NRS-15990 | Lubrication Circulars

The role of these circulars was to provides instructions to employees about correct lubrication procedures and care of railway rolling stock bogie assemblies and associated components. The Mechanical Branch created this series, circulars being produced by the Chief Mechanical Engineer (Mechanical Branch, Redfern Office and Staff Section, Sydney) and the Superintendent of Laboratories (Lubrication Engineer’s Office and later, Testing Laboratories). The Chief Mechanical Engineer, Locomotive Branch, produced the earliest circulars.Each circular records the date, circular number, recipient’s name and information about whether it was supplementing or cancelling an instruction from the Lubrication Manual or a previous circular (1,2). The greatest part of the text within each circular is devoted to the instructions. Instructions focus upon correct procedures for attending to bogie assemblies, identifying failed or fragile components (such as "hot boxes") and disposal methods of waste lubricant. Many are annotated and initialled. Circulars are in chronological order and are divided into four bundles. Bundles were artificially created and item numbers imposed for identification purposes. As the bundles are incomplete it appears not all circulars have survived.Custody History: From 1955 until 2000 the State Rail Authority of New South Wales maintained an ‘in house archives’ consisting of the archival records of the Authority, its predecessor agencies and the private railway companies taken over by the government. The date ranges of the records were from 1849 until 2000. When the decision was made to close the ‘State Rail Archives’ the parts of the collection that were required as State archives were transferred to the State Records Authority of NSW. Those record series were incorporated into the State Records series system of archives control and were re-numbered.This series was formerly part of the State Rail Archives collection where it was identified as series R213. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as series R213 and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.ENDNOTES(1) State Rail Authority: Instruction Books and Manuals, "Lubrication Manual for Goods Vehicles with supplement for Passenger Vehicles", c. 1953. (SRNSW ref: R284/147). (2) State Rail Authority: Instruction Books and Manuals, "Lubrication Manual for Goods Vehicles and Passenger Vehicles", 1972. (SRNSW ref: R284/148).