mad man Wrote:
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> Back in the mid-80's, the siding at Scenic, WA had
> these huge cow pies of grease between the rails
> where locomotives of uphill EB trains would stop
> during meets.
>
> After reading the thread about Krater the cat,
> could these piles of grease have been "Crater
> Compound" that oozed out of traction motors for
> whatever reason? Bear in mind, in the 70s and
> early 80's, many first generation diesels had just
> finished running their last miles and probably
> oozed and dripped all kinds of crap in those final
> years.


Absolutely! That is exactly what that was, as there was/is an overflow/vent on every TM gear case, and when that stuff got hot, and I mean REALLY hot, it naturally expanded and glooped out onto the track inside of each rail.


> Today there is none of that greasy crap at Scenic,
> so it apparently went away with the older power.

The moder AC traction units have oil lubricated pinion & bull gears, plus oil flow lubtication of the pinion end rotor shaft bearing, thus the gear cases are sealed.