About what year/years did the major oil companies (Shell,Texaco,etc...) quick using their logos on their tank cars?
It do not recall seeing seeing tankcars without underframes that had logos for many oil companies. I would say most must have stopped putting their logos on their cars in, or by, the 1960s.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
Consider that oil companies after about the '50's or so cut way back on transporting their product by rail--they went with pipelines. And also, a bit later, the advertising benefit was probably overwhelmed by the fear of having the company name show in photos of wrecked cars (think the dreaded "oil spill" and citizens increasingly being anxious about such things) and then there's the more-dreaded terrorism threat. Or threat of a threat. I sure have never heard about some official shutdown of the concept similar to the well-known billboard reefer events.
I just thumbed through a copy of the 1953 Car Builders' Cyc, and found NO pictures of billboard style oil company tank cars (these photos generally reflect state-of-the-art samples). A LOT were for chemicals. There were a couple from UTLX listed as general purpose, and one from British American Oil that had no note as to commodity--it could possibly negate my statement earlier in the paragraph. This one would be the closest to the old Texaco-Gulf..... cars.
Also, Kline and Culotta's "The Postwar Freight Car Fleet" don't show any in 18 photos.
From Kaminski's "American Car & Foundry 1899-1999", the latest photo of what I would call an oil company billboard car is one of a modern style car with a big Sunoco logo and lettered for Napthalene built in 1968. There's also a white Mobil tanker with six wheel trucks built the same year. Going further back, there's a more classic looking tank car lettered for Warren built in 1953. This is just a sampling of ACF cars, though.
I think if I wanted to run a large cut of classic billboard tankers, I'd cut it off at about 1950. I'd run such single cars and twins up to maybe 1965.
Ed
I am assembling a bibliography of published photos of oil company tank cars for this thread. Igt will take several minutes. So in the meanwhile, here are some photos of N scale tankcars painted and decalled for my 1957 era layout.
I have collected information on oil company tankcars for my 1957-era Texas layout. I wanted especially to represent the 1950s Texas subsidiaries of national oil companies:
My 1957 cut-off has made me omit/ ignore some later information so this may not be complete for later eras. Also, I have a lot of references to early photos, but I frequently checked a 1954 Official Railway Equipment Register to see if these cars were still around.
I photographed this car being transferred from trunk to barge on its way from Corpus Christi to the Galveston Railroad Museum about 1983.
to be continbued with Magniola & Mobil
NOT OIL COMPANY BUT REFINERY-RELATED:
Gulf Oil tank cars ran with their logos in New England into the 1960s ,The cars with the large orange Gulf herald on a black car were still being used in that time period.Gulf cars with older heralds and No Nox eythl were likely used in the late 1950s maybe early sixties See A&R videos of New Haven to see some on the Southbridge Mass local freight. Also some of the Morning Sun books on New Haven have a few shots in that time period.
Wow, that's of info,thank you very much y'all for your help,i really appreciate it.
I recall seeing the Gulf cars in Spartanburg into the early 70s (large pipeline terminal there). Probably some of the others too, but Gulf was certainly there. There were still several small oil dealers in my hometown that got deliveries by railroad up until the late 60s/early 70s.
Wanted to respond to your post two weeks ago. Had to learn how to post a picture(took a while to get it right). So,here's a Tank Car from "Red Caboose" I just bought from a LHS. Was built in 1949 according to the markings. Hope this helps along with the replies you've already received.
J_E_B
willy6 About what year/years did the major oil companies (Shell,Texaco,etc...) quick using their logos on their tank cars?
Others have shown older (much older) tank car examples. In more recent years such as the 1980's and onward, most of the oil company tank cars were "plain jane" and marked with simple reporting marks such as MOBX (Mobile) or CONX (Conoco). Atlas and Walthers have offered 1970 and 1980's era 26k gallon takn cars with these marking and other common oil companies.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Thanks for all the info, I'm going to print it out and save it.
I have a Sunoco 66--Sinclair 69
51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )
ME&O