Model a small oil dealership This compact business can add one more source of revenue to your model railroad/Bob Bennett
MODEL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
Years ago, small towns with rail service usually had one or two oil dealers that received fuel oil, kerosene and gasoline in tank cars,
I
n today’s world, petroleum is, in many ways, the liquid that controls our lives. Oil in various forms heats many homes and businesses and pow- ers our vehicles. Its production, con- sumption, transportation and cost are often controversial and at times, down- right dangerous. And yet, as much as we would like to lessen our dependence on this “black gold,” petroleum and its by-products will likely always be with us to some extent. Railroads have played an important role in the move- ment of oil from the wells to the facili- ties where it is processed and to deal- ers where it is sold, and for modelers, an oil dealership is a standard indus- try on many layouts. The small busi- ness I’ll describe herein, while placed on a freelanced On30 layout based on the Maine two-footers, would be appro- priate for nearly any setting. When putting this project together, there were several factors that I needed to keep in mind. First, the only Maine two-foot narrow gauge railroad that di- rectly served an oil-related facility was the Bridgton & Saco River/ Bridgton & Harrison. While there are apparently
68
with competing companies often on the same spur. O’Brien Oil, however, has Bigelow, Maine, to itself on the author’s On30 layout.
some photos of this dealer, as of this writing none seem to be available. The tanks do show up in images of the line’s two tank cars, the only ones on the two-
footers, but these shots don’t show the arrangement of the entire plant. Thus, I was sort of on my own as to the set-up of things, which is not necessarily a bad
FEBRUARY 2014
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100