I thought it would be interesting to have a brief overview of the movement of oil by train, as i’ll have at least one block train on Hackney.  This information has been garnered from the HMRS-published book by Alan Coppin, ‘Oil on the Rails’, an interesting read.

The first recorded imports of oil date back to 1860, and the RCH first considered the construction of rail oil tanks in 1868.  

The oldest refinery in the UK was Pumpherston, adjacent to the new town of Livingstone.   It was built in 1884 (but closed in 1914) and was the first of 25 refineries to have been built in the UK.      As of 1999 only 12 remained.  Shell and BP owned 5 each, Esso, Burmah and Wiggins 2 each, and one each for Mobil, Briggs, Philmac, Fina/Total, Gulf, Amoco, Philips, Texaco and Conoco.

There were a number of important rail distribution centres.   Purfleet and Ardrossan could accommodate 100 wagons, Bowling 150, Hull 200, Thames Haven, Llandarcy and Manchester 300 each, Avonmouth 350 and Stanlow an enormous 750 wagons.     Apparently a train could leave Stanlow every 30 minutes!

Oil trains were, unsurprisingly, subject to some route restrictions.   Block trains were normally between 20 and a maximum of 56 wagons, though limited to 20 in Scotland and only 16 on the far north line.   Class A trains required 2 barrier wagons at each end.

The motor industry really started to expand after the First World War and by 1940 there were 6,905 oil tanks in service; by the end of WW2 it had grown to 9,136, and by 1960 about 12,000.

In 1954 there were around 80 block trains daily, but most oil tanks were moved in general goods trains.     By this time there had been 120 oil companies recorded in the RCH handbook, with 245 depots at 195 locations.  The highlights were Trafford Park, Manchester, with no less than 17 separate rail depots, 11 depots at Netherfield and Colwick and 9 at Stanlow.   The trains on the North London line seemed to be principally between the Thames estuary and Avonmouth.

The book has around a dozen drawings of RCH wagons from 1907 onwards, covering 10T to 35T.   The most common we’d have seen in the ‘50s would have been 14T tanks, though there were some 20T tanks around.  The 14T tanks barrels were originally held in place by ropes and stays, but from 1942 an anchor mount was developed.  The photo of the Shell wagons shows the pre-war arrangement

35T tanks were introduced from 1957 for class A and class B fuels, plus a creosote tank for BR and a bitumen tank in 1959, but the 14T anchor mount design was still being built into the 1960s.   100T bogie wagons didn’t appear until 1966.   The 3rd photo appears to show bitumen tanks (though I’m not certain) and the final picture shows two Esso 35T tanks in different liveries.   The black tank is a Class B (it has a hand-wheel on the roof) and would be heated for more viscous payloads. The other is silver and is a Class A for the more readily flammable liquids.

 Pictures from Creative Commons sources.   First picture is   9F 92136 slogging up Lickey Bank, banked by an unknown loco(s).