I am in the process of getting my service track all mapped out to start the process of finishing the scenery. One of my projects is to add a oil tank to service oil-burners. The tank is a Rix products, 30 scale feet tall and 20 feet around (guessing). Standard holding tank. It would have been installed around 1940’s. (In my Kiva Valley)
My question is how common would have been retention walls built around it? or would they be just sitting off my themselves? Was there a common pracitce for install or did it vary by case by case?
Thanks for the input
This is no more than an educated guess, but I’d say that retention dams around locomotive fuel oil tanks weren’t common in the 1940’s, if in fact they were used at all. I can’t recall ever noticing them in 1940s photos, and I’ve seen a few. Perhaps you need to do some research, find out when they were mandated in your particular state?
Cheers,
Mark.
I don’t think that the idea of retention walls had been come up with that time; the unfortunate Cinncinati LNG fire, which I believe occured in 1949, could have been partially stopped by retention walls, something it didn’t have.
Of course, I wasn’t alive then, so I guess i’m not too credible a resource.
Remember to if you can, have your oil tank off to the side of the servicing area with a pump served by pipe.
Best of luck!
An educated guess would be that retaining revetments would not be in place during that time period. Location of the tank would probably be determined more buy the terrain more than anything. Just remember that along with the pump and pipeing to fuel the locos that a spur and pumps and pipes are also require for off loading those tank cars that bring the oil in and that there would be plenty of darkened earth from oil spills and leakage back in those days. Ken
Thanks for the thoughts guys. Your “educated guesses” were the same as I was thinking. I was laying it out and it dawned on me that I couldnt place walls around the tanks in this type of scenario. In the pictures of scenes like this, both in the model world and the real world, I couldnt place walls.
Another thing, is that I while I am trying to follow real world practices here, such as the tank, with piping to the pump house for the underground pipes to the track side ( I am trying to postion the tank away from the tracks a little ) it is for a purely freelanced line. So, I guess I am makeing my own rules. There are a few things I have had to “twist” or “stretch” a little to either make up for lack of room, or money. But I am trying to atleast keep it plauseable.
Keep the comments coming. I am hopeing to have some pics of my area up later today. Thanks Guys.