I purchased a Walthers 933-3168, tall oil storage tank. I also picked up a couple of the 933-3104 oil loading platforms. I've just finished gluing the tank together and was wondering if folks had any pictures of these on their layouts ? I am not sure I want the berms that come with the tank and I may only use one of the loading facilities, due to space limitations. I am also interested in what colors folks have painted things, decals, exterior lighting and other detailing aspects.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Here is a link to another post with photos of a tank farm.
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1070661/ShowPost.aspx
Edit: Here is another link with more updates from the poster:
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1128852/ShowPost.aspx
jbinkley60 wrote: I purchased a Walthers 933-3168, tall oil storage tank. I also picked up a couple of the 933-3104 oil loading platforms. I've just finished gluing the tank together and was wondering if folks had any pictures of these on their layouts ? I am not sure I want the berms that come with the tank and I may only use one of the loading facilities, due to space limitations. I am also interested in what colors folks have painted things, decals, exterior lighting and other detailing aspects.
The berms are there to prevent spills if the tank should fail. To keep the EPA happy, you probably need. Also, the berms are intended to confind the fire if one of the tanks catches fire. To keep your model fire department happy, you probably need them.
Have fun
jeff with your berms you can make them any size you want.all i did is used ballast
jeff
Your tall storage tank is probably large enough to require a berm, at least from 1960 or so on. Not sure how early the berms became widespread and nearly universal.
A bulk oil facility that handles petroleum in qauntities around 2 or 3 tankcars full and to load 8 or 10 delivery trucks wouldn't necessarily have them... but they wouldn't usually have a tank as large as the Walthers "tall storage tank." I have seen many bulk oil dealers without containment berms, none with.
Nearly always see the berms at tank farms and refineries. I saw a photo taken about 1960 of a huge tank fire taken with a telephoto lens from maybe three blocks away. There was a crowd of people watching from about two blocks distance back from the fire. Then from a few minutes later, a picture showed burning petroleum gushing up over the top of the berm, and the crowd was in a dead run away from the tank.
My layout is set in the mid 1960's. This oil company is owned by C. Montgomery Burns, so don't expect too much environmental awareness. (The bulldozer is pushing dirt into a hole full of barrels full of God-knows-what.)
I made the retaining wall from balsa wood, stained black like old creosote-dipped railroad ties.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I went ahead and bought a second storage tank. One by itself just didn't look right and I have room for a second. I like the idea of ballast or similar for the berms. I have an assortment of stone I bought from Arizona Rock and Mineral. I may mound a little up around the edges. The plastic ones with the kit are just too big. I also have a couple of the Walthers pipe kits to pipe it all together. I am thinking of enclosing it all with chain link fencing, adding red 2.4mm lights for airplane marker lights and then maybe some ground spot lighting to light it up. The one thing I haven't resolved yet is a building to go with the tanks where workers would go to monitor the equipment and such. It might also have an inside toilet instead of a "yard closet". I am open to ideas here. My layout is modern era. I'll post some pictures next week as I get further along. I am also debating on Reefer White vs. Antique white for painting the tanks. I am thinking the reefer white might be too bright but I will finish it with Dullcote.
if you look at btransue post 2nd address 3rd picture down i used walther's yard office http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2830 i don't know if you have the room for it.i took it apart and repainted it
Hi Jeff,
Since you are modeling in the modern area you should have berms. In earlier times you could have used earthen dikes of such material as clay. It couldn't be stone as the fluid would go right through the dike. Concrete is what the EPA demands as well as a cement floor and if you won't to fully comply you would have a pumping system to pump rain water out of the diked area. However in HO sacle such detail would certainly be optional but not the dike. And, the time span of the "modern era" could exempt you from the latest requirements so the main thing is to present a realistic scene. I'd suggest some form of wharehouse with a loading dock for stocking oils, lubricants and greases. Just right for a spur to deliver a box car as well as a tank car although trucks are almost uiversially used. Also an appropiate parking area for the company vehicles. You could have a small pump house although today's pumps are impervious to weather.
Just a few ideas and good luck. Please post some pics.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
jpmorrison wrote: if you look at btransue post 2nd address 3rd picture down i used walther's yard office http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2830 i don't know if you have the room for it.i took it apart and repainted it jeff
I'll do some measuring and see if I have the room. I like the building. You have a lot more room than I do. I can't run a parallel track like you did. I like your berms and the ground around your tanks. If I go the concrete route, as suggested, I can use styrene for a concrete pad and concrete berms. This would be similar to how I did my intermodal yard. I hope I can get my piping as good as you did. What did you use for the catwalks between the tanks. I originally wasn't thinking of this (since I had a single tank) and even with two I doubt I'll go that way but yours looks great.
thanks jeff. i used fire escape from tichy train group. the reason i used the building i grew up just 3 blocks away from it.
jpmorrison wrote: if you look at btransue post 2nd address 3rd picture down i used walther's yard office http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2830 i don't know if you have the room for it.i took it apart and repainted it
Another appropriate modern building would be a small Pikestuff steel building.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
jeffers_mz wrote:Saw a small distribution tank/plant, pretty much downtown in a small city last weekend. Noticed rusty old triple strand barbed wire atop a 6' chain link perimeter fence, and what caught my eye was the additional coil of shiny, brand new razor wire atop the triple strand.
This is similar to my setup. This is right next to a small town. I found where I had purchased three Pikestuff small steel buildings at a model railroad show (still in the bag), so I will try one of those for a building. I have some chainlink fencing from Walthers that I might try. If not, I'll look at some others.
This outfit had two vertical tanks, a pipehead or two with valves, a small office building, and one tank truck, not a semi.
No berms.
