How a Railroad Curve Oiler Works or How Squeaky Wheels Get The Grease!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- If you've ever been near a curve or sometimes a switch as a train passed, you've probably heard the squealing of the wheel flanges against the inside of the rail. In some places it is so bad that when working along the tracks hearing protection is a must.
If you've ever wondered how the railroads keep it all from wearing out in a hurry, this video will answer that question. While even grease cannot keep the rail from wearing out more quickly than on straight track, curve oilers certainly slow the process.
So, join me for a short explanation on how oilers work and I even managed to catch a train in the process!
First video I see with Swift trailers that are not in an accident.
Excellent!!
That's because they're an accident waiting to happen.
😋😋😋
i mean usually trains cannot make sudden unexpected turns.
if u look closely at the trailer going by you can see its already damaged lol
I never knew these things existed! Thanks for the lesson!
Been a signal maintainer for 10 years. Obviously I knew they had to do with shooting grease. Never knew it was meant for a curve. And now after watching I pictured where I’ve seen them, at the beginning of a curve!
That is very interesting!
Just yesterday I hiked down some old abandoned tracks and walked past a “Rail & Flange Lubricator”. Going by the name and how it was situated on the tracks I figured out what it was for. Your video confirmed what I thought. And sure enough, it was right before a big curve! Something I learned here. Thanks!
I was a lubricator maintainer for BNSF you explained it pretty well good job I was in KS.
Do they have the oilers on both ends of the curve?
How far does the oil/grease travel down the track?
@@ddegn there is only 1there are a lot of variations the how much traffic degree of curves and how many curves most generally there is one tank and 4 bars that have 48 ports on each bar the lubricators that are in the video are solar powered which means they 12 volt system and on the inside of rail is a wheel sensor it picks up how ever many wheels it is set for which in turn will activate the pump I hope this helps understand the system
@@ddegn I want to add that on average the grease will carry three to four miles but there again depends on how much traffic I had some that would carry grease 6 to 8 miles
@@charlessmith8834 Thanks for the great answers! That helped me understand it a lot.
@@charlessmith8834 thank you so much for adding your experience to the conversation!
That wheel slip and screech is what all Curvians call music at Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Great place to watch trains.
Amen on that music to the ears violins sound
The guys that work on a section sure are happy to have a rail lubricator so the rail last longer and isn't worn out before its time.
@@juangarcia-co5ve those were my words juan!
I had heard the loud wheels on rails sound, But had no idea they were oiled. Makes sense, TY!!
I have been into trains my entire life an never knew this, great thing to learn about. Thanks!
I was always under the impression you need to keep slippery stuff off the rails at all cost 🤷🏻♀️😂 I guess I never even considered this.
I'd wondered about curves and have certainly heard the wheel-rail squeel. I didn't know curve oilers existed. Thanks for the information and up-close video of one of these.
My grandfather worked for Moore and Steele, he machined the mechanical greaser pumps, I remember they sold oilers, and greasers. Interesting side note, each rr carrier had different sized rolling stock, each greaser casting was custom sized, they had about thirty samples, each from a different railroad.
I remember seeing the old kind of oiler didn't know it was for curves. Thanks for video, hadn't seen this covered before
Wow, this is one of those things you would never know about. I guess that curved track would have a shorter lifespan than straight track.
Also more derailments due to flange climbing rail.
You're right - I've never thought about it. But now you've mentioned it, I'm glad i found out how come some trains/locations make a LOT of squeaking noise and others dont. If i'd have asked myself how come, I'd have worried about it and it would have kept me awake at night trying to figure out the reason. My curiosity can do that to me sometimes. So thank you. You answered a question I didnt know i wanted the answer to!
Ive seen these before, and saw the greasy tracks, but never knew that thats what they were for lol. Thanks!
I have always seen then. Never knew what they we're, till NOW!
Thanks man!
Good job I always thought it was a locomotive that was leaking oil or diesel but good job on that keep up the good work God bless you
Like your videos Mark! Like 👍 the information provided from a retired railway employee. Be safe!
AWESOME viedeo! I never knew these curve oilers were a thing, prior to this video.
Thanks for the info.
I went and manually oiled all the tracks at my local train station.
You'd be a great speaker for career days
Thank you for the explanation -- I saw one of these while walking alongside the commuter line near me. I could see what it was doing (pumping out grease), but I didn't know why -- mystery solved! And the one I saw was strictly mechanical -- the grease was pumped by the wheels hitting a pawl on the inside of the track.
The ones near where I live are like that. Makes a lot more sense to me, but I suppose that the electric ones must make very exact doses of oil or something to justify the cost.
