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Gasoline deliveries Pre-War

MikenMikenOGR Forum Member

I was reading other threads on switching operations and it reminded me of a story my aunt told me about our family gas station in rural PA in the 1920s to the 1960s.  She said that they would have a rail tank car of gasoline delivered to the town team track. She and my grandfather would go down to the tank car and hook up a line to their pump house and transfer fuel through an underground line to the underground storage tanks at the gas station about 800 ft away.  Has anyone heard of this before and do you have any photos of such an operation?  I just thought it was a cool story, too bad they don't have any pictures.

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R RJLOGR Forum Member

Miken,

That must have been something where the filling station owner had to pump their amount of gas from a nearby tank car.  This is a great scene to model, thank you.

Awhile back, I saw a B&W photo. taken, I believe, in the '50's of a tank car, sitting on a siding and close to a gas station.

I don't remember any details of the tank car, other than it contained either gasoline, or oil and I can't remember any details of the gas station and it's locale.

I guess, safety rules were more lax years ago and possibly in certain areas, also the trackage was close to the gas station, houses and buildings.  All close together!!!!

Ralph

Last edited by RJL
Jim BergerJim BergerOGR Forum Member

railroads were much more service friendly in the 20s-60s ,since highway transportation was limited in many areas. today, everone wants to haul containers coast-to-coast. an owner of a local feed/rural supply business told me he tried to get birdseed in a covered hopper car from the nw part of the u.s to a place here in nothern ohio. it was such a hassle dealing with the rr's ,they bought their own truck to make about 1 trip per week. that was about 30 years ago.today , its brought in bagged on pallats, now that trucking rates are so low.-jim

p51p51OGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by mixerman:

railroads were much more service friendly in the 20s-60s ,since highway transportation was limited in many areas. today, everone wants to haul containers coast-to-coast. an owner of a local feed/rural supply business told me he tried to get birdseed in a covered hopper car from the nw part of the u.s to a place here in nothern ohio. it was such a hassle dealing with the rr's ,they bought their own truck to make about 1 trip per week. that was about 30 years ago.today , its brought in bagged on pallats, now that trucking rates are so low.-jim


Single carloads or LcL loads were killing the RR industry in the postwar era. Containers, bulk and tank trains are simply how the RRs evolved in a shifting market.

That said, if gas ever really does collapse, things would get really ugly because this country was set up for fuel-efficient travel by train and so many local and branch line routes were yanked up, it's almost all big depot to depot transit now. Getting loads to your Mom and Pop place depend on gasoline now with no other way to get stuff anywhere anymore.

Last edited by p51
CH colorado hirailerOGR Forum Member

RJL:  I have several of those photos, in recent color, of a tankcar, on a trestle off a railroad on a high embankment, in the lot of an abandoned gas station (appearing

to still be using the building for auto repair).  The tankcar is just behind and above

closed pumps.  This looks very much like one of the TankKar operations I described

above, and a model of same remains on my to-do list.  This tankcar station is just

a couple of blocks from the town center in Sidney, Ohio.

JB Jeff B. HaertleinOGR Forum Member
You bet operations did just that. In our rural area the small Bulk Plant that my father-in-law purchased, the former owner in the early sixties (and well before)still received fuel in that way.
 
In this case the C&NW would drop off a tank car near a small concete base with a tall pipe mast affair. The connections would be made, and there was a pump house located at the base of the Bulk Plant with an electric pump that would then pump the oil up the hill to our Bulk Plant and fill the storage tanks. The distance was at least 800' and all up hill. We have no pictures, only the memory of my in-laws. But the little standpipe eventually was torn out as this spur became the mainline and museum of the Mid-Continent Ry. Museum in North Freedom, WI. And our Museum's water tank is near to where the original unloading base was located. Pretty neat set up, I wish I could have witnessed it myself!
 
Originally Posted by Miken:

I was reading other threads on switching operations and it reminded me of a story my aunt told me about our family gas station in rural PA in the 1920s to the 1960s.  She said that they would have a rail tank car of gasoline delivered to the town team track. She and my grandfather would go down to the tank car and hook up a line to their pump house and transfer fuel through an underground line to the underground storage tanks at the gas station about 800 ft away.  Has anyone heard of this before and do you have any photos of such an operation?  I just thought it was a cool story, too bad they don't have any pictures.

 

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