Okay.I've seen tank cars for Bell Oil;Deep Rock;Kanotex;Pan Am Fuels and Sid Richardson Petroleum.
Can anyone tell me about them?I've tried looking on Google;Bing and/or Yahoo and they don't have any real info.
AztecEagleOkay.I've seen tank cars for Bell Oil;Deep Rock;Kanotex;Pan Am Fuels and Sid Richardson Petroleum. Can anyone tell me about them?I've tried looking on Google;Bing and/or Yahoo and they don't have any real info.
"Pan Am Products" was a predecessor company of Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco). There's a preserved tank car at the Illinois Railway Museum.
http://www.irm.org/cgi-bin/rsearch.cgi?freight=American+Oil+Company=9499
DRX 2157 "Deep Rock" is a class ICC-103 three-compartment 8102 gal. tank, according to a photo and caption in Train Shed Cyclopedia #12 page.1931-319 The pages in Train Shed are not consecutive as per normal books. The Train Sheds are reprints of portions of old "real-railroad" Cyclopedias deemed usable by modelers, and the page number indicated the year of the origional work that was copied andf the page number in that original volume. Page #1931-319 is from the 1931 Car Builders Cyclopedia. DRX/Deep Rock is not listed as a reporting mark/ private car owner in the April 1954 Official Railway Equipment Register. (which lists railcars which may be interchanged in revbenue service at the time it was published.)
Kanotex is Kansas-Oklahoma-Texas aka Anderson Pritchard Oil Co. of Oklahoma City. Reporting marks KOTX.
pix American Car & Foundry (Kaminski) p.62
photo in Model Railroading MarApr84 p.32 (NOT the same magazine as Kalmbach MR)
pix American Car & Foundry (Kaminski) p.68
I asked my local public library to get me the American Car and Foundry book on Interlibrary Loan. They got me the copy that belongs to the U. S. Department of Transportation library!
SID RICHARDSON CARBON CO. listed in 1954 Equipt. Reg. as having special covered hoppers for carbon black,
I think your question would be better in the "prototype information for the modeler" forum where people like me who obsessively track down car numbers would see it, than in the "general information" section where it gets mixed in with "what do you think about hobbyshops?" and "how can I sell my old trains?" and a jillion other questions not related to the connection between real and model railroads. Just my opinion.
Hi,
In the 20s thru postwar, there was a plethora of oil companies other than the Standard Oil group. Previous posters gave some good info, and I will add to it.......
Deep Rock was a midwest company and people tend to recall the name more so than the company. I remember it in Illinois in the early/mid '50s.
Sid Richardson was one of - no THE - flamboyant Texas oilman, and of course the company was named after him.
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
I heard of Sid Richardson.His Nephews,The Bass Family,built a very nice performing arts center in Downtown Fort Worth.
I've been there a few times.Most recently to hear and meet Clive Cussler.
Anyway,here's the 411:I'm planning on doing a MP/Katy themed layout ca.1959.
Right now,it's an oval of Bachmann EZ Track(tm)on two sections of particle board,but I'm planning on scenicing and adding a couple of towns on each end.
While I appreciate the info on the cars,I'm really trying to find out about the companies themselves-ie:Their Trerminals/Refiniries/Jobbers/Distributers.
Any info about them is welcomed.And I do appreciate the info about the prototype tank cars guys.
I don't know if this helps you, but I work in the oil industry on the marine side. Oil companies no longer transport their own oil. Thanks to Exxon Valdez, the oil companies got out of transporting it. They pay other companies to do it.(like mine). I have seen a few shell and sunoco tank cars in stores but never on the actual properties I go to. Too much liability for them. I confess I don't know who the main shippers are by rail today but since the mid 90's none of the oil companies move it. before then, Exxon, Sunoco, Texaco, Mobil, and Shell had a significant marine and rail transportation system. It used to be more cost efficient to run their own operations. Exxon Valdez changed the all the rules. FYI we have to meet very high standards to move it, and have to carry unlimited liability insurance which is very costly. Another reason for $80 a barrel.
Here is the Kanotex tank car at Galveston.
You want information on oil COMPANIES? I have extensive files on the majors- in the 1950s, in Texas, that I model, that was Humble (subsidiary of Standard Oil, now Exxon), Shell, Sinclair (now ARCO), Phillips 66, Magnolia (subsidiary of Mobil), Gulf (now Chevron), Texaco, Conoco.
For other companies that owned tank cars, look them up in the Official Railway Equipment Register for the time period you model. It lists home offices and "home points" of shipper-owners, usually the points from which they shipped.
I have also gotten information on companies' major plants and distribution points from from Moody's Industrial Guide (for investors). My local public library has a Moody's that goes back to 1950s.
Many railroads put out guides for employees to shippers and consignee industries they served. I have a Southern Pacific tariff for common points on SP and at least one other railroad, a town by town list that gives the industries in each town, what commodity they handled, and whether they were served by SP or other railroad.
Keeping saying to yourself, "Model Railroad RESEARCHING is fun, is fun, is fun!"
AztecEagle I heard of Sid Richardson.His Nephews,The Bass Family,built a very nice performing arts center in Downtown Fort Worth. I've been there a few times.Most recently to hear and meet Clive Cussler. Anyway,here's the 411:I'm planning on doing a MP/Katy themed layout ca.1959. Right now,it's an oval of Bachmann EZ Track(tm)on two sections of particle board,but I'm planning on scenicing and adding a couple of towns on each end. While I appreciate the info on the cars,I'm really trying to find out about the companies themselves-ie:Their Trerminals/Refiniries/Jobbers/Distributers. Any info about them is welcomed.And I do appreciate the info about the prototype tank cars guys.
