Can anyone tell me what the composition of the Lionel grease and oil is, ie is it lithium grease, silicon, petro based, etc....?
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which grease? which ever it is, Red n Tacky is better and it is synthetic.
I believe Lionels grease in the "maintenance kit" is your run of the mill, white lithium.
The oil is a light mineral oil.
A better grease alternative is the Red n' Tacky John mentioned. Can be purchased at the local automotive store, and online. i've greased all of my loco gearboxes with Red n' Tacky when they were new, I doubt I will ever need to do it again.
A somewhat better alternative to Lionels light oil are the offerings from Labelle. I use labelle 102 on my O guage locos because its a "heavier" light oil that stays where its put.
These can be found online and at the local hobby shop as well as many of the OGR sponsors.
For oil, I use plain 5-20W motor oil. It doesn't get gummy, doesn't run, and one $2 can will last you a lifetime. 
For grease, I've moved to Red-n-Tacky, so far I'm happy with it's performance. I used to use white lithium grease.
Yesterday I went to Advance Auto and bought Red N Tacky. The guy waiting on me said that it was the best, when I told him it was going to be used on Lionel locos he was surprised. Then he said that he would tell his dad, who has a large collection. I put it on 4 locos this morning so we will see. I expect good results.
I use Mobil 1 5-30W for oil lube. It's a synthetic and 1 quart will last forever. I just put it into a syringe w/ seuthe's smoke fluid needle applicator attached or you can just use the 3mm seuthe syringe.
And of course just Red-N-Tacky in a syringe applicator like this one...
I fill it full w/ the grease and it's good to go. you can buy them from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This is handy to use on the bottom side of the Loco when in your cradel. Just pop out the "Grease" screws & fill w/ the Grease.
After using the small tube of MTH grease in their kit I also got some Red-N-Tacky. It is very similar in appearance to the MTH grease, anyone know if it's the same thing? Red-N-Tacky was between $5-$6 at Home Depot for a GIANT tube, more than a lifetime supply, even for a very young hobbyist.
Still using the MTH oil that came with their lube kit.
