Would an isolated small western city fuel dealer be a wholesaler for competing brands of gasoline in the late 40s or early 50s? I remember lots of competing gas stations: Texaco, Phillips, Conoco, Sinclair, Standard (of California) and have tank cars marked accordingly (with Union tank car for standard oil). I plan to model traffic for 3 small cities (30-50,000 population), each with a fuel dealer. I assume that the heating fuels: coal, fuel oil and LP gas would be fairly anonymous, but I wonder about the branded fuels like gasoline and diesel?
Grinnell
I don't know about the branded fuels of past eras but around here in New England the same fuel comes out of the same refineries and distributors no matter what the brand. Why the different prices for the same product is beyond me and yet there is no evidence of gouging? Ya I believe that.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
If I understand your question correctly, fuel dealers definitely had brands. The dealer I remember my folks dealing with had Mobil heating oil, Gulf and Shell were also around, all their trucks were "brand" painted. Coal dealers also carried different brands.
Check out CMW's fuel oil trucks. I think they have a number of "home delivery" trucks that would suit your needs. I have seen appropriate decals listed for heating oils, and coal.
Propane was around, but I don't remember a brand, though I'm sure there were more than one.
Good luck,
Richard
Rail Model Journal had a series of articles and scale drawings related to bulk oil dealers in March, April and May of 1997. They showed a number of competing dealers in three different towns in Colorado. Aerial photos showed it was not at all unusual for two or three competing brand dealers to be located adjacent to each other in the same part of town, and sharing a common industry spur track.
My bibliography of bulk oil dealer published articles and plans:
My last layout had one Phillips 66 bulk oil dealer, Jayco, located in a courthouse square town that was the layout’s main scene.
The model was scratchbuilt to copy a Phillips 66 bulk oil dealer in Sealy, Texas.
Medium sized towns such as the one I modeled, a “county seat” town often had several competing brand bulk oil dealers, usually in the same area of town and sometimes sharing spots along the same spur. They used to receive petroleum by tankcar, and distribute it by tank truck to retail dealers (service stations) within a 30 to 60 mile radius.
It is not absolutely necessary to have a branded retail service station modeled in the same town as the bulk oil dealer of the same brand, since the bulk oil is distributed by tank truck over a 30 to 60 mile radius. In my town, I had a Phillips 66 bulk oil dealer, but a Magnolia service station.
Magnolia was distributed by tank truck from another dealer in a town somewhere “down the line”. If I have only one bulk oil dealer, how do I justify all the different oil company brand tankcars.
I simply run most of them on through trains, rather than on the local that switches my main town scene.
Phillips 66 product were delivered to my modeled bulk oil dealer by a local (“peddler”) train from the (unmodeled) refinery at Santa Vaca (my version of Houston.) But through trains from “Lost River” (my version of Beaumont, unmodeled, represented by staging) ran through my modeled scene, carrying brand-name tankcars from Gulf, Magnolia and Texaco, which had refineries at Beaumont in real life.
Even in small towns there were multiple fuel dealers with different brands. A small town near me had Conoco, Standard (Amoco), Sinclair, Shell, and Co op fuel oil dealers. By my era (50's-60's) coal was pretty much gone, what was left was known by the local dealer more than by the originator.
Many of these fuel dealers also handled diesel fuel (same as fuel oil) and had a local retail gasoline outlet.
In the day, they all either bought from local wholesalers or had bulk tanks near the tracks. The brands were very specific and each followed through its wholesaler to different refineries.
Starting in the late 60's delivery largely changed to truck from a pipeline terminal about 100 miles away. Over time as dealers consolidated the oil company brands disappeared, replaced by specific dealer brands. They get their fuel from whatever source was cheapest. At the pipeline terminal mentioned above, everyone's trucks are lined up filling from the same spout now.
Skelgas was a major early propane brand. This was replaced in the 60's by dealer or wholesaler brands later like Co op (now Cenex), Anchor Gas (now part of Ferrelgas), Northwest LP Gas, and others.
My best friend's dad, growing up, was the local Conoco dealer.
The region referred to above is NE Minnesota.
Good, informative replys. The bottom line is that each brand had its own distribution channel from refinery to wholesaler to retail dealers. So my 'singleton' Sinclair and Conoco tank cars will stay on the thru freights and for the three towns I'll model Phillips, Texaco and Standard dealers each with 2-3 tank cars (1 on spot).
Thanks
FYI,
I worked for a petroluem wholesaler in Anchorage, AK. All our trucks were unmarked except for the company name. We sold gasoline and avgas from Chevron, gasoline from Tesoro, and diesel from Tesoro and Mapco (now Williams Petroleum). We also handled bulk oil products from Chevron, Union 76, Pennzoil, Castrol and others. Along with De-icing fluid, windshield washer fluid, fuel additives and oil and air filters from many suppliers.
We also serviced Mapco. Chevron, and Tesoro stations with various oil products in quarts etc.
Rick J
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!