I have a corner at 5 1/2" elevation that will now likely be too small for an intended mine site, now that I’ve coved (curved) the back drop corners. (A building flat may not look convincing either…)
I thought the animated oil pump (maybe two) in the Walther’s catalog would fit nicely and provide interest.
I’ve only seen them on flat ground/low lands. (OK, Texas, E. CA.) Do they exist as prototypes on hill tops or foothills of mountains anywhere? I’ve been searching around on line but no luck so far.
Looking for additional ideas in case: fire watcher or radio tower, observation towers, etc. but I’d really like this site to be an industrial siding (one track) as it’s coming off of a rather expensive curved #8 turn out
and want to make good switching or set out use of it. Looked through the whole Walthers catalog this morning for ideas but nothing but the oil pump jumped out at me.
There are several located in the hills in the greater Los Angeles area. Off the top of my head I can think of Signal Hill, Baldwin Hills, Santa Paula, Newhall and even Beverly Hills has a few.
Quite common in Southern California. Here’s a photo from the USGS showing a site near Aliso Canyon (there are multiple Aliso Canyons, this one is near LA).
Although the photo was taken to show the detrimental effects of the Northridge earthquake on the storage area in the center left, you can see the walking beam pump on the far left, elevated up on a hill top.
That’s great! Thank you guys. This will really solve the problem for my layout! I freelance but don’t want to be too far off the mark from prototypes. I’ll do a specific search on those locations and see if there are more pics. Thanks cayuma for the pic.
I knew when I coved that corner that I’d be ruling out a lot of former industry choices and was bummed about that, but felt the curved sky was worth it. Now it’s not going to be a problem. I’m grateful.
Now I’ll see what I can fit in alongside the beam pump to make it convincing to have a tanker or other car set out there. I’ll have room for a vertical storage tank and a fence I think. I’ll need to develop a scenario that’s convincing as this will look like a one man wild cat operation.
Well, I used to play a lot of Earl Scruggs style banjo, so that could happen!
Would it be likely for one tank car at a time to be dropped off near a pump and or derrick?
Would short lines or interchanges pick up oil one car at a time in any prototypical scenario?
Y’all come back now, hear?
I think it would be pretty unlikely to see a railroad siding built for a single pump. I’d expect to see a dirt road that would give a tank truck access to the storage tank. You might consider a larger tank farm or possibly a refinery in a nearby area with a siding for several tank cars.
Many of the hills of Pennsylvania oil country are dotted with wellsites. One of the unique features is that multiple wellheads are operated from a single, remote power source. So you can see a half dozen or so wells scattered up an down the mountain, each connected by a long reciprocating shaft to the drive engine, usually located down the hill. It is something akin to the arrangement of bell cranks and control rods one would see at a railroad interlocking tower. But, rather than being ganged together, the oil well shafts would radiate fan-like from the pump engine to the various wellheads. Earliest pump engines were probably steam powered, and later converted to electric. It is also possible that some of them could be powered by natural gas produced by their wells. Pipe lines ran downhill from the wells to holding tanks along the road, or railroad, in the valley below. I don’t know if these are still operating today. It has been about 20 years since I last flew over the Bradford area to see them working. The whole scene presents some interesting possibilities for modeling.
The location of the pumpjack does not matter, remember the oil is located a long way down so you can put the pumpjack anywhere you want(within reason) Oil by rail from the field is not feasible, it’s all done by truck or pipeline, remember to put a fence around it so the farmer can’t drag his dead cow under the pump and claim it was killed by the machinery(we had it happen). why doesn’t someone build a drilling well, a lot more stuff and more exciting, GEE! does "walthers’ make drilling rigs in HO??? There are lots of wells in the foothills and in the Rockies and it looks like there may be a lot more.
OIl pumps in oil the industry are referred to as “pump jacks” or even simple “jacks.” They are placed on a well head if the well has succussfully penetrated a subsurface zone containing an economically viable reservoir of oil.
