You are probably right that a roller bearing is more susceptible to locking up than a ball bearing just because of its shape.
On the blown shields: my neighbour runs a 60” commercial lawn mower. The OE spindles have 1Z bearings in them with a grease zerk in the middle. According to Walker, a lot of people were over servicing the spindles and blew out one shield. If you were lucky you lost one out of a top bearing - that just makes a mess of the mower deck and the belt can start to slip. If you lose a lower shield, the grass juice will eat that bearing in no time flat. So his bearings were running rough. We replaced the spindles with an upgraded version: it has a relief vent on the opposite side of the zerk. You grease until you see the vent squish out a little worm. No more problems as the relief pressure is set well below what it takes to blow a shield out of a bearing. Walker engineers learned their lesson since most of the failures happened during the warranty period.
So how did they solve the shipping by rail issue? Switch to on the road car carriers?
Good stuff. Gotta see proof it's working! My neighbour greases everything till it gobs out onto the ground! Too funny! I like the little worm though .....
The temporary rail car problem solution was easy - loosen the tie downs and let the cars move more. They were all too tight anyway. It's a human thing - if tight is good, tighter must be better. The goons in the rail yards all use cheater bars.
Fastener Torque is a funny thing. Hardly anyone does it right. In the factory we often use calibrated tools and double checks on critical fasteners. Ever wonder why there is a gob of paint on the wheel nuts of a new car? It's to prove they were double checked. No paint - wasn't checked.
The most common reason for automotive recall campaigns is improper torque - either too tight or too loose.
Service manuals for most machinery almost always include torque charts. Almost nobody ever uses them.
Same neighbour doesn't use a torque wrench on his tractor hub nuts. Supposed to be 800 ft lbs. His version is to put an 8ft pipe on a 4ft Johnson Bar and give er all you got. My eyes popped out of my head. I measured it. My torque gauge quit at 1200......
I showed him. He still uses the pipe. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.....