Good afternoon,

I am trying to find out if automatic rail greasers were ever installed right on curves or are they always installed on the straight sections before the curve. This information is desired to make proper placement on a model railroad that has a nice curve.

Thank you for your time,

Jim K

I have noticed that rail greasers are usually on straight track before a curve. In this way the grease has a chance to spread to the circumference of the flange before being it starts to make contact with the inner head of the outer rail.

It might help to get on Google maps and follow a curvy mainline and see where rail greasers are placed at. This one is just down the road from my house.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1581497,-80.6125592,79m/data=!3m1!1e3

BTW since this question is of a more of a general nature I'm going to move it to the Railfanning forum.

Oilers, also known as greasers, are generally installed on tangent track. There are a number of reasons for this.

[1] As stated, this allows the wheels to be coated and then drag the grease around the entire curve.

[2] When a train exits a curve, there are still sideways forces as the train attempts to straighten out. You do need the grease several car lengths off each end of a curve.

[3] While curves are where people thing most of oilers, multiple studies show that grease also helps in tangents. This is especially true when there is gage variation and cars try to hunt.

[4] The oiler heads that apply the grease are getting longer so the full wheel can be treated. For sharper curves, the head will not fit properly against the rail head. Thus, they are installed on tangent track.

However, there are cases where they are installed in the center of a curve so the grease can cover the entire curve. In these cases, they are often the shorter heads or they have been bent to fit the location.

Bart

And no matter exactly where they're located, it's almost always in the worst d****d place imaginable in mountain territory, so don't forget to model the remains of destroyed greasers next to the track that the plow/flanger train crew 'forgot' to raise the blade for...

Thanks for the information!

Jim K

In certain industrial settings, I've seen one greaser placed in the midpoint of the curve, the thinking being that for every move in one direction you will have a move in the other direction and that you will distribute enough grease to the gauge face of the rail to keep the rail lubricated sufficiently without placing one at both ends of the curve.

Rob Gardner
Former Spike Pounder