Before Jan 14th, Build Logs to be posted in Annual Build Challenge forum on LSC. Please post your Napkins (drawings) with your first posting.

Ok, no napkin drawings yet. I usually just kind of wing it with maybe a rough sketch. But my idea is to build Jessie’s Oil Well, based (loosely) off of one here in the greater Pittsburgh area.

Edit, I keep forgetting to mention that I model in 1:24th scale, ish, more or less.

I will have my eye on this one. Sinsley Mountain Mining and Lumber Co. has been sniffing around for oil and I think they might just have found some. If so they might be looking for prototype oil rigs to copy.

Tom Morrow, my shop foreman, and I were discussing the build today. Between now and the start of the build, we need to measure the planned site for the well. There is a stretch of abandon track up in Gastonville, that we would like to turn into a spur for the well. It all depends on how much space is between the mainline and the abandon track. I am sure in the railroad’s stash is a switch that can be cut in for the spur.

Also, we need to find the broken old pick up we have round here somewhere. I figure, with a little bit of creative abuse, we can use that to power the pump.

This project should also spur the shop crews into digging out the old tank car bash and finishing it, after the well is built, so that we can haul the well’s production down to the railroad’s terminus in Fair haven.

As I said, this project has been on the “Someday” list for a while. Now its time to gather up the supplies and make it happen.

Some people may not be aware that the first commercial oil well, drilled with the intent of finding oil, was drilled not for from here near Titusville Pennsylvania. That spurred the first oil boom, and many wells were drilled in and around that area. So oil wells are somewhat common in Pennsylvania.

Jessie was well aware of this. She was also aware that a geological survey suggested that there might be oil under the area outside of Gastonville. Now Jessie is rather lazy, but she is also an opportunist. When a parcel of land, the old John Stankus farm, came up for auction, she bid on one of the parcels. She knew that the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad was planning on building its southern terminus outside of Gastonville, and just a casual look at the rolling hills in the area told her that a railroad would almost certainly have to be built on the low bluff outside of town. She was right, and a few years later the railroad surveyed and subsequently laid tracks in the area. Actually the track bisected her parcel, and she made some money selling the right of way to the P&CS. Several years later, the right of way was moved, and again she made a little money selling that right of way to the railroad. Even with those sales, Jessie still owns a decent parcel of land outside of Gastonville.

Now, like I said, Jessie is an opportunist, and she invested some of the money that she had made, selling part of her land to the P&CS, in the Pittsburgh and Southern Railroad. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad leased the P&S, so they would have rail access into Pittsburgh, the value of the stock that she had in the P&S went up, and she sold her shares as quickly as she could. I also said that Jessie is rather lazy, so she hired her half brother, Clem, to set up a drilling rig on her property. Clem lived up to his reputation, and failed miserably. The last we saw of Clem, he was riding the 4:27 out of town, with a whiskey bottle in his hand, a half empty whiskey bottle.

Around this time, kerosene was quickly replacing whale oil for household lighting, and Pennsylvania crude oil was also well known as an excellent lubricant for the machinery, that is being used more and more in the manufacturing sector. So Jessie was determined to cash in on this oil boom, before it went bust. After all, oil is just a fad you know. But she didn’t know who she could get to drill a well for her on her property. Jessie talked to The Atlantic Refining company, and they gave her the names of a pair of rather shifty looking “wild-caters”. Well, since she had no other options, she contacted the pair and they worked out an agreement to drill an oil well on her land.

Sweet, I always slow down when I pass that. Given my Oil City pedigree I am also a fan of early oil industry and related trains. Going to enjoy this. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)

I am on the edge of my seat

I have a tank car bash that has been in progress for quite a while. This project was in the planning stages, off and on, for even longer. So I cant wait to see what happens next neither. For now, I will wait for my gift in the mail, and maybe break out a few napkins.

David Maynard said:

Ok, no napkin drawings yet. I usually just kind of wing it with maybe a rough sketch. But my idea is to build Jessie’s Oil Well, based (loosely) off of one here in the greater Pittsburgh area.

Right. Napkin drawings are technically detailed now? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)Anyway, looking forward to the build!

As of yet we haven’t received our shipment of tin. Since I am at a train show this weekend, I am not concerned, yet, but time is a ticken away.

