If its not too much trouble; let me know how much to copy and mail.
Thanks,
David Silverton
Time to add to this thread again. Doing a bit more web searching, I ran across a link to a book on books.google.com here:
Excerpted from that book (hand typed, could not copy/clip from a pdf file, spelling mistakes are mine)
From the book “Saving the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad” by Spencer Wilson.
The Friends group was also busy with various project, not the least of which was to locate representative examples of the “missing” oil tank cars. At one time, the Denver and Rio Grande Western owned several dozen such cars. They were converted from standard-gauge cars, which had been built in the first decade of the century, to narrow-gauge between 1924 and 1930. Most of these cars were sold for scrap in 1963. Whoever, sixteen of these narrow-frame, narrow-gauge cars were sold to teh White pass & Yukon Railroad in about 1965 to haul jet fuel for the U.S. airbase needs. They were moved to Skagway, Alaska, and remaind in service until 1982, when they were taken out of service.
These cars were used primarily to move crude oil from Chama to Alamose. The crude oil was piped to Chama from the Gramps oil field, fifteen miles northwest of Chama. Oil was first produced there in 1936, and within a short time, there were ten more good wells on a ranch owned by the Hughes family. Their family tradition has the name “Grmaps” being derived from the simple explanation that the childre referred to their grandfather’s property as “Gramps’ oil field”. Oil wasshipped to Chama through a four-inch pipeline, which was partly buried or, alternatively, raised on simple trestles over intervening canyons and arroyos. Just to the west of Chama was a 66,000 barrel storage tank and pump station. Oil was them pumped from this facility to the oil loading rack at the railroad yard. (this rack is still in place.) The oil was then shipped in cars, 150 barrels per car and eight to sixteen tankers at a time, to a refinery in Alamosa. Rail shipment ceased when the refinery was closed in about 1960. These tank cars were sold to the White Pass & Yukon Railroad in 1965. There are twenty-six wells still in operation at the Gramps field. The oil, however, is now sent by truck to Bloomfield, New Mexico.
This now clears up the capaicty of the tank and the size of the transfer line from the oil fields to the storage tank. Hope this helps others as well as my curiosity.
I got to thinking about my previous post about the size of the storage tank(s) at Chama vs the information gleaned from ‘Saving the C&T’. There is a HUGE difference between my thought process and the published tank size. I assumed approximately 60,000-gallons, not 66,000-barrels. That would equate to some 2,772,000-gallons. I wonder whether the book has the wrong units?
Making the assumption that as the book suggests there was only one storage tank, that tank would have been on the order of magnitude 200 feet in diameter and 37 feet tall. That is a pretty large tank. If I split the volume in half, making two tanks, that still makes tanks of 150 feet in diameter and 33 feet tall.
All I can say is WOW!
I’d say wow too Bob.
I don’t have that particular book in my collection. But a 66,000 barrel storage tank seems too large for the number of tank cars the dock could handle and the somewhat small capacity per tank car.
Like you mention, maybe it was supposed to be 66,000 gallons instead of barrels. Meaning, if my math is right, a roughly 1,571 barrel tank.
That is 10 tank car loads using the 150 barrel capacity per tank which is pretty close given their 6,500 gallon capacity.
I’m not sure how many cars the oil dock could accommodate, but 10 sounds about right based on the few online photos available. Also, 10-11 car unit tank trains seemed to be the norm for the D&RGW to Alamosa.
Of course all speculation on my part. At least it’s fun stuff to speculate about.
Matt,
Just read a response to a post on the NGDForum from a member who had eyes on that tank. He says that no way was that tank large enough to hold 66,000 barrels of crude. He figures as I do that the units were mis-quoted. I am going to take the position that the tank is 66,000 gallons - much more in line with a ‘one day’ holding volume.
Bob C.