When you have an oil exploration “target” you want to drill immediately on the highest part of the geologically structure which potentially contains oil. This structure is revealed by a geophysical survey which maps the subsurface by using reflected sound, with the sound “bouncing” of the varous layers in the geological subsurface. If the suburface “target” occurs below a topographic low on the surface, such as a valley, that is where you will place the drilling rig. Conversley, if the subsurface target is located below the top of a hill, then the drilling rig is placed on the hill top.
In conclusion, the pump jack can be situated nearly on any surface topography.
Thanks again. It’s great to get this education from you all. It’s good to know that I can have the pump(s)
in a separate(d) location from the rest of the tank farm, etc. It’s really interesting to learn that they can be controlled remotely (even in the steam era) by bell cranks, etc. similar to interlocking.
I originally envisioned my solution as a team track as Brakie said but tatans and leftcoastrail say this in unfeasible?
It would seem likely that a single (maybe two) tank car(s) on a short siding would take the place of a truck if there wasn’t a road built to the pump site and the mainline is very close by… anyone know of prototypes of this nature? I’ll cheat, I guess, if I have to, but would rather not…
Brakie, I’ll do some online searching for transloading and distribution tracks and see if I can find a single stub track prototype example.
I won’t have room for a nearby tank farm, but could pipeline down to the
loco servicing yard area. That wouldn’t solve the tiny needed industry/single stub siding issue for that
coved corner though.
Any other ideas for a very small industrial building or “gadget” that would be equally convincing at the well pump idea? A tiny sawmill would maybe work, but even more unlikely that a stub siding would be there for that… I’ve only got about a 5-6 inches square to work with for an industry site here.
I’ve driven across the country a half dozen times and have been in most of the 50 states, but never saw pump jacks higher than near sea level. Guess I haven’t gotten around as much as I thought I had!
If you need a small industry siding there, I would go with a working “jack” for some animation. Then add a single tall slim tank that would hold about a tank car and a half of oil. Put them both inside a fence with a gate and some type of car loading piping and small pump house. Now you have an excuse for the tank car to be there sometimes, (where there isn’t a road), and the tank holds the oil until the tank car is set out for loading.
You know of course, that the rock around that area is just too hard to cut into to make a pipeline run down to the service facilities, right?
Gandydancer, I thought I’d run any pipe through pipe saddles above ground for more visual bang for the buck as well as realism. In the 1930s-'40s the EPA would only be a wink in it’s daddy’s eye and I used to weld saddles for the Alaskan pipeline in the '70s so know what they’d look like.
Is it realistic for a single tank car to “stop by” for a fill at such a small/one storage tank location?
Would I have to make up a story?
I know for a “fact” that the ornery wildcat oldtimer was a boyhood chum of the R.R. Supt.'s father and even though his field never played out big time, the Supt. promised his Father that there’d always be a tank car set out there for pick up as long as his stubborn old timer/chum lived. Good enough?
I built a small working three pump oil field diarama back in the 70s, haven’t put it on the layout yet, ran out of room. Ths field was modeled after the Tar Creek Oil Company located out in Piru, CA.
steamage, thanks for posting your pics. That’s very helpful and looks doable for my corner. Nice job. Gives me ideas to go with. I have to admit the animation aspect is appealing if nothing else, drawing visitor’s eyes back there.
As others have said, pumpjacks are sure likely to be found in hill country. Of course the drillers would much rather drill where there is easy road access, as these things need lots of routine maintenance. And of course, the oil/gas needs to be piped to a storage area or gathering point. If you were inclined (pun intended), install a couple of jacks and then run some piping down the hillside to either a storage tank or directly into “the ground” (where they will be buried and lead to a pipeline or ???
By the way, drillers do have the capability of directional drilling, in that the well head could be miles away from where the pool is located. How this is done just boggles the mind, but they can be pretty precise about it. I’ve got a few books on it, and heard about it first hand, but it still is amazing.
