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Oil traffic on the Southern, 1939


sem34090
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Afternoon all -

 

I am currently extending my South Western division layout, Odiham, to include sidings to serve the RAF base there. I assume a natural traffic of such an establishment to include oil, specifically aviation fuel.

 

Can anyone offer suggestions as to where I might source appropriate wagons from (preferably from an easy-to-find kit or RTR) and what might constitute an appropriate livery.

 

The layout is set between September 1st and September 4th 1939.

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The tanks wagons built for the Air Ministry just before and during the war are covered in some detail in "Modllers Backtrack" April-May 1993.

The Dapol tank wagon is sold as the Air Ministry tank in various liveries, but not as far as I can tell, the one you need.

Rumney models do various upgrade kits for tank wagons that may be of use to improve the accuracy of the model.

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Seems like you want a 'Class A' tank  (for avgas) and from various sources, in 1939, it would probably have had the 'yellow stone' or aluminium finish with red striping, as outlined below.

 

First a thread showing previously referenced items from above:

And trust the IGG to have some good livery notes:

 

https://www.igg.org.uk/rail/6-livy/odds/9-tankliv.htm

 

from which:

 

Quote

The RCH official livery for volatile Class A liquid tanks, such as petroleum, was from 1907 to 1939, a stone body colour with a red band extending right round the body about half way up the tank about 6 inches (15 cm) wide. The band around the tank was supposed to be applied over the company logo, or the livery would be applied to either side, above and below the line. In some cases the livery was applied over the line however. The solebars were to be painted red with black running gear (the red chassis was required for all dangerous cargo but does not seem to have applied to gunpowder vans).

In 1939 the rules were relaxed slightly, the red stripe extending only part way along the sides of the tank (typically a quarter of the way from each end of the tank), and aluminium was permitted as the body colour.

This was rescinded during the war due to the danger of enemy air attack and a uniform matt dark grey tank with black chassis was adopted (some tanks were painted in camouflage of two shades of grey).

After the war the aluminium was again permitted for Class A tanks and the red band on the tank was not reinstated but solebars were again supposed to be red (this seems to have taken a while to appear however). On the large bogie 'frameless' tankers the red paint is confined to the short sub-chassis above the bogies. Class A wagons do not have heavy black staining to the body, petrol is pretty clean stuff in the main but as with all rolling stock they do get stained and dirty in use.

 

So perhaps (in OO) you're looking for something like the Bachmann 37-650K Tank “Charles Roberts & Co”.    Tanks you might see with aluminium bodies without the red striping, but red solebars are likely postwar-styled liveries - e.g. Bachmann 37-659C.

 

You should be able to find (or build) exactly what you want with all this.  :)

 

And to finish, a converted 'Class B' tank in the flesh:

 

https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/wagon/1921.html

 

Edited by FoxUnpopuli
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I think it would be fine - with a little red paint.  If you can find an appropriate brand, then I'd say you're on your way.

 

Fina as a brand didn't exist until 1953 in the UK (from the cursory research I just performed - they were 'Cities Service Oil Company Ltd' from 1927 to 1953) but the colour is otherwise OK.

 

 

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Your tightly chosen period is an interesting one, particularly as most trains (including many goods trains) were cancelled between September 1 and 3 inclusive to enable the Southern to concentrate on the operation of evacuation trains.

.WWII-SRevacuationposter.jpg.4410a13c29f79c4eea5cc425ba48409d.jpg

 

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5 minutes ago, sem34090 said:

I thought Fawley opened in the late-1920s or early '30s?

Fawley refinery opened in 1921 and became part of the Anglo-American Oil Company (ie Esso) empire in 1926. It was, though, quite small until completely rebuilt subsequent to WWII. During WWII it was used only as a storage facility as little oil was actually refined in the UK.

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2 hours ago, phil gollin said:

Does anyone know which oil refineries were working just prior to WW2 ? ...............

'Oli on the Rails' should give you all you need about traffic flows https://hmrs.org.uk/oil-on-the-rails-150219.html ......... six quid new - FROM thirty five on Amazon !!!!

Edited by Wickham Green
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