Dan,

I found a reference to a Sunset Oil Co. having an oil field or lease
in Texas in 1939 on a web site which lists the oil field
maps/documents on file at the Texas State Archives. Below are
addresses to parts 1 & 2 of the list.

Part 1: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20085/tsl-20085.html
Part 2: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20142/tsl-20142.html

Sunset is shown in part 1. Others may know if Sunset refined and
shipped from Texas, or shipped crude to be refined in CA - and whether
any of these products went by rail. Sunset may have simply sold their
Texas crude (and natural gas if found) "at the well head" to local
companies to process and sell for themselves.

The only other thing close that I have are numerous mentions of the
huge Midway-Sunset oil field in Kern Co., CA, initially struck around
1900. The field could have been named for a Sunset Co. well, claim,
or lease, although ultimately numerous oil companies drilled and
continue to extract oil from the field. Conversely, the Sunset Co.
may have used the name of the field as a way to market its products,
which could have been made from oil extracted and processed by others.

A Sunset refinery is not mentioned on a CA Energy Comm site that lists
the history of refineries in the state, although there are several
that are simply noted as "prior to 1981" which I will need to research
for my own interests. Here is a link to that site for those
interested in another source for what company was refining where in CA
and when...http://www.energy.ca.gov/oil/refinery_history.html

Sorry nothing definitive for your tank car.

John Hile
Blacksburg, VA




--- In STMFC@..., Dan Gledhill <gledhilldan@...> wrote:

Hello John,
Thanks for the link to the images for Sunset Oil

Company.I think we may be on to something here.The printing shown at
the top of the oil can images is almost identical to that which
remains on the rivetted tank car in question.Could be coincidental but
it is a somewhat unique early style of print.

Briefly I will say that the car is a10,000 gallon car built by

Standard Car in I believe 1926.I described this car in more detail
earlier in the year on this site,so we know what it was ,just not how
it was painted.It would be truly great to find a photo of some of this
fleet but it was likely one of very few painted the same.

The car was numbered CDLX 1051 ,and we know that it received

some servicing in the Portland area as the frame was stencilled
REPKD.A.T.6-6-37 U.P.R.R.

Sunset oil Co.I am led to believe may have marketed their

products in the Portland area ,but why the car would come north on the
UP instead of the SP is unknown.

Any idea where Sunset Oil did their refining or where they

would have got their crude oil?

Regards,Dan Gledhill
John Hile <john66h@...> wrote:
--- In STMFC@..., "John Hile" <john66h@> wrote:

Petroleum product suppliers with names that start with "Sun" listed
for California locations in my 1927 Freight Shippers Guide to the
Santa Fe:

San Francisco: Sunset Monarch Oil Co.; Sunset Oil Co.
Los Angeles: Sun Oil Co. of Philadelphia

Dan,

Checked one of my online resources, and found an image of a Los
Angeles City map from Sunset Oil Company, Los Angeles, California.
The site says it is from 1946, and that Sunset was purchased by
Wilshire approx. 1957.

Here is the address of the image: http://www.gassigns.org/sunset.htm

John Hile
Blacksburg, VA






---------------------------------
Ask a question on any topic and get answers from real people. Go to

Yahoo! Answers.