Petro-chem

[Anonymous]

I've been lookin for photos of a wartime oil dump or refinery. Any help here??

[orsonroy]

Good luck. Those were strategic targets during WWII, and would have been heavily guarded. Anyone taking a photo of those facilities would have quickly met with an official from the Army counterespionage department (not the FBI, who couldn't "disappear" people like the Army could back then).

Check the Library of Congress' website for prewar images, and maybe some Signal Corps images.

[leighant]

I built mine from some photos in a Navy base yearbook that showed different departments. Late 1950s I believe. My layout is set mid 1950s but I have a Navy blimp base that actually become more or less inactive before WWII ended. But it is a great consignee for my helium cars so I "kept it flying."


The standpipes were based on commercial bulk oil dealers facilities.

[Anonymous]

Old National Geographics (see your local library) had a number of war pieces -- ________ (fill in the blank) Helps the War Effort, etc -- that had photos of these kind of facilities (usually doctored but probably useful).

Hope this helps.

[ndbprr]

Old refineries don't vary much from new refineries with a couple of exceptions:
1. The cracking towers weren't as tall
2. Crude was borught in by tank car rather than pipeline
3. Heavy olis like #6 were shipped out by tank car rather than cracked into lighter weights
4. They were dirty with little polution control until the late 60's.

By the way, as a kid visiting the NEw Jersey seashore in the 50's we used to count the blimps we could see at one time that were based at Lakehurst. I've seen as many a eight up and down the coast flying at the same time. So blimp usage goes well into the 50's possibly as late as 58 or 59.