Rail Oiler

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Dave,
Actually, rail oilers are very common, and are still in use today.  There is one about a mile west of my house to lubricate a very curved section of the Bristol line.  (And I think it isn't working, because the cars squeal terribly lately!)  Point being, these are used to lubricate the flanges on the car wheels which lubricate the inside of the rail head to prevent friction on the inside of the rail surface in curves.  If you hear a loud squeal, then you are wearing out rails and wheels.  Its not done so much to keep them quiet, but to make the rail last longer.
 
Hope this helps,
Ben Blevins

nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org wrote:


As I was perusing my recently purchased copy of the NWHS "N&W Signal
Diagrams" book I found something I had never seen or even been aware of. 
It is found on pages 59 and following in the a fore mentioned book. It
is a "rail oiler". Can any one on the list fill me in on why they were
used and where. It's obvious that it was to put oil on the railhead. 
I've always thought that oil and rails don't mix and make for a very
slippery time. 

Thanks ahead of time for any and all info.

Dave Moorehead
Milford, OH

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/private/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20040825/2a378721/attachment.html