Nostalgia & History > Oil Didn't Always Come from North Dakota!

This photo is from the W.H. Bass Photo Company Collection of the Indiana Historical Society.

Description: Locomotive pulling tank cars on the Pennsylvania Railroad. There are tracks and grass in the foreground, and trees in the background.
Creator: W. H. Bass Photo Company
Date: 1941
Geographic Location: Indiana
Collection Number: P 0130


My assumption is that this oil is coming from Pennsylvania.

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/14 17:34 by MartyBernard.

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After Hitler declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941; the German submarine wolfpacks began targeting US shipping along the east coast. Many coastal oil tankers were sent up in flames on the east coast early in the war.

This may be one of the oil trains that were run to the northeast early in the war in response to the losses and before new pipelines could be built.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/14 18:03 by zars.

zars, that is an interesting idea. The caption says the photo was taken in 1941 in Indiana. There are leaves on the trees so the shot was taken no later than say November 1. I have looked a long time at the photo to see if I could see shadows. It was taken on a dull day with no shadows but the lighting leads me to conclude it was a westbound train.

Interestingly W.H. Bass Photo Company has been an Indianapolis firm since 1897. I have not explored their photos at the Indiana Historical Society. I just surfed into this one.

Marty Bernard

Also, looks like a garden on the left side with mature cornstalks, so fall most likely.

Well, the empties had to go westbound, didn't they? Also, between shortages of chemicals and security concerns; civilian photography was limited, if not discouraged, during the war. For that reason, they may have fudged the year in the description so they would not get in trouble; so this may have been taken during the warm months of 1942 or later. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Happy_Time

IIRC Nazi submarines were harassing US coastal shipping before war was declared on 12/8/41 because much of the shipping was bound for Great Britain.
Oil could have been diverted before November '41.
And of course oil was produced in several Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other locations along the PRR.

Tom "TomSTP" Stamey has a lot of very beautiful photos of Texas & Pacific 600-Class (aka, the T&P 610) and other such power, such as their 800-Class Mikes, all rebuilt before WWII for 70 MPH running posted on here, and perhaps he'd be willing to post some more from his collection, of T&P Super Power Steam pulling early "Crude By Rail," (CBR) trains in East & West Texas during the buildup to WWII and all throughout... Those Lima beauties!!!

The buffer car appears to be loaded with coal!
Gonut

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> The buffer car appears to be loaded with coal!
> Gonut


HA! That's a good one. I feel certain you do know you are referencing the locomotive tender on this coal powered engine! Those Nazi subs were active off our east before 1941. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA