Here are a couple of items that may help in researching 1940s Oil traffic on the Casper (Q) and Yellowstone (NP) divisions.
1 TRAINS magazine did a piece on the Wind River traffic in the July 1945 issue show-casing work by Fred Lehman. Since the Pacific War was still ongoing, only a company photographer would have access to train line-ups and many of the locations in the article. All the freight traffic in the article show either unit trains of oil or at least large cuts of tank cars in the consists.
2 The photo of the then-new motor 111 set in Sheep Canyon, north of Greybull, Wyoming was dated 1944. As the train, displaying White Extra-status flags, is northbound, one can guess that the oil source is Texas or the Salt Creek Fields near Casper.
3 Union Tank Car had a maintenance facility adjacent to the Laurel yard up through the early years of the BN. While primarily for cars bearing UTLX reporting marks, NATX, GATX, SHPX and the like were all serviced there. The refinery in Laurel and two more in Billings made establishing a facility there wise operating sense. I have been told that UTL now has mobile maintenance equipment for RIP service.
Hope this is useful. Jim Sandrin
---In cbq@yahoogroups.com, <gamlenz@...> wrote:
Hol
There were magazine reports in 1899 and 1900 that both the CB&Q and B&MR were oiling tracks, and a Railway Age Gazette article in 1911 referred to the Burlington oiling track between Chicago and Downers Grove. This article included a photo of the steel tank car being used with a perforated pipe connected to the main outlet to distribute the oil, but there are no visible markings on the tank. I understand that the car looks like a Bettendorf car but the Burlington only had AC&F steel cars at this time so it might have been leased.
Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of HOL WAGNER
Sent: Saturday, 2 November 2013 3:19 a.m.
To: CB&Q Group
Subject: RE: [CBQ] Re: Oil on the Q in World War Two
And there were certainly no environmental concerns about leaking oil. In fact, a bit further back in time, around the turn of the 20th Century, many railroads -- the Q and C&S among them -- widely promoted the fact that they oiled their rights-of-way to reduce dust.
Hol