Very entertaining and fun to watch. Thanks for posting this.
Cannot speak for the UP but decades ago CN Rail switched to a vegetable based oil, which has a additive to deter animals eating it. For a while locomotives were built with a tank for some sort of lubcation to reduce friction on rolling railcars in an attempt to reduce fuel costs. Those have since been removed and now spring loaded solid bars of some form of antifriction material press against one of the rear set of wheels on most of our locomotives. That one sound that happened was with a coupling, the two knuckles under tention (called draft) binding as one slid up and the other down. They would of been both been dry due to rust, or new and not yet polished up from use.
It would seem more efficient to have grease dispensed from the locomotive. It could be designed so the greater the angle the truck twists in the bolster, the more grease is dispensed. I know of a RR museum with a circular track that ran an extended hose from the crankcase breather to constantly drip oil on the outside rail.
Now you pushed other information out of my brain to make room for new.
HAHAHAHA.
What the freak does that mean?
It happens to me every time I open a book or watch a documentary!
Thanks for the informative videos. Love them.
Thanks, didn't know I needed to know that. Tehachapi seems like a great place for trainspotting. Whenever I go on a road trip to the desert I like passing through that area and stopping to look
A small percentage of commenters here DO understand about the effect and use of conical tyres on solid axles, so I won't labour that point. I just want to say two things:
Firstly, the reason that wheel flanges do sometimes rub against the inside of the rail on tight bends despite this self-centring effect, is that the conic angle cannot be very large or the effect would be too violent and unstable at high speeds on [even well-laid] straight track.
Secondly, contrary to what most folk intuitively think, the squeaking and squealing sounds that one hears on curves comes almost entirely from the differential movement between the tread of the tyre and the flat top of the rail - the outer treads have to jerk forwards, or the inner ones backwards, every few yards. It can be one or the other or both, depending on several other variables of track and train. When this is heard, the flanges could well be pushing hard against one rail or the other - again, which rail it is, depends on other things - but the sound comes from those forward and/or backward jerks.
Don't know how I ran across this video but it was very interesting. I never knew they existed either. Beautiful scenery out there.
Thank you! I hope you subscribed so you can check out much more of the scenery around here!
85YO used to work for B&O, never knew! I guess because never near any curves. Thanks!!
Great videos.... A lot of good information. Thanks for sharing.
That was really cool! Thanks. 😁
I've always wondered about this, thanks for making this video Mark!
Ya got me as a subscriber.
Thank you Mark for putting out the contents.
I grew up on some tracks, have seen those many times but didn't know what they were. Thanks for the info.
Great video Mark. A lot of people don’t know about these 👍👍👍❤️
The company I work for has its own siding with three spurs. We get tank cars of oil almost daily that have to be switched out. My job is weekly to go out and clean and oil the sliding surfaces of five manual switches and maintain a flange greaser just like those. I even have to manually grease the inside of the rail on the high side on a couple of hard curves and I just use a paint roller to grease the side of that to keep from wearing the side of the rail so much. The automatic greaser is triggered by a proximity switch that detects the wheels and every 18 wheels it runs a 15 to 20 second cycle of grease pumping.
I've seen them before and now I know what they are. Thanks.
Good information, makes sense to have them.
Great information, Mark!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing. Great bit of information.!
Thank you for your information. Very much appreciated.
My pleasure!
Wonderful video,thank you.
Thanks for the info. Good to know. Very interesting!
This was informative. 👍🏾
Thank you!
That is pretty neat,I never knew they had that. Makes sense though!
And they are everywhere up there. Look closely. They're in many of my videos.
Thanks for checking it out!
Just found your channel. Awesome stuff
Thanks for the information 👍
Wow. I had thought of that but never ever seen one. Cool !!😎😎
Thanks for the info!
I had no idea!thank you!
That's cool. Great information
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for checking it out!
the unasked question was answered - thanks
That was really nice to see the train go by. That one is known as an Innermodal train.
Intermodal
I often walk railroad tracks and I have seen these and similar but I figured it was to somehow oil the train axles. I had no idea it was necessary to lubricate curved track or wheels.. for less friction.?
Thanks for this video, I'll check out your others, Brother!!!!
Interesting , Thanks Mark
Brilliant - thank you!
Thanks for the info. I never knew curve oilers existed but it makes sense that they do. I would think that by adding locomotives in the middle or ends of the train the wheel flanges and track wear less.
i had no clue thanks for sharing
thanks for sharing mark.how about doing a video on making the tunnels higher for the double decker trains.thanks
If you watch my video (2 parts) on the history of the tunnels on the Tehachapi, I explain the "notching" they did for that purpose.
