Tank Car Deliveries To Gas Stations?
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thecitrusbelt@...
Was there a time when some gas stations received deliveries directly by tank car?
I have come across some possible photographic evidence of this practice and several narrative accounts attesting to this.
Photos
Dome Oil Company station, circa 1920.
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/desertdrover/2016418154022_Dome%20Gas.jpg
Caption: This image of a gasoline station in Detroit, Michigan shows the result of only one of many postwar strikes that affected America as it returned to a peacetime economy. Yank-Wacon truck drivers on strike at the time stopped the deliveries to most filling stations in the area. Motorists line up at a no-name station on September 24, 1945 while waiting to get fuel at one of the few facilities open that received its supplies from a different source, possibly the railroad tanker on the far-left.
http://theoldmotor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/det-1080x650.jpg
Narratives
A 1984 letter from Bill Garner describes some of the industries that were on the Santa Fe's First District in San Bernardino, CA. (Bill was a Santa Fe signal maintainer helper and freight office clerk. He first hired on in 1924. Bill also helped edit "Wheel Clicks", a contemporary account of railroad happenings in the 1930s-1950s published by the Pacific Railroad Society.)
According to the letter, a Union Ice Company spur in San Bernardino extended to a Standard Oil gas station and the last spot on the spur was used for gasoline deliveries "by UTLX tank cars" to the gas station.
Another person stated, "When I was a kid in Detroit there was a string of cheap gas station next to the railroad tracks. This was in Detroit, the motor city. It was on West Fort Street or Jefferson Avenue. I found the sidings on a map one time which had rail lines on it...
There must have been six or eight stations in a row which had tank cars on sidings behind the stations plugged into the ground."
Another person stated, "In Brooklyn, NY, there was the same kind of sidings on the east side adjacent to Manhattan. Real cheap gas and bottled oil. The track was owned by the Standard Oil Company."
Comments?
Bob Chaparro
Hemet, CA
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tjcataldo
I see Bob a 26 or 27 ford dates the photo
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Tom On Thursday, January 26, 2017, thecitrusbelt@... [STMFC] <STMFC@...> wrote:
-- Thomas j Cataldo |
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riverman_vt@...
---In STMFC@..., <thecitrusbelt@...> wrote : Was there a time when some gas stations received deliveries directly by tank car?
I have come across some possible photographic evidence of this practice and several narrative accounts attesting to this.
Photos
Dome Oil Company station, circa 1920. http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/desertdrover/2016418154022_Dome%20Gas.jpg
Gee, Bob, Can't comment on stations receiving gasoline by rail but did notice the 23 cents per gallon price. One could still by gas for 23 to 24 cents per gallon in the mid-1950's, thirty years after your photo was taken, at several stations in Everett, Mass. not far from the docks on the Mystic River where it was unloaded. Even up the the Arab oil embargo in 1973 I don't recall paying more than 35 cents per gallon in that area. Time have certainly changed! Now one can't get it for anything close to that even when GATX Tank Train cars are used! My best, Don Valentine |
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earlyrail
Was there a time when some gas stations received deliveries directly by tank car? Most definitely And into the 50's as well. A station in Cannon Falls, Minn had a spur off the CGW. This was near the curve just north and west of town where the east/west line curved south to enter town. This area has been redeveloped since. Howard Garner |
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Al Kresse <water.kresse@...>
Would they drop off partial car fulls? Oil would come in 55 gallon drums by box cars? Al Kresse
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Charles Hladik
Bob,
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In the 70's there were 2 Tankar stations in Portsmouth Virginia that had tank cars and track above the station. I don't recall them being close to rail service but I did respond to many robberies at each one. Chuck Hladik Rustburg, VA. Rutland Railroad Virginia Division -----Original Message----- From: thecitrusbelt@... [STMFC] <STMFC@...> To: STMFC Sent: Thu, Jan 26, 2017 12:22 pm Subject: [STMFC] Tank Car Deliveries To Gas Stations? Was there a time when some gas stations received deliveries
directly by tank car?
I have come across some possible photographic
evidence of this practice and several narrative accounts attesting to this.
Photos
Dome Oil Company station, circa 1920.
Caption: This image of a gasoline station in Detroit, Michigan shows
the result of only one of many postwar strikes that affected America as it
returned to a peacetime economy. Yank-Wacon truck drivers on strike at the time
stopped the deliveries to most filling stations in the area. Motorists line up
at a no-name station on September 24, 1945 while waiting to get fuel at one of
the few facilities open that received its supplies from a different source,
possibly the railroad tanker on the far-left.
Narratives
A 1984 letter from Bill Garner describes some of the
industries that were on the Santa Fe's First District in San Bernardino, CA. (Bill
was a Santa Fe
signal maintainer helper and freight office clerk. He first hired on in 1924. Bill
also helped edit "Wheel Clicks", a contemporary account of railroad
happenings in the 1930s-1950s published by the Pacific Railroad Society.)
According to the letter, a Union Ice Company spur in San
Bernardino extended to a Standard Oil gas station and the last spot on the spur
was used for gasoline deliveries "by UTLX tank cars" to the gas
station.
Another person stated, "When I was a kid in Detroit there was a
string of cheap gas station next to the railroad tracks. This was in Detroit, the motor city.
It was on West Fort Street
or Jefferson Avenue.
I found the sidings on a map one time which had rail lines on it...
There must have been six or eight stations in a row which
had tank cars on sidings behind the stations plugged into the ground."
Another person stated, "In Brooklyn, NY, there was the
same kind of sidings on the east side adjacent to Manhattan. Real cheap gas and bottled oil.
The track was owned by the Standard Oil Company."
Comments?
Bob Chaparro
Hemet, CA
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Schuyler Larrabee
I can definitely confirm that this did happen. A family relation (cousins) had a gasoline business in Binghamton NY in the 1920s through to the 1970s. Early in this time period they had two ACF 8,000 gallon tank cars, a dead perfect match for the Life-Like cars, which were painted silver with a black underside, frame and trucks. I discovered this essentially by accident in talking to the son of the man who started and ran the business. It turned out his brother had photos of the cars being delivered by the ERIE to their spur. The gasoline was stored in three or four horizontal cylindrical tanks elevated on a steel supporting framework. The elevation served to provide assistance to the pumps to deliver the gasoline to the cars.
It was a complicated modeling process but I got the herald for “Blitzen Super Charged Gasoline” done by MicroScale, and have the two cars modeled. “Super Charged” really was, as it turned out that they also supplied the aircraft which landed at the airstrip which was just up the road. In truth, the gasoline they sold was a mix of high octane gasoline with aviation gas, so if you filled up your chariot with Blitzen gas you really did get a pretty substantial kick in the rear end when you put your foot to the floor. I remember my dad talking about the difference it made. I displayed these models at Cocoa Beach several years ago, and when I locate them again, I’ll post some photos, and maybe I can post photos of their station and the tanks. From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...] Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2017 12:22 PM To: STMFC@... Subject: [STMFC] Tank Car Deliveries To Gas Stations? Was there a time when some gas stations received deliveries directly by tank car? I have come across some possible photographic evidence of this practice and several narrative accounts attesting to this. Photos Dome Oil Company station, circa 1920. <http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/desertdrover/2016418154022_Dome%20Gas.jpg> http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/desertdrover/2016418154022_Dome%20Gas.jpg Caption: This image of a gasoline station in Detroit, Michigan shows the result of only one of many postwar strikes that affected America as it returned to a peacetime economy. Yank-Wacon truck drivers on strike at the time stopped the deliveries to most filling stations in the area. Motorists line up at a no-name station on September 24, 1945 while waiting to get fuel at one of the few facilities open that received its supplies from a different source, possibly the railroad tanker on the far-left. <http://theoldmotor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/det-1080x650.jpg> http://theoldmotor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/det-1080x650.jpg Narratives A 1984 letter from Bill Garner describes some of the industries that were on the Santa Fe's First District in San Bernardino, CA. (Bill was a Santa Fe signal maintainer helper and freight office clerk. He first hired on in 1924. Bill also helped edit "Wheel Clicks", a contemporary account of railroad happenings in the 1930s-1950s published by the Pacific Railroad Society.) According to the letter, a Union Ice Company spur in San Bernardino extended to a Standard Oil gas station and the last spot on the spur was used for gasoline deliveries "by UTLX tank cars" to the gas station. Another person stated, "When I was a kid in Detroit there was a string of cheap gas station next to the railroad tracks. This was in Detroit, the motor city. It was on West Fort Street or Jefferson Avenue. I found the sidings on a map one time which had rail lines on it... There must have been six or eight stations in a row which had tank cars on sidings behind the stations plugged into the ground." Another person stated, "In Brooklyn, NY, there was the same kind of sidings on the east side adjacent to Manhattan. Real cheap gas and bottled oil. The track was owned by the Standard Oil Company." Comments? Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
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George
