Lubing the axles on tinplate. Would high viscosity grease be better than oil?

Some redn'tacky or Moly grease for the gears and some 40w no ash engine oil from work for the wheels. Firearms heat up quickly, I'd imagine much quicker so than the bearing surfaces of our tinplate trains.

Try it, see how works and report back,….what’s the worst that can happen?….it doesn’t work, and wipe it off and try something else??…..for open tinplate/postwar axles, I use an old Labelle needle point bottle with automotive gear oil in it,…85-140, 75-140, or straight 90 …..whatever I have laying around,….I don’t specifically go out and buy something,……..that oil does the job, and hangs around for a long time,…..but try your firearms grease, ain’t got nothing to lose,…any kind of lube is better than none,….

Pat

From reading another firearms forum that mentioned it, it was a mixture of Graphite, Vaseline and some other petroleum items.

For over 30 years I've been using Bosch Purple grease in all train applications where grease is called for.  It was designed for fine mesh close tolerance gears operating under extreme forces. A couple of helicopter pilots told me they used it for the tail rotor bearings on Jet Ranger helicopters. I've found it lasts over 15 years in toy train applications.

Thanks for the info.

I guess the thing that got me thinking, is that with tinplate cars, you have a thin sheet metal edge in the chassis, bearing directly down onto a rotating metal axle.  So, with this sharp edge attempting to "cut" down into the axles (or perhaps, the housing edge itself is being cut or worn by the axles), it just seemed to me that oil may not last long in this narrow bearing area.

One negative about Gunslick, is that it is very black, and fine, and if you get it on your clothes, they are a gonner.  And, if you get it on your hands, it is really hard to wash off.     Luckily, it comes in a small tube with a very small squirt opening.

Mannyrock

The Bosch Purple sounds like a winner!