Model Railroading > A Possible Prototype

It occurred to this night crawler through the Library of Congress archives that if Woodland Scenics ever decides to do an oil refinery, this one recorded August 1939 in Oklahoma City by FSA photographer Russell Lee might serve as a nice prototype.
Be of good cheer,
—Mac
www.lowellamrine.com

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I'd say yes. A small refinery like that is a lot more manageable to model than a larger one, which can be quite complex. And perhaps more interesting as well. They once were pretty common in "oil patch" areas around the country.

In fact, I could consider the one in this photo as a template for a small refinery that could have a place on the next iteration of my small N-scale model railroad. The area I model, around Muskegon, Michigan, actually had such a smaller refinery in the 1950s - 1960s period that I model, the independent Old Dutch Refining Co., adjacent to former GTW track just east of Muskegon. Yes, Michigan has oil and gas, and a fair amount of it, too. There were about 12 refineries in the state in the 1950s. There is just one now, a fairly large Marathon facility in Detroit.

The Old Dutch refinery, later Aurora Gasoline, and then finally a Marathon Oil facility before being demolished in 1966, was somewhat larger than the one in the image you posted. And still too large to model with the space I have available. But the photo probably works out to a more manageable and less complex size, and may be a nice template for a stand-in for the real Old Dutch facility.

And I have a few pieces of the equipment in that photo already which are in use at a petroleum jobber's facility on my current pike. So I have a head start. Thanks for the photo, and the idea!

MC

Small refineries made it into the 1970's in Texas.  And, there were MANY of them.  Some were very, very small and simple.