Atlas O-Scale Oil Pumps

Eric, thanks for the good review of the Atlas "rocking horse" well pumps.  Just a note of interest for all, even HO scale pumps would be "in scale" for your O Gauge layout.  The pumps come in many different sizes, dependent upon the depth of the bore and amount of rod needed for the extraction.  More shallow wells (most likely older wells) had some pumps so small they would actually fit in the back of a long bed pickup truck.  The weight would be too much, but physical size foot print is such they could fit within that constraint.  One can almost determine the depth of a well based on the size of the pump working it.  And, you may also find them within the limits of a town or city.  Oklahoma City has many within it's urban, commercial, business districts still working to this day, every day.  There are active wells within the area of our state capitol, inside of a parking lot of a large retail/grocery center, area neighborhoods, and along side the runways of the Will Rogers International Airport (at a safe distance, naturally) and many interstate and local state highways.  Point is, most any scale of well pump will be proper on an O Gauge/scale layout, all depends upon the depth of your well bore.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275   

Thanks Eric for the thoughtful and thorough review.  Glad I saw it before I ordered one.  Waaaay too noisy.

Thank you Eric. The sounds of the trains will probably drown out the pump noise.

I have 2 of them and the motors are loud.  The speed of the motion is essentially independent of the applied voltage, but the frequency (pitch) of the motor whine increases as the voltage increases.  When running on DC, the direction of rotation does not change when the polarity of wires is reversed.  If you want the rotation direction to change, the instructions say to unsolder the motor leads from the circuit board and swap the connections when re-soldering.  The motor leads also have to be detached from the board if you want to grease the gears.  Maybe they don't need to be greased very often, but I would think that if they had made the wires between the motor and the board longer you might have been able to just drop the motor down once the one retaining screw was removed.  Two small plugs on the wires would have allowed it to be easier to change directions and lubricate.  

Also would mention that the "black" pump is actually gray.  If you wanted to paint your own, it would likely be the best one to buy.  If you Google "Iron Zoo" you will find some examples.

I like. Used to be a lot of those north of Mobile in the 50's - 60's - I remember them. Maybe I should spring for a couple.

JFC454 posted:

I have 2 of them and the motors are loud.  The speed of the motion is essentially independent of the applied voltage, but the frequency (pitch) of the motor whine increases as the voltage increases.  When running on DC, the direction of rotation does not change when the polarity of wires is reversed.  If you want the rotation direction to change, the instructions say to unsolder the motor leads from the circuit board and swap the connections when re-soldering.  The motor leads also have to be detached from the board if you want to grease the gears.  Maybe they don't need to be greased very often, but I would think that if they had made the wires between the motor and the board longer you might have been able to just drop the motor down once the one retaining screw was removed.  Two small plugs on the wires would have allowed it to be easier to change directions and lubricate.  

Also would mention that the "black" pump is actually gray.  If you wanted to paint your own, it would likely be the best one to buy.  If you Google "Iron Zoo" you will find some examples.

 

Thanks!

-Eric Siegel

texastrain posted:

Eric, thanks for the good review of the Atlas "rocking horse" well pumps.  Just a note of interest for all, even HO scale pumps would be "in scale" for your O Gauge layout.  The pumps come in many different sizes, dependent upon the depth of the bore and amount of rod needed for the extraction.  More shallow wells (most likely older wells) had some pumps so small they would actually fit in the back of a long bed pickup truck.  The weight would be too much, but physical size foot print is such they could fit within that constraint.  One can almost determine the depth of a well based on the size of the pump working it.  And, you may also find them within the limits of a town or city.  Oklahoma City has many within it's urban, commercial, business districts still working to this day, every day.  There are active wells within the area of our state capitol, inside of a parking lot of a large retail/grocery center, area neighborhoods, and along side the runways of the Will Rogers International Airport (at a safe distance, naturally) and many interstate and local state highways.  Point is, most any scale of well pump will be proper on an O Gauge/scale layout, all depends upon the depth of your well bore.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275   

Thanks for the info, Jesse!

-Eric Siegel

after reading Blowout;  representations of the gas and oil industry will not be present on my layout.

I have one of the "older" pumping units on my layout plus and gas well "Christmas Tree" well head and production unit ( used to separate the high pressure gas from the oil and water that a gas well produces) and a tank battery.

The pumping unit is in the upper left next to pickup.  I worked 30 plus years in the oil fields of Oklahoma and Texas. Repaired the pumping units and dissembled and moved to other wells many of these units. 

I get a few dollars each year from my small royalty that I have in this real gas well. ( this well "Christmas Tree" is designed for only 5,000 pounds per square inch of gas pressure). I have supervised work on wells that had 13,000 pounds per square inch pressure on them, with wellheads designed for 15,000 pounds of pressure.

Thanks Eric, I enjoyed the video! As always thanks for sharing this with all of us!

Keith,  I never worked on the maintenance side of any wells, just the tear down and relocation to a new well site.  Most were in Texas from the Three Rivers area to Caldwell and other East Texas sites, and a lot in between.  And a couple years as a rough neck in the late '90s, between crane operator and working in the refineries and chemical plants around Houston.  Born and grew up in Midland during the 50s-60s Oil Boom times, same time frame when George Bush was living and working in the oil industry there.  Most smaller rocking horses I've seen have been in North East Texas and in the Tulsa area.  Yep, the separator and other equipment are necessary for a proper pump rig, unless you have several all piped to one set of separators and tanks for the tankers to empty.  A work-over rig set up at a pump location would be another prototypical scene to have.

Jesse  TCA

POTRZBE posted:

Thanks Eric for the thoughtful and thorough review.  Glad I saw it before I ordered one.  Waaaay too noisy.

I have one of the original Walthers pumps.  Yes, it is noisy when running by itself.  Once the trains start rolling, you can't hear it at all.  I often have to look at it to see if it is actually working.  With the sound of the wheels on the metal track, locomotive sounds and now freight car sounds, the noise is a non-issue.

Tom

I wanted to bring this thread back and see if anyone ever was able to dampen the noise at all. Tom nailed it in regards to the noise when running trains being acceptable, however I'm still trying to quiet mine down just a bit. Using Woodland Scenics Roadbed seems to have helped some. Anyone else? Thank you, Terry

I know I'm repeating myself but this is the best way to dampen/ eliminate the noise!