Thanks for asking and for checking it out!
Thanks for posting.now I gotta HO scale build these now lol.
I wouldn't expect the plastic wheels on HO-scale cars to squeal much, if at all.
I'm going to add them to my LEGO train. I didn't know I was doing it wrong all these years.
By the way, I'm joking and I'm sure the original poster was joking as well.
@@ddegn The tank and wiping bars would be fairly easy to add to model track to indicate a lubricator.
I seem to recall reading somewhere a long time ago that the steam locos had oilers on them. The engineer activated them as needed.
That depends on the railroad and service the locomotive was assigned. This also includes diesels and electrics depending on service and location. Switching on and in tight curves would often find flange oilers on locos sometimes with a method to start and stop the application.
One of the switching railroads around Chicago has diesel locos using tires on the wheels like steam loco wheel practice because it is less expensive to re-tire wheels than replace the wheelset or wheels on an axle.
Thanks 🙏 mark
We had one going through the farm where i lived, over the decades & especially after heavy rain the field on the downward slope was contaminated with a film of oil in every puddle & the cows used to graze that paddock.
Cool i remember the flange oilers of the 80's
Yeah, those were much more messy. I ruined a couple pair of boots working near them!
114 cars... That was a long one...
I always forget to count.
I took a trip through the Copper Canyons back in 1993. They have a lot of curve tracks through the mountains and you'll hear the squeaks. It took me a short while this occurs, then I got the picture why.
I remember seeing the rails ground on the sides on a curve up the hill from Caliente.
They wear out pretty quickly. Alloys have come a long way since the 1980s so rail and wheels last longer but it's still a struggle up there.
Thank you.
Great info thanks
As a railroad conductor i absolutely hate these cause when we climb on the cars to tie brakes or break a train up the grease flings up on the equipment and we get greased but I know hey are a necessary.
Interesting, didn’t know about this equipment.
Loved it.
Thank you! More to come. Stay tuned!
Also, the surface of the wheel is tapered from the flange to the outboard side to accommodate turns. Learned that from a SPRR machinist.
Have you ever recorded a heating switch in the winter time one's were there's fire coming out of the rails?
On the Tehachapi they just use small pots with fuel oil when needed under the points. The winter of 2019 was the only one worked through and I saw none in use.
That was absolutely fascinating. Not many people give much consideration to the need for lubricants in our modern world. But they are necessary like on your automobile or you could soon be waiting for a wrecker.
Can you get an up close video of the lubricator in action as a train is passing by?
I cannot. The lubricant is dispersed along the inside of the rail so it is not visible when a train is passing.
Good info! Enjoyed seeing the different company names on the containers and piggyback trailers as the train passed. Might be interesting to learn a bit about the demise of the beloved caboose.
Search for FREDS or EOT devices, they replaced the caboose.
@@coloradostrong Thanks, yep, I remember, my company used to be a customer of NSRR.
I also read somewhere, that Chicago's El train tracks have "oilers" that, not only help lubricate the wheels on tight turns, but also prevent the wheels from climbing up and over the rails. Chicago El trains make very sharp turns in the Loop, which makes this oiling process necessary.
The EL track has inner guard rails which contact the back side of the car wheels to hold the flanges off the rails on the other side of the track. Not only do their flange oilers (or greasers) apply grease to the flanges for the sides of rails but the backsides of the wheels for the guard rails, and they still squeal like a stuck pig.
My dog spot that went everywhere with me managed to walk in some of the grease one day and it's so hard to get it off of her let alone my truck seats. Fortunately they were vinyl. The one that I saw was a pump style that has now been replaced.
Since they use Dawn dish soap to clean animals in an oil spill I suppose that would probably work. But Grace is a whole different thing isn't it. that kind of makes me think of the fifth wheel grease on a semi truck
Yeah you're probably right, Dawn would at least be a start. I didn't think of that then. For heaven sake don't let it get on your carpet inside of your home. Then you'll have another battle with the wife.
My dad. Never had a greaser on his territory. On BNSF the MOW took care of it when needing maintenance. There is a greaser on main 2 on the BNSF on the south hill in Albia Iowa.
The extreme curvatures on the Tehachapi require them and there are many. Definitely MoW equipment.
Thanks for checking it out!
Fun seeing that long train. Thank you.
Wish that you had shown close ups of the oiler. Really did not see anything. You could have zoomed in while the train passing.
Did you watch to 5:30? He showed it pretty well
@@nickopedia5669 Close up as the train is passing over them.
I would have liked to see where the grease comes out of the device. I was a bit disappointed not to get a better view of the oiler.
@@ddegn the grease is distributed along the inside of the rail so you can't see it working. Even then, only a small amount is dispensed. One of the reasons I get no grief for being in many of the places I shoot is because I stay out of the way and don't foul the tracks unless I know it is safe and it was not safe at that location as no signals are visible.
Interesting ! I never knew that. I'll have to look at the tracks that are close to my house. There's a big bend in the rails so it won't be hard to find.
What state are you located in?
Thanks for posting all of these interesting videos. I enjoy going to Steam Town in Scranton, PA since I enjoy trains. Now I have learning much more from your videos.
Barry G. Kery
We now propose using super-slick super-hard ti/ni coatings on the flanges also. Actually a wide variety of plasma coatings would do.
Mark ... thanks for this, as an Oiler Mechanic in the 60"s ... talk abut dirty, I had black heads in my arm pits .... and did not know they have been revised to electric, the old shoe pump types would shoot graphite grease every where. ... the hoggers used to throw stuff (in fun, I hope) at me as quite often with so much grease making its way to the ball of the rail the sanders had to be used .... and grease with sand was a real messy substance .... went to the aircraft industry, no heavy grease.
I once saw some dragging equipment hit one of these lubricators. Demolished it. It was a cloud of grease flying through the air! It must have covered nearly a quarter mile. Amazing!
It is next to impossible to remove graphite and/or carbon black from your skin.
I just subscribed... I am wondering if these videos will help me increase my preparedness for job as a signal maintainer... ?
The ones in the "How The Signal Department Works" playlist will give you a basic understanding of what things are but there's no substitution for hands on experience. If you're vaccinated, this is a good time to apply as the railroads are going to lose a lot of employees after Dec 8th when the vaccinations become mandatory.
Who knew --- thanks for sharing
LOVE YOUR AMAZING, AWESOME VIDEOS. SAY, WHERE DOES ALL THAT CRAZY GOOD, COLORFUL ART COME FROM ON THE SIDES OF THOSE CONTAINERS?
Tagging generally happens at the destination while being loaded or unloaded and not while on the trains. Train cars are usually tagged in the storage tracks at their destinations as well and not in yards or live tracks.
Thanks for checking out the channel!
Constructive tip: Mayhaps have edited out 90% of the dead time while train passed once you announced the curve oiler.
I like watching the trains go by. It makes it doubly interesting for me!
Edit out the train passing? I love to watch them go by.
I saw one of the older ones out on the Santa Ana branch near Costa Mesa (in the out of service track area). There was only one at one end of the curve. The switcher would shove from the Alton St runaround track across Susan and around the TIGHT curve to go to the LATimes building. The greaser would only operate when going toward LAT, it wouldn't operate coming back. I could see a lot of grease around there and on the inside of the rail going towards the LAT building. Yup...it was a mess.
Thanks.
Down Under they are called Flange Lubricators and we also use AdSorb matting around them to limit the amount of MDS being washed into the environment
A close up of the rail & system would have been nice
I'm not wasting a good pair of shoes! That stuff does not come out!
Question: What keeps the oiler from greasing the drive wheels of the locomotives and making them slip? Thanks!!
The way the grease is distributed along the rail keeps it mostly off the top. The cloth, which is felt like, between the rails catches errant grease from slinging upward.
Thanks for checking out the channel!
Have you experienced the flat cars which carry military's battle tanks where the wheel trucks have 3 axles? Saw a video from the early 2000's on Tehachapi and the squeal was something terrible, comments said it was brake squeal but it was going up hill. Needed more allowable axial shift on the middle axle to stop the wheel flanges loading against each other (the 2 outer axles v the center axle). One thing you should not have is the lubricant on top of the rail, loss of traction, wear due to cavitation, wheel skidding, environmental mess.
I was surprised to see no mat of some sort over the ballast around it. All the ones down here seem to have them.
To honest I didn't notice there wasn't one. Unless they've changed things they always used them.
Thanks for checking it out
Welp....learned something new today.
I'm glad you explained this. The question has been in the back of my mind for 20 plus years. My son and I were walking the tracks to find some coal and happened upon a grease box like you have in the background, and sure enough, those ball bearings on top of pistons were right there. We figured it out they were for lubing the wheels, but didn't realize it was for curves. Thanks. BTW, What state are you in there? Those hills are bigger than ours in Indiana.
This is California.
Thanks! Would a clunk-clunk-clunk noise be a flat spot on a wheel?
Or a stubborn nickel, lol!
Are they noisier than a Tim Oiler?