A question on axlebox covers.

[Stormbringer]

Hi all,

         I've just been watching container trains going in and out of Felixstowe and noticed that a good proportion of the wagons (mainly Fea, Fsa, Fta and one Kfa) have different coloured axlebox covers namely blue, green and yellow. Some of the yellow ones have a letter J stencilled on them. Is there any particular reason for this? Or is it just the first pot of paint you pay your hands on? One wagon actually had 3 different colour axleboxes.

 

      Tia

            Pete

Edited February 5, 2020 by Stormbringer
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[Steadfast]

I believe in the past different colours may have meant different things (wasn't there a yellow one with a red stripe on locos?) but as far as I'm aware modern ones are just the choice of operator / maintainer. A lot of DB owned wagons have EWS maroon axleboxes for example. 

There is a marking on continental wagons, a white vertical stripe top and bottom of axlebox, that from memory denotes roller bearings, but since just about everything has them these days it seems a touch superfluous.

 

Jo

[keefer]

IIRC in BR days, yellow became the colour to signify roller bearings. I'm trying to remember what the yellow w/ red stripe meant, it may have meant a particular kind of grease should be used

[Fat Controller]

1 hour ago, keefer said:

IIRC in BR days, yellow became the colour to signify roller bearings. I'm trying to remember what the yellow w/ red stripe meant, it may have meant a particular kind of grease should be used

 

I think you're correct about it being used to indicate the type of grease used. I recollect red and yellow were the house colours of Shell-Mex.

[101]

IIRC the red stripe indicated Lithium grease 

[Wickham Green]

Similarly, the Great Western painted oil-lubricated axleboxes blue ( on carriages at least ) when they were changing over from grease - long before rollers came into use !

[jim.snowdon]

On 6 February 2020 at 10:50, Wickham Green said:

Similarly, the Great Western painted oil-lubricated axleboxes blue ( on carriages at least ) when they were changing over from grease - long before rollers came into use !

Correct up to a point. The GWR had gone over to oil lubrication on all rolling stock well before blue axleboxes appeared on some carriages. My recollection is that it was done only to indicate that those carriages were to be lubricated using a specific oil.

 

 The LNER had something similar when specific types of carriage axleboxes were marked MM one their covers to indicate the use of the same oil blend as used by the Midland Railway.

 

Jim