Irritating, had my message all written then lost my dail up connection. Here goes again.
Am just finishing up a small oil dealership, but it has no provisions for unloading tank cars or loading trucks. I am in HO, early to mid-50's, but the dealer could have been around since the late 30's.
I have seen the more modern racks, but for this era I'm not sure they had such at a small facility. Do the cars unload from the bottom into a hydrant by the tracks? Hose on a rack of some sort to keep it off the ground when not in use? At most hook ups for unloading two cars.
For loading trucks, did they use a standpipe (like a water column) with a short section of hose to fill from the top or did they pump it into the bottom? Hose storage similar set up as the unloading hose? I've seen plenty of trucks unloading at gas stations and home heating deliveries, but never seen them filled. Don't remember the piping on the trucks back then, wasn't thinking about modeling them at the time.
Will try this again.
Thank you,
kla b&w photo Matagorda Dist Jan81 st
model at right>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Truck loading was from a nozzle on the front platform.
This bottom picture is a Naval Ar Station fuel depot, the naval equivalent of a bulk oil dealer. I modeled standpipes for unloading cars from bits of brass tubing, wire and a bit of styrene for the concrete base. The platform with truck loading equipment was modeled from a photo in a 1950-something nhavy base yearbook.
Here are some published references to bulk oil dealers and standpipes:
Surface or underground pipe would be connected to a valve at the bottom of the car's tank via a hose. The liquid distillate would be pumped to storage tanks.
Mark
The first Industries Along The Tracks Kalmbach book has a section on petrolium in which dealers are mentioned. Might be worth picking this book up or seeing if it's in your local library.
Thank you for the responses.
leihant - thanks for pictures and the references. I may even have a couple of those magazine articles.
Mark - I was hoping simple would work.
odave - will have to see if I can find that issue.
Thanks again,
Here's a picture of work in progress.
The tank cars unload from the bottom. For now the unloading hose is in the pump house.
The tank trucks top load using drop tubes which are in a vertical position when not in use. When loading they are hinged and are pulled down to the top of the tank. They also telescope so as to reach the tank compartments. Usually there are 5.
Creating unloading for two tank cars will eat up a lot of real estate. You might want to have a siding lenght for two but unload one at a time. My siding will accomadate a tanker and a box car.
Post some pictures and good luck.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
Bob,
Thanks for the nice photos. My dealer will be older, but the pictures give me some good ideas.
Was doing some business placement tonight, do think a two car track is all I will need and as you suggested, only unload one at a time.
Maybe someday the budget will allow purchase of needed "stuff" to take and post photos. Will also need some help from the other half on how to use it. (She went to school for it.)
I modeled this petroleum distributor using Grandt Line kits and misc. parts. In this instance, unloading is done from a pipe inserted through the tank dome. That assembly came with the kit. Photos of prototype installations I've seen were in favor with unloading from the bottom with hoses.
(Sorry, no layout yet.)
Cowman, my family has run a small oil business since 1931. We received product by tank car until the late 1950's. We originally had 4 above ground tanks placed on stone piers. They were on a small hill above the track and truck loading platform. The pump to unload the tank cars was in a shed. all that was visible outside was a fence running along our siding with hose brackets bolted on to it and a 3'' hose with a coupling on the end. Cars received were usually 8,000-10,000 gallon variety. Hose was hooked on bottom connection to tank car and dome lid was cracked to allow a vent. Pump was started and the above ground tanks were filled this way. The tanks were different sizes. 8,000 -11,000, 10,000 and 14,000 all riveted and they had been in place since at least 1912 !! Trucks were loaded at the loading rack by gravity since tanks were above the level of the loading rack. It is slower than pumping but alot cheaper to operate and maintain. All piping and loading arms were bronze to eliminate the possibility of static sparking while loading. Later on we installed larger 30,000 undergrounds that had the capability for tank car unloading but they were always filled by truck transport. Hope this helps. --Ken McCorry
Mark - time to get to the layout! I have the same problem, though I do have the layout so trains will run, no scenery yet. What did you use for fencing? Haven't decided whether to go wood or chain link yet.
Ken - like the hill idea and there is one just behind the proposed location. 8,000 and 10,000 tank cars is what will be making the deliveries.
cowman Mark - What did you use for fencing? Haven't decided whether to go wood or chain link yet.
Mark - What did you use for fencing? Haven't decided whether to go wood or chain link yet.
The chain-link fence (on the railroad side) is from Walthers, and the board fence (on the public side) is a plastic product by Central Valley. Decided to use two types to provide some variety.
Cowman - There's a small-time fuel unloading facility right in your "backyard" on the WACR.
If you go to the engine house behind City Hall and the old police station, you'll often see two tank cars placarded UN 1202 there. They have the ability to pump it inside the building into a large storage tank during the colder months, but also the ability to pump directly to truck from the tank cars. There's a small transfer pump and a manifold that controls where it's unloaded to.
Car-->Pump-->Truck or Car-->Pump-->Tank--> . Another transfer pump accommodates loading from Tank--> Truck.
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Thanks everybody for your answers.
Ed - this "kid is still on the farm," maybe I can learn from it.
Allegheny - I do plan to have it on an active siding, probably parallel to the team track.
Granite - I'll go take a look. See cars up at the other end of the parkiing lot, not thought too much about ones at that end, don't park at that end often. Are you still enjoying the real ones? Any layout going?