Security considerations aside, the back of the office building had big grafitti on it. Go figure.
jeffers_mz wrote: This outfit had two vertical tanks, a pipehead or two with valves, a small office building, and one tank truck, not a semi.No berms.Security considerations aside, the back of the office building had big grafitti on it. Go figure.
Thanks. I've decided to go with concrete (stryene) for now. I used .125" x .25" for the berms. It ends up only being 21" scale height, not nearly as high as those monsters that come with the kit. I also picked up some 3/32" brass tubing and plan to cut it at 1.5" long, drill a hole in the top of the tank, stick the tubing just into the hole and wire red LEDs into the other end for airplane marker lights. It looks like it will work fine. My next problem is the positioning on my layout. My original position was next to the small town on the layout but I found another place, which fits better, but is close to my coal mine. The advantage here is that I have a litle more space and I can have the loading racks next to the storage tanks on a siding which holds 4-5 tank cars. The other option is closer to the town. The advantage here is that it doesn't detract from the coal mine and the siding track is much longer. I'll try to post a couple of pictures later today with the storage tanks sitting in position and maybe folks can provide some feedback.
Good idea to go with the smaller dikes. The regs call for the containment of 110% of the larget tank. In HO unless you're trying for exact replication of what you are modeling appeareance of what looks right is OK Atleast thst's my opinion. If you have trouble with the brass tubing another modler used drinking straws.
Looking forward to the pics.
Ok, here are a few pictures of the current progress. This first two pictures show the completed storage tanks in what I am calling Location #1. The bottle of Dullcote represents a future small building.
This is location 1A (loading facility and building are on the same side of the tracks as the tanks)
The advantages of this location are that I have a long siding and the tanks don't block any major scenery behind them. The piping would go over the tracks with location1 but not 1A
Here is Location #2.
The advantage here is it maximizes space usage and has a dedicated siding but the big disadvantage is that it blocks the view to the coal mining operations behind it. I am leaning towards location 1 or 1A.
I am also debating on concrete berms, making my own with ballast/stone material or none. If I stay with the concrete (styrene) pad, I probably should raise the berms. Right now they are scale 22" high. I could add 1 ot 2 more pieces of .25" styrene and get it to 43.5" or 65.25" . I am also considering a chainlink fence on top of the berms (only with concrete). If I go to 43.5" or 665.25" I will reduce the height of the fence considerably.
I know the red airplane lights on the tanks aren't protypical but I like how they turned out. Once I decide on the location I will finish the oil loading platform and add the piping to the tanks.
Feedback is welcome and for Tom Stage, all pictures are less than 60kb in size.
jeff i did not see any pictures
jeff m
jpmorrison wrote: jeff i did not see any pictures jeff m
They are showing up for me. I checked from work and they show up there.
still nothing just red x's
jpmorrison wrote: still nothing just red x's jeff m
Try holding down your shift key and hitting refresh.
Just for a sanity check, I see them fine both at home and a work.
Oh, and they look good, too.
well i got home and now i can see them looking good jeff
MisterBeasley wrote: My layout is set in the mid 1960's. This oil company is owned by C. Montgomery Burns, so don't expect too much environmental awareness. (The bulldozer is pushing dirt into a hole full of barrels full of God-knows-what.)I made the retaining wall from balsa wood, stained black like old creosote-dipped railroad ties.
"Burns: The watchdog of public safety, is there any lower form of life? Smithers: Don't worry sir, I rounded up our less gifted employees and led them into the basement."
There was a rail-served heating oil facility in my home town that had no berms right into the 1970s. But I have also seen berms in photos from the 1930s. Perhaps Mr Burns also owned the Deep Rock facility in South Milwaukee WI!
"Burns: Look at that pig. Stuffing his face with donuts on my time! That's right, keep eating...Little do you know you're drawing ever closer to the poison donut! [cackles evilly, then stops abruptly] There is a poison one, isn't there Smithers? Smithers: Err...no, sir. I discussed this with our lawyers and they consider it murder. "
Dave Nelson
reklein wrote:jbinckley, good little project. I think those short concrete retainers will get the idea across. Keep in mind that a lot of piping around those tank farms was underground. Don't forget a truck Facility. That too could be fed by a stand pipe and fueling platform. All this needs,is to be secure by fencing,and a shed for hazmat control.
I went ahead and raised the concrete retainers to .75" or 62" HO scale. It actually works out exactly the same height as the steps that come with the storage tanks. Yes, I am thinking whether the piping will go overhead or underground. I'll play with it and see how much time I want to invest in the piping. The load platforms are very tedious for such few parts. It is due to all of the movable pieces. The Watlhers chain link fence kit looks like it will work. I am going to mount it on .080" x .125" styrene and spray it galvanized aluminum color (after shortening the posts to a few feet high) and then attach the styrene to the top of the retaining walls.
I am thinking about the truck loading facility. I'll see how I do on space. I am heading out of town tomorrow so it will likely be another couple of weeks before I can post some updates.
Ok, at long last some progress has been made. Here's some current pictures. The chainlink fence took me a couple of weeks to get something I was satisfied with. I've still got additional details, landscaping, trees, roads and such to add. I'll probably add a few more smaller tanks back to the right of the building. The light poles are a slight variation of Tom Stage's design.
Hey Jeff,
Head over to our club website SWORA (southwest oklahoma railroad assoc). One of our members has done a small refinery scene. He has working gates on the tracks leading into the loading platforms. Using the pink foam you can buy at Lowes or Home depot he carved his berms then just covered them with ballast. I do not know how much room you have, but anything can be compressed.
Thx
Dan
A few updated pictures. I still have more detailing to do, additional landscaping and finish the road into the parking lot. I'll try to get some night shots this weekend with the building and yard lights on.