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Petroleum products, Oil, Petrol, LPG and Bitumen

For oil rail tank liveries see also 'Goods Stock - Rail Tanks' and 'Livery - Tank Wagons'

Oil has been a regular cargo on the railways since the mid nineteenth century, initially transported in wooden barrels later and (by the time of the First World War) in rolled steel drums. Tank wagons were introduced in limited number from the mid 19th century, however these could only operate between locations equipped to handle bulk oil, so were not terribly common until the 1920s.

Pipelines are cheaper than rail transport but cost a lot to build. The government built a pipeline system to supply oil products to military establishments in the 1930s, this remains operational today and private companies can also use it. During the invasion of Europe in 1944 this pipeline supplied the Pluto cross-channel pipeline to supply the troops with fuel. In 1969 the privately owned United Kingdom Oil Pipeline (UKOP) was opened, originally to connect the Shell refineries at Stanlow and at Shell Haven on the Thames Estuary. It has since been further extended and also supplied Nottingham and Northampton terminals. Quite early on someone discovered that you could feed one grade after another up a pipeline with very little mixing of the two grades, hence only a single pipeline is needed to carry a wide range of products.

Some sources claim that the first UK refinery to process imported crude oil was at Llandarcy near Swansea, which opened in 1928 (closing in the later 1990s), however the APOC refinery at Grangemout opened in 1924 (however that may have been dealing with imported partly refined oils). Prior to that date the only petroleum refining in the UK was the processing of 'shale oil' (discussed in more detail below) mainly for use as a lamp oil and for 'medicinal purposes'.

As it comes out of the ground oil is made up of a range of materials ranging from heavy tar to oils so light they will evaporate, this raw mix is of limited practical use. In a refinery the various grades of oil are separated, each being used for particular purposes.

In the 18th and early 19th century the most saleable commodity from mineral oil was paraffin, widely used for 'oil lamps' and heating and later for 'paraffin engines' (for which one manufacturer (Kelvin) suggested that Russian oil is the best, but all Russian oil is not alike, good oil is also produced in Scotland but American oil is unsuitable). In the 1920s major paraffin suppliers included Shell Mex Ltd., the Anglo-Persian Oil Co., Ltd, The Scottish Oil Agency, Ltd., The Pinkston Oil Co. of Glasgow, and the The Merchant Trading Co. of London. I believe only the first three manufactured paraffin, the remainder importing their supplies.

In the early days of the industry (around the mid 19th century) the simple fractional distillation process then used on the crude oil gave four products: benzene marketed as a cleaning product for leather and furniture, kerosene for burning in lamps and stoves, paraffin wax for candle manufacture and a heavy waste oil for which there was no immediate use. Other than as a lamp oil (paraffin) petroleum oil was used almost exclusively as a lubricant and fuel until 1920 when Jersey Standard researchers produce rubbing alcohol, or isopropyl alcohol, the first commercial petrochemical. Shell set up a separate Petrochemicals Division in the 1920s. Petrochemicals have developed into what is probably the most profitable side of the oil industry, most plastics are made from petroleum based feed stock. These feed stocks can be either a liquid or a powder, most seem to be liquids. Petrochemicals are also used in the manufacture of solvents and detergents and for making fibres such as nylon. The sulphur removed from the oil is sold or made into sulphuric acid (actually it leaves the refinery as oleum, or sulphur tri-oxide as either a solid or liquid depending on the exact formulation, just add water to get sulphuric acid). Sulphur and sulphuric acid are both valuable industrial chemicals. Paraffin wax is another valuable material with a surprising range of applications (including frozen food packaging). The thick residue left after removal of the more valuable materials is known as residual bitumen (to distinguish it from naturally occurring 'crude bitumen'). This is used to make tarred road surfaces (mixed with limestone or granite chippings it is called asphalt) and also as a waterproofing for wood or felt roofing material. Just to confuse matters the Americans refer to bitumen as asphalt. Bitumen has largely replaced coal tar in these duties, which is handy as the coal gas plants and steel works (both large producers of coal tar) have now all but disappeared. However with the concern over oil supplies bitumen is now being made from non-petroleum based renewable resources (developed in America and hence called bioasphalt). A range of useful gasses are produced (often referred to as 'incondesibles' as they do not liquify in the process). These are generally referred to as Liquid Petroleum Gas or LPG as most of these gasses can be conveniently liquified and shipped at moderate pressures. Finally there is petroleum coke (usually called petcoke) which is basically carbon and is used for making electrodes and as a fuel (although it has a high sulphur content so it is not used for domestic purposes).

A full blown oil refinery is a large installation characterised by numbers of storage tanks, tall metal towers, cooling towers and a lot of pipe-work. The attraction for the modeller is the range of rolling stock which would be required to handle the various petrochemicals produced. Refineries are impressive, modelled well they can be very impressive and it is perhaps worth noting that chemical plants (discussed separately) often use similar processing methods and plant but these can be very much smaller. There were also a number of rather small refineries, in the main these re-processed the materials from the oil refinery, an example being the Briggs refinery in Dundee which 'cracked' the thick bituminous residue from the refineries to extract saleable fractions. These smaller establishments received their supplies by rail as well as shipping out their products.

A refinery is more a finely balanced machine than a factory as so much of what happens depends on other parts of the system functioning. Crude oil flows in at one end, this is split into its components and these are then further processed to produce saleable materials. Many of the various processes require a constant flow through the system, when something has to be maintained and no back-up is available a series of buffer tanks are used to allow the remainder of the system to continue. If a refinery has to be shut down (which can take weeks to do properly) it can be a year or more before it can be re-started.

The tall metal towers are where the initial refining takes place. The crude oil is first heated and fed into a 'fractionating column', basically a large condenser in which the different grades are condensed out at different levels, the heavier bituminous tars and oils at the bottom, and progressively lighter more volatile products; paraffin wax, lubricating oil, gas oil, motor and aviation spirit (petrol) towards the top and gasses are taken off right at the top of the tower.

Fig ___ Fractionating column



I gather there are often two of these towers, the second operating in a partial vacuum in order to get a better separation of the fractions. There are now commercial models of oil refinery structures, including these towers, on the model railway market, however if you are broke they are not too difficult to make. Start with a suