Alemite tool memory

[NW Mailing List]

Abram's comments on the noble, essential Steam-Age implement known as an Alemite gun brought back memories.In the late '80s and early '90s, I had the privilege of using the free weight known as an Alemite gun while spending my free hours as a grunt on a steam crew. The below brings back memories of its distinctive rat-tat-ta sound. If you had a sense of rhythm, which I don't, I suspect you could work the air trigger in time to pick out a tune of your choice.It was a 2-person job, one to hold the machine, the other to feed the sticks of hard grease into it. The grease was kept well under wraps to prevent contaminants (dust, dirt, etc.) from being rat-tatted into sensitive bearing innards and thus defeating the quality of lubrication.In the post-steam era, Alemite guns were pretty rare things. On our engine, both were kept under lock and key for that reason. "These things are worth their weight in gold," said our crew foreman, usually when he had a hefty padlock in hand.Thanks for the memories, Abram, old friend!
Andre Jackson
On Friday, July 20, 2018, 3:53:28 PM EDT, NW Mailing List  wrote: 


One of the things I have long sought, but so far without fruition, is the date for the construction of the original interlocking and tower at Randolph Street, Roanoke, and a technical article on the subject.

Indeed, it seems that photographs of the original Randolph Street Tower are almost non-existent. Here is one I found in the March 1924, issue of Railway Signaling, in a one-column article touting the virtues of lubricating switches with Alemite. No further N&W details were given, only the photograph.

If I have my geographical bearings correct, that photograph looks from the Shenandoah Division tracks, towards the depot. The dining car commissary would be to the right, and the board fence at left shields from our view the RMW (Roanoke Machine Works, a.k.a. "East End Shops") complex.

One of my great desires in life was always to use a pneumatic Alemite gun and play at lubricating grease fittings. If anyone has such a tool, please invite me to try it out.

Photo by K. Miller. Man in white gloves has been identified as Section Foreman H. Bundy; aristocratic man in black hat identified as J. Blackstock. That poor kid bucking the Alemite gun is identified as young Jerome Sandermann, who later became a successful attorney in Roanoke and practiced law under the name Jeff Sanders.

>From this photo we can determine one thing: that the "old" Randolph St was an electro-pneumatic interlocking plant, not a manual one. Which probably means we can confine our search for its history to sometime after about1905.

No lo contendre, ex parte,

 -- abram burnett




Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20180902/40aefd3c/attachment.html>