New barrels being delivered…
How were they filled?
Another shot of a tank car with people for sizes…
That’s All Folks.
John
100 barrel tanks were common in the 1880s and grew to 190 barrels ten years later. Click Google is your friend.
Steve Featherkile said:
And to think that gasoline was once considered a waste product to be burned (burnt?) off, in the production of kerosene. Shake my head.
Steve, actually gasoline was quite often dumped into nearby streams. Gasoline doesn’t burn with a controlled flame quite like kerosene does. Originally petroleum was refined into kerosene to replace whale oil in lamps, and into lubricating oil to replace tallow. Most of what was left over was considered waste product. Once the automobile started coming into mass production, then it was discovered that a mix of octane and heptane (gasoline) could be used to fuel them instead of alcohol. Yup, the original model Ts were designed to run on grain alcohol. So running cars on ethanol isn’t really a new idea.
Steve Featherkile said:
And to think that gasoline was once considered a waste product to be burned (burnt?) off, in the production of kerosene. Shake my head.
I watched a documentary on Rockefeller and Standard Oil (at least he was one of the tycoons mentioned) and it is amazing to me also that gasoline was this volatile crap no one knew what to do with. Then Rockefeller capitalized on gas and figured it out and all of a sudden diesel/kerosene almost became the byproduct, or at the very least not the most valuable liquid in the pot. Diesel was cheap compared to gasoline and gave decent power to mileage ratio and soon people began to catch on and started buying diesel guzzling SUV’s Now that every Tom, Dick, Harry, and soccer mom has a diesel guzzling SUV it has flopped again and diesel is golden and since we have an insatiable appetite for more power the mileage economy of most diesels has diminished to the point of being no better than a gas rig. Good old Demand and Supply.
John,
I am glad you have done all my research for me (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). That is honestly way more than I ever needed to know to model an oil barrel for my box car. Now notice I said needed to know…not wanted to know. I love this stuff and am so glad you took an interest because it is fun seeing what your digging up and it has given me ideas way beyond where I originally wanted to go. I went from simply wanting to know if I need a barrel or a steel drum to now I have to build a very accurate barrel so it fits four across in my box car and a sling for loading and unloading, a tank car from which I can fill my barrels. And quite possibly I might need an entire oil field with wooden oil rigs.
Another oil product was case oil… Which was kerosene. Shipped world wide-- two tins to a case. It was in business shipping (on sailing ships) case oil around the world. Probably from the 1880s to the turn of the century. Bath Maine owned ships sailed under the flag of the Texas Company. The company’s Bath owners saw the handwriting on the wall and sold out figuring sailing ships and case oil were a thing of the past. The new owners took the company Big, later renaming it Texaco… Lots of fancy old homes in Bath…not so many fancy New homes!
Devon Sinsley said:
John,
I am glad you have done all my research for me (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). That is honestly way more than I ever needed to know to model an oil barrel for my box car. Now notice I said needed to know…not wanted to know. I love this stuff and am so glad you took an interest because it is fun seeing what your digging up and it has given me ideas way beyond where I originally wanted to go. I went from simply wanting to know if I need a barrel or a steel drum to now I have to build a very accurate barrel so it fits four across in my box car and a sling for loading and unloading, a tank car from which I can fill my barrels. And quite possibly I might need an entire oil field with wooden oil rigs.
Too bad Mik was before your time. He did an early oil field central pump station connected to 8 well heads by poles. He was a good teacher too.
You are welcome, I enjoy it and you never know what you’ll find until you peek inside!
John
Well yes, once someone figured out that the engine Rudolf Diesel designed, could run on Kerosene, that became a commodity. But before then, and after the electric lamp started coming into common use, Kerosene was becoming a waste product. Rudolf Diesel designed an engine that ran on vegetable oil. Now people are “discovering” that a diesel engine can run on vegetable oil. Same as running a gasoline engine on Ethanol, we are simply going back to the original fuels these things were designed for. Because, when these things were first designed, the petroleum industry wasn’t making gasoline and diesel fuel, they were making Kerosene and lubricating oil.
Note; Diesel fuel is Kerosene that has been further refined to reduce its ash and sulfur content, and has had some lubricants added to it.
Hmmm an oil field…
Ok, this should take you there.
John
OK John now your getting annoying (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)… I am going to have to inform the wife we are moving to a place that has 100 acres so I can fit all my industries in there. That picture is perfect. Oil rigs, barrels, tank car, sheez when wi the insanity end. Mining and Loging have been done to death… but an oil RR now that’s an idea. Might have to redesign the micro.
Keep diggin, I love it.
BTW: It was the Oil fields in Farmington that kept the D&RGW lines out of Alamosa to Durango and Farmington from being abandoned in the early 50’s. With out which there would be no D&S or C&Ts today and all the K’s would have been cut up by 1955. So you have to add in a pipe train to complete the picture.
Dang it John,
after looking at that picture again now I have to wonder how its being pumped. Those are drill rigs aren’t they? I know little to nothing about oil production (add that to the list of things I don’t know but would like to know). I thought you erected a tower like that to hold the drill rig then when you hit black gold and the stuff went shooting into the air you capped it tore down the tower and put a pump on it; those hammer looking things. Only so much oi will flow under its own pressure before it needs to be pumped right? Maybe in that photo they are still using natural pressure before pumping?
Ok I decided to look but left my original questions for others to ponder. Once the exploration is done and it is decided to drill a well they erect the tower/drill rig and punch a hole. Once they reach oil several natural factors are present to force oil to the surface. They then cap it with a Christmas Tree which is a combination of piping and valves to regulate pressure and flow. They can claim 5-15% of the oil this way before natural pressure diminishes and a pump must be added. This will work the reservoir for the remainder of its days. So likely in the above picture these dudes are in the primary recovery stage where they are done drilling but long term pumping is yet to be required.
Dang it I really want an oil field now… a model one would be OK also.
Dave Taylor said:
BTW: It was the Oil fields in Farmington that kept the D&RGW lines out of Alamosa to Durango and Farmington from being abandoned in the early 50’s. With out which there would be no D&S or C&Ts today and all the K’s would have been cut up by 1955. So you have to add in a pipe train to complete the picture.
I hate this forum . . . There are just way to many ideas and not nearly enough yard space
I really just wanted to know if I need a barrel. . .(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)
I hate this forum . . . There are just way to many ideas and not nearly enough yard space.
pffft…
you don’t need much space. my future oilfield section/diorama will have an area of about 15’ by 2 and a half foot. but with a very large background picture.
three derricks(? i mean the towers), two donkeyhead pumps, a passing siding station, two houses and three or four shacks, lots of barrels, two or three horse wagons with barrels, very dirty figures and very much black paint for ground, dried scrubs and everything else.
i am lurking very intensely on this thread. most every pic here has been a relevation for me. thanks for that.
don’t forget a fancy barrel sling. . . and maybe a ship.
Devon Sinsley said:
don’t forget a fancy barrel sling. . . and maybe a ship.
ships are planned for another section. a barrelsling could be an option
So much great info here, very interesting stuff!
Yes, not all oil wells were huge. There is one old one, still beside a major roadway here in Pittsburgh, that takes up a lot no bigger then most homes in the area. I do not think it is still active, but walking around the site, the smell of oil is thick in the air.