I don't know if this will be of much use, but here goes.
I model the Texas & Pacific from Piney Woods of East Texas to Sierra Blance where it meets the Southern Pacific about a hundred miles east of El Paso. On that route, Abilene, Big Spring, Midland and Odessa all had significant oil drilling and refining facilities in 1959. If you are focusing on the Katy and MoPac, you will likely need to locate your layout in Oklahoma since neither ventured much west of Dallas once they got into Texas. I don't think they had much petrolium business in the east Texas fields, but I might be wrong.
Both MKT and MP have active historical socities and a Google search will turn up their web sites and likley link to articles in their publications on any such activity. Let us know what you find.
TABunch for the info Tugger.While I know that Oil is still delivered by rail,with a few exceptions,the small town Oil Distributor receiving shipments by rail is pretty much over!!
I've seen Sunoco Tank Cars on freight trains but for the most part they ship em'on GATX/UTCX/Procor Tank Cars now.Guess it's cheaper that way!!
Anyway,as said previously,I'm planning on modeling the MP/Katy circa 1959 and I'm trying to decide what Oil Company Tank Cars would be found on a MP or Katy Freight in the late 50's.
Now I know that Texaco;Shell;Conoco;Kanotex;Deep Rock;Warren;Bell;Standard-Mobil/Magnolia/Humble;and Sinclair all had operations and dealers in Texas but I don't know if Tidewater and Richfield had any dealings in Texas and Oklahoma;so I don't think that a Flying A or Richfield Tank Car/Gas Station would be appropriate in East Texas.
Anyway,many thanks for your input Tugger.
If I remember correctly, Richfield became ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company).. I know they had a refinery in Houston in later years. I do not know about 1959. You might try the history sections of ARCO's or BP's websites.
Okay.I saw the Kanotex Tank Car at the Galveston RR Museum two years ago.
Hope Ike didn't damage it too much!!
I remember most of the Oil Companies mentioned.Sinclair is still in business right over the ol'Red River in Oklahoma!!Somehow,they divorced themselves from Arco and went back to Sinclair-Complete With The Big green Brontosarus!!
I looked on their websites and they've got Stations from Oklahoma to Wyoming!!Kinda strange they don't come south of the Rio Rojo again!!
Mainly I'm just trying to determine what Tank Car Roadnames would be appropriate on a MP/MKT Freight.
Anyway guys,TABunch for all the info!!Give yourselves a great big ol'hug!!!
As far as Kanotex tank car #879 goes, a Mr. Gregory Melle posted a fantastic photo of the actual prototype in Houston on Flickr. The link to the photo is below. It's obvious the car has been through the ringer. I would suggest it's been "heavily weathered." ;)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/canadagood/6231478138/sizes/l/in/photostream/
The Wikipedia article on the Kanotex Refining Company is as follows:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanotex_Refining_Company
Good luck!
Randy320 - Welcome to trains.com!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
I can't say anything about tank cars they may have owned, but Deep Rock as a brand did go into the late 1960s/early 1970s. The Midwest location of their service area sounds about right. Dad was in the Air Force and we traveled back and forth between Indiana and Texas on vacation. It was never a dominant brand, even in its home region, was my impression.
Glad to hear the Sinclair dinosaur is back. That's one of my favorites and is modeled on my layout as one of my fuel dealers.
Something to consider is that in the postwar to late 1960s era, there were a lot more branch lines. In places like Texas and Oklahoma, this meant much more of the drill pipe, etc came in on the railroad than it does today. For small fields, unless there was a handy pipeline, it made sense to ship crude to the refinery via rail. I'm no expert on this traffic, but maybe someone who is can point toward an interesting prototype?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
For what it's worth, you mentioned you were looking for "road names" for tank cars on a Missouri Pacific / Missouri-Kansas-Texas themed railroad... and the one name I haven't seen come up yet is Phillips-66. Now, I'm not sure if MKT made it as far west as the Texas panhandle, but I think MP did. Phillips to this day have refineries in both Borger, TX, (close to Amarillo,) and Bartlesville, OK, (north of Tulsa.)
You mentioned the year 1959. Granted, during WWII, the United Sates built huge pipelines from the Texas oil refineries to the North-East United States, so oil could be transported without the reliance on ships that were vulnerable to German U-Boats. But rail was used heavily during the war to transport oil. And I'm not sure that diminished much afterwards. In the book "Katy Southwest - Steam and Diesel Power Pictorial" by McCall & Schultz, there are photos of MKT Mikados pulling trains of 50+ tank cars in 1948. So that pipeline certainly didn't stop oil transport over rail by any means.
There is also Mid-Continent Petroleum, the owner of the old DX brand. I think it was acquired by Sunoco by 1959. But there would have been many Mid-Continent Petroleum tank cars still crawling around. The Mid-Continent/Sunoco refinery is located in Tulsa, OK. (Right next to Frisco's old switching yard.) Champ Decals used to make a great(!) decal for Mid-Continent tank cars, but they are now hard to come by. (Believe me! I've looked!)
Anyway, I apologize if I have started to ramble.
Again, best of luck!
Even into the lates 60s/70s there was still a good bit of rail transport, even with piplines. At this point most towns still had several oil dealers (the county seat near where I grew up had Gulf, American, Esso, and Texaco dealers who received by rail from the pipeline terminal. Not just tank cars, but box cars of related oil products as well. These dealers served both fuel to homes and gas to local stations in small local delivery trucks.
Camp Croft in Spartanburg was a major pipeline terminal and I recall rows of tank cars all over the place when back in the 60s. My best friend's dad was a conductor for SR and one day his train cut an 18 wheeler in half while working the terminal. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the fire was a pretty big deal.