There was a Texaco dealer in Maine on the Maine Central, named Jimmy's. They had a gas station/garage/truck stop style diner and oil delivery business between the mainline and Washington St. in Auburn. They had no large storage tanks so product was unloaded directly into an underground tank for the gas station and into delivery trucks. This rail business lasted until about 1970. George Melvin Readfield, Maine |
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When I lived in Pittsburgh during the 1950's and beyond, there was a a gas station in McKees Rocks that was part of a gas station chain called "Gravity Fill" This one had a siding off the PC&Y and there was usually a tank car spotted behind. In addition, I had an uncle who worked at a Gravity Fill station.in Lorain OH. This one was served by the B&O. I don't know how large the Gravity Fill chain was, but I do recall seeing several others in the Pennsylvania/Ohio area at that time. Jim Kubanick Morgantown WV On Friday, January 27, 2017 12:39 AM, "'Schuyler Larrabee' schuyler.larrabee@... [STMFC]" wrote: I can definitely confirm that this did happen. A family relation (cousins) had a gasoline business in Binghamton NY in the 1920s through to the 1970s. Early in this time period they had two ACF 8,000 gallon tank cars, a dead perfect match for the Life-Like cars, which were painted silver with a black underside, frame and trucks. I discovered this essentially by accident in talking to the son of the man who started and ran the business. It turned out his brother had photos of the cars being delivered by the ERIE to their spur. The gasoline was stored in three or four horizontal cylindrical tanks elevated on a steel supporting framework. The elevation served to provide assistance to the pumps to deliver the gasoline to the cars. It was a complicated modeling process but I got the herald for “Blitzen Super Charged Gasoline” done by MicroScale, and have the two cars modeled. “Super Charged” really was, as it turned out that they also supplied the aircraft which landed at the airstrip which was just up the road. In truth, the gasoline they sold was a mix of high octane gasoline with aviation gas, so if you filled up your chariot with Blitzen gas you really did get a pretty substantial kick in the rear end when you put your foot to the floor. I remember my dad talking about the difference it made. I displayed these models at Cocoa Beach several years ago, and when I locate them again, I’ll post some photos, and maybe I can post photos of their station and the tanks. From: STMFC@... [mailto:STMFC@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2017 12:22 PM To: STMFC@... Subject: [STMFC] Tank Car Deliveries To Gas Stations? Was there a time when some gas stations received deliveries directly by tank car? I have come across some possible photographic evidence of this practice and several narrative accounts attesting to this. Photos Dome Oil Company station, circa 1920. http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/desertdrover/2016418154022_Dome%20Gas.jpg Caption: This image of a gasoline station in Detroit, Michigan shows the result of only one of many postwar strikes that affected America as it returned to a peacetime economy. Yank-Wacon truck drivers on strike at the time stopped the deliveries to most filling stations in the area. Motorists line up at a no-name station on September 24, 1945 while waiting to get fuel at one of the few facilities open that received its supplies from a different source, possibly the railroad tanker on the far-left. http://theoldmotor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/det-1080x650.jpg Narratives A 1984 letter from Bill Garner describes some of the industries that were on the Santa Fe's First District in San Bernardino, CA. (Bill was a Santa Fe signal maintainer helper and freight office clerk. He first hired on in 1924. Bill also helped edit "Wheel Clicks", a contemporary account of railroad happenings in the 1930s-1950s published by the Pacific Railroad Society.) According to the letter, a Union Ice Company spur in San Bernardino extended to a Standard Oil gas station and the last spot on the spur was used for gasoline deliveries "by UTLX tank cars" to the gas station. Another person stated, "When I was a kid in Detroit there was a string of cheap gas station next to the railroad tracks. This was in Detroit, the motor city. It was on West Fort Street or Jefferson Avenue. I found the sidings on a map one time which had rail lines on it... There must have been six or eight stations in a row which had tank cars on sidings behind the stations plugged into the ground." Another person stated, "In Brooklyn, NY, there was the same kind of sidings on the east side adjacent to Manhattan. Real cheap gas and bottled oil. The track was owned by the Standard Oil Company." Comments? Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] |
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Fred_Swa@...
I don't think so. Tank cars don't have baffles to keep the liquid from sloshing around and possible tip the car over. Tanker trucks today are the same way with no baffles. I have a friend that drove one and she said if she couldn't put it all in one she'd put the rest in another. If she couldn't do that she drove very slowly and sell it for cash cheap nearby since it was paid for by the first one.
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Fred Swanson ---In STMFC@..., <water.kresse@...> wrote : Would they drop off partial car fulls? Oil would come in 55 gallon drums by box cars? Al Kresse
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