Tank Cars: Gasoline

Now I'm working through tank cars. Like hoppers, these are generally single commodity cars.  But there are more potential commodities, and I need to find sources for each one. Gasoline/oil is the most common commodity still shipped by rail.  But by my era a lot of that traffic is handled via pipelines or water routes to large distribution centers and then delivered by truck.

The 1% waybill studies show that the majority of gasoline coming into Connecticut by rail in the 1950 1% study originated in Rhode Island. The only other state that was captured was Louisiana. There were several possibilities:

Tiverton Oil Terminal in Providence. This served Atlantic, Shell, and Texaco brands.

The East Providence Terminal served Socony-Vacuum (Mobilgas), Gulf, Tide Water, and US Oil Co.  There was also Colonial Beacon Oil Co., which I think was a local distributor.

A third was the Inland Fuel Terminal in Providence. I haven't determined brands it served in this era.

From here, tank cars would be loaded bound for CT and other New England states. It appears that most was bound for local distribution points, such as LP Powers Co in Waterbury, who was a Sinclair and Socony-Vacuum wholesaler, and maybe other brands. From there they would distribute gasoline to local gas stations. I don't know how wide of a radius the trucking served, though.

Would New Britain receive gasoline by rail at all? Hardware City Fuel Co had two sidings and appears to have received Gulf gasoline by tank car. But this industry is off-layout, unfortunately. 

Berson Brothers had a siding for receiving coal and also advertised Esso gasoline. They have a number of tanks on-site, although it's not clear that they had facilities for unloading via tank car. But I'll go ahead and use it for that purpose. Esso is an ex-Standard Oil company, and would typically be delivered in standard black UTLX tank cars.

This is a Rapido X-3 tank car that I'll assign as a car in gasoline service. For an ex-Standard Oil company, UTLX cars are the most common.

Some of the maps show that the city of New Britain had gas tanks on the site served by rail. These would be for city trucks and equipment. There is a siding, but I don't know what it received by rail so gasoline is a possibility. 

This is a Proto 2000 ACF Type 21 insulated tank car. Gasoline did not have to be moved in insulated cars, but it could be. I could use this to service the town siding, or in through trains.  The placards provided in the model are correct for my era, with a red "Dangerous" on a white background with the rest of the text black. Prior to 1941 it would have stated "Inflammable" instead of "Dangerous."

What type of gasoline was used in this era?  Most cars and trucks used "regular" gasoline. Premium gas was used for many (most?) small or medium trucks. 

White Gas, and some other fuel types were still used in some older vehicles, but I don't know how common it was.

What about diesel fuel? The 1950 1% waybill study indicates 475 tank cars of gasoline were shipped to CT annually. It also listed 450 tank cars of Fuel Road Oils, NOS. This likely includes Diesel Fuel, and might include White Gas. 

Diesel fuel was used in semi trucks from Cummins, Detroit Diesel (GMC) and Mack starting in the 1930s.  Buses followed in the 1940s. The engines were too large for small or medium trucks. Trucking companies, city bus terminals, and sometimes large industries would have diesel pumps for their trucks or buses. Otherwise, highway truck stops were where diesel trucks would fill up. Diesel fuel is not listed in the city directories or phone books of the era. So I'm not sure whether any of the rail served industries received it. I suspect a lot, if not all, came via truck from the regional distribution centers.

Any of these types of gasoline could be hauled in tank cars, and multi-compartment tank cars were often used to deliver multiple grades or types.