Richland Fuels....by Don Janes

The fright station from BEST Models "Elwell General Store" kit  (see earlier post on the store) worked out great for the small rail served warehouse at Richland Fuel & Oil 

A Small Fuel Oil Dealer for Wells River

     The town of Wells River on my Green Mountain Division is located on a stub end peninsula and features several sidings with moderate size industries.  I decided that since I model the 1950's this small town should have an oil dealer to supply fuel for homes, farms and businesses in the area. This small oil depot consists of a small wooden warehouse, a pair of oil tanks on metal supports, a truck loading area, four vertical storage tanks for gasoline and diesel fuel and another small brick maintenance shop at the other end of the facility.  As far as rail service goes there are spots for two tank cars to be unloaded and a spot at the warehouse for boxcar unloading.      The wooden warehouse was one of two buildings in BEST Scale Models "Elwell General Store" kit and was meant to be a small freight station. I thought it worked very well at the oil dealer for bringing in and storing supplies.  Next to the warehouse is a pair of elevated oil tanks that came from two old Revell diesel servicing kits.  I always like these kits and decided that a pair of them would work well in this scene.  I added Tichy safety cage ladders and metal walkways to the tanks. I also added some extra details like hoses for unloading tank cars and loading trucks.

These two Revell tanks worked out quite well here and are typical of tanks found at small oil dealers. Note the Tichy walkways and cage ladders.

This is the trackside of the oil tanks.  The track drip pans between the rails are made out of various sizes of styrene

   

These two brick building are where trucks are loaded with various products for local delivery.

        The two brick loading buildings and the four vertical storage tanks are from a Walthers kit.  I assembled, painted and weathered these structures to simulate light weathering since they probably haven't been around all that long. They are the perfect size for a smaller oil dealer. 

   

This is the back side of the loading are. The vertical unloading pipes were also part of the kit. The large pipes and valves came with a Walthers piping kit. Here you get a little closer look at the drip pans between the rails.

    I added piping and valves where I thought they might go at a prototype facility. I found a nice Walthers kit with piping, elbows, curved sections, pipe supports and various valves  and fittings. The addition of these details help make the scene look more interesting.
    The four vertical storage tanks are also from the Walthers kit.  They come with a cast plastic spill retention dam which I felt took up too much real estate so I fabricated a new wall from square styrene to simulate poured concrete. I feel this looks much better and is more compact in the overall scene.
    This area is just about complete. I still need to add some more smaller details but it is ready to receive tank cars of oil and diesel fuel and the odd boxcar of supplies for the dealership. Both B&M and CPR switchers service this facility.

This closeup shows some of the piping detail added to the scene.

The four vertical storage tanks make a nice addition to the scene and add variety to the various structures at the facility. The brick building in the foreground is a maintenance shop. It is an old Magnuson Models structure.

A tank car is being unloaded at the elevated storage tanks. The large cream coloured structure in the background is the Boston & Maine freight shed.

Here we see CP 8163 spotting a tank car at Richland Fuels. The CPR SW1200RS was nicely weathered by Jim Sloan.