CArolina Shagger posted:Southern Pacific painted stars around the axle ends so the lubricators would know that the axle had plain bearings as opposed to roller bearings. Maybe this was something similar?
Don
Not quite. The "standard" axle lubrication method on the SP steam power was grease cake lubricated plain bearings. Then, the SP developed, and patented, the babbitted, oil lubricated from pressure fed mechanical lubricators, and those locomotives carried the white stars on the axle centers. The white stars indicated to the men doing the "bottom lubrication", i.e. underneath the locomotive, that there were NO grease cellars, but spring pad lubricator boxes.
Concerning roller bearings; the SP had only two steam locomotives equipped with roller bearings on all axles; GS-5 #4458 & #4459. The two roller bearing equipped locomotives had the points of the white stars rounded off to denote "roller bearings".