Thanks again to all,
Got laid off spring of 2009.
Enjoying the "club layout" in Waterbury. Operating again this Friday. You should come up! No layout of my own yet. Still working on a design. Looks like it will be point-to-multi-point. Hopefully HO, but size constraints make it look like N more and more. Either that, or the plan gets cut from a lot of the necessary items for it to be "interesting"
Ken i like your post on oil facility...could you tell me how the horizontal tanks are filled..is the pipe on top of tank or tank end top or bottom..thanks..its the last part of my filling puzzle.Appreciated .Steve
Piping from tank car pump to tank entered tank on end at bottom of end. Tanks had a slight tilt of 2'' end to end allowing all product to be accessed by piping. Same pipe connected to drop tubes to fill trucks with some large globe valves. All piping was either 3-4''. So you couldn't empty a tank car and fill a truck from the same tank. My first job at age 7 was to climb up on the tank car and using a thief take a sample from the car so it could be tested for color and specific gravity and flash point. That was in 1955-56 !! It was fun being allowed to crawl all over tank cars and not get yelled at at 7 years of age. Company was sold back in 2020 after 89 years in business !!!
In many towns the oil disributors would share a siding with their various unloading racks. They would have their company logos on the tanks if they were visible from a road or railroad. Quite often the older logo on the tank remained even if the brand changed their logo..example-there was a Texaco distributor in Gallup NM that had the original red T-star on the side of the tank next to the train tracks. The street side of the tank had a faded 70s Texaco hexagon partially covered by the 1980s Texaco T-star on a brown rectangle.
The fill pipe for the tank always emptied at the bottom..due to the chance of static electricity.
KemacPrrPiping from tank car pump to tank entered tank on end at bottom of end. Tanks had a slight tilt of 2'' end to end allowing all product to be accessed by piping. Same pipe connected to drop tubes to fill trucks with some large globe valves. All piping was either 3-4''. So you couldn't empty a tank car and fill a truck from the same tank. My first job at age 7 was to climb up on the tank car and using a thief take a sample from the car so it could be tested for color and specific gravity and flash point. That was in 1955-56 !! It was fun being allowed to crawl all over tank cars and not get yelled at at 7 years of age. Company was sold back in 2020 after 89 years in business !!!
The sketch below is what I'm envisioning from what Ken described, as far as what it might look like to get the oil from the rail car into the tank:
...but I don't understand how the trucks would be filled from the same pipe. And another thing. How can a huge tank like that be filled from the bottom? Is the pump in the pumphouse really strong enough to keep pushing oil in at the bottom of the tank when it starts to get near full?
-Matt
Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.
crossthedog...but I don't understand how the trucks would be filled from the same pipe. And another thing. How can a huge tank like that be filled from the bottom? Is the pump in the pumphouse really strong enough to keep pushing oil in at the bottom of the tank when it starts to get near full?
My guess is there would be a "Tee" connection off that fill pipe, leading to the truck fill. There would be valves to isolate lines.
The pressure at the bottom of the tank is the same as it would be at the same level on a riser pipe going to the top of the tank, ie. the pressure is determined by depth, not the surrounding volume.
Matt you need to add two valves between the tank and your pump along with a T. That way depending on the valves you can either load a truck from the tank OR fill the tank from the tank car. When filling the tank the head pressure from the loaded tank car provides enough push for the pump to fill the tank. The pump was lower than the bottom of tank car. When about empty it took a couple of washes from the pump to completely empty the car. It worked well from about 1912 when the tanks were installed before we were there until the mid 1980's when I took them out of service and had them removed and scrapped. We stopped getting product by tank car about 1957-1958. After that it was all truck delivered using the same pump and some new piping to hook up to the trailers.
I've got the Walthers Interstate Oil kit. It has a lot of tanks and a lot of connecting pipes, and is designed as a lot of smaller kits so its arrangement is quit customizable. I have it next to a siding for tank cars, with a road leading up to the tanks for loading trucks. Elsewhere, I've got a full tank car rack that serves the tanning factory. That kit has a lot of piping which can be used as desired.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley I've got the Walthers Interstate Oil kit. It has a lot of tanks and a lot of connecting pipes, and is designed as a lot of smaller kits so its arrangement is quit customizable. I have it next to a siding for tank cars, with a road leading up to the tanks for loading trucks. Elsewhere, I've got a full tank car rack that serves the tanning factory. That kit has a lot of piping which can be used as desired.
Is this the kit you are talking about?
It came with a contraption that I believe was for unloading the tank cars but I'm not sure how it was supposed to work. It resembled an elevated seesaw with pipes that could swing up and down. In the picture, you can see the base of it above the leftmost horizontal tank. The pipes had come loose and I hadn't reinstalled them when I took the picture. I remember asking about these in another thread but no one seemed to know what it represented.
Yes, that's the kit. I have the same mysterious contraption, and I really couldn't figure it out either. I didn't even remember it was part of this kit. I never built the Quonset hut. The kit also comes with a pair of vertical tanks.
This is not a good picture of the unloading widget, but it's in the lower left corner. Thee's a bit of one of ther vertical tanks there, too.
Having a small oild distributer is a great addition to a layout. I have one with a few Walthers kits. You might be better off making your own chain link fence. Adding one makes the design more realistic. I read how to make one here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_guMOYoCpw
The seesaw thing was a rack used to unload tank cars, there would be a hose attached between the piping and the tank car.