in the outside environment. Many forum members tout it, but no one has really reported how it holds up to the use that bob2 described. White lithium appears to be a straight lithium soap grease.
What if you want to switch from red to white lithium grease, are they compatible? Do you need to immaculately clean out all the old grease to make the switch? The good news is that if you wanted to switch from one to the other they are compatible per this article:
that successfully bound up the plastic gearing in both motion boxes on the several versions of that popular accessory
. The two cranes on my layout (one in storage) were thoroughly cleaned and then re-greased with LaBelle 106. That was several years ago. Sometimes the cranes will sit unoperated for months. But when called to action, they immediately, and without hesitation, operate perfectly.