Don’t worry, they’re on their way. I’m 10 hours from Dave when I drive and it still took the brown truck a week to find my door, when he sent me the junk box prize for last year, as promised.(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

My bundle measures; 1 3/8 x 6 7/32 x 5/16". Plan on an overlap aprox 1/8" each side and ends are variable.

Enjoy your show.

John

Interesting story David. I hope Jessie’s drilling venture pays off.

It seems like everywhere I turn these days someone is expecting a shipment of tin. Our RR president, B. C. Paws said he had a shipment due to be delivered tomorrow and several other folks have mentioned they have deliveries pending. Mr. Paws said he was getting his from the New Mexico Northern RR. I wonder if everyone is getting theirs from the same provider. If so, that Dave guy at NMNRR has been busy.

This story about Jessie will be as interesting as a build I guess.

I look forward to your build with interest David. Bona Fortuna!!

Yes, the tin was here today. I don’t know why I found it in the mailbox on Sunday, unless the mailman put it in the wrong box (again) and the person who got it brought it over while I was out. Once or twice a month, I have to take mail to the house a block over from mine, same house number, different street name. The point it, its here, and those 2 shifty characters can start designing the structure.

Oh look at what has been in my photo album.

It looks like I finished this challenge several years ago.

Yea, I am just kidding.

BTW, I cant find the key to the padlock on that shed. Anyone know a good locksmith?

Jessie went to the 2 shifty looking characters she hired. They were spending their time at the local saloon. She asked them if they had come up with a design for the well. When they replied not as yet, she grabbed a napkin off of the bar and asked them to at least sketch out what they had in mind. Well, the one said “You will need a pump”, and he drew a pump. The other said “You will need a derrick”, and he drew a Derrick.

When Jessie looked at the napkin drawing, she promptly fired those two. She was told to contact the Schmitt brothers, and she had instead contacted the Smitt brothers. Once she had realized her mistake, she looked up the Schmitt brothers, they have a small house outside of town, the Schmitt House. The Schmitts are immigrants to this country, so they do not speak American English very well. So after explaining her situation to them they looked at each other, and Hans Schmitt said “So you vant a Schmitt hole?” His brother corrected him and told him that the proper word is “well.” “Ah” said Hans. “And vere you vant it, it got to be deep. So you vant a deep Schmitt hole.” Hans’s brother again corrected him that the proper term is “well.”

After some drink, and some conversation, Jessie and the Schmitts finally reached an agreement. She told them that she has recently come into possession of some corrugated metal, for covering the deep Schmitt well structure. And the brothers agreed, that any material she contributes to the build, will not be counted in the price they charge her for this endeavor.

So Jessie is back on track, we hope, to have her well drilled and to start getting crude with a deep Schmitt hole, I mean, well.

You can borrow my master key, David.

Typically the derrick of oil wells are dismantled after the well is drilled. The derrick is there to hoist up drill pipe and lower it into the drill chuck to drill the well. But, many of the old oil wells I see around here, still have their derricks in place. So I plan on modeling the derrick too. I was thinking about modeling it with Plastruct, so it would be weather resistant, but I am not sure that would be the look I want to go for. The Plastruct I have is rather chunky looking, and even though my inspiration oil well has a steel, or black iron, derrick, I think a wood derrick would be more in keeping with the time frame of my railroad. Since the drill pipe I have…ok, since the aluminum tubing I have that I am calling drill pipe, is about a foot long, then I need a decent sized derrick. So I guess I had better see what scrap ceder I have and get to making the lumber for my derrick.

Yes, I have, in stock, quite an assortment of Plastruct. I helped pack up a hobby shop that was closing down, and my payment for helping pack everything in boxes was the entire store stock of Plastruct and all of the display models in the store. I had to put that in here, before someone comments about the $30 limit, and how I can’t possibly build a Plastruct derrick for less then $30.

David, As for old oil derricks. They did indeed build most all of the early ones out of wood. One side, usually the side away from engine/pump house, had no cross pieces on the lower section of the frame. Left open so a piece of pipe could be grabbed on the ground, and pulled up inside the derrick.

Dave thanks, I forgot about that detail. Although, it will be the side facing the spur that will be missing the cross bracing.

The more I think about it, the more I think I will be erecting it from wood.

I like wood. Here is a real windmill thats 30’+ tall that I built. The derricks would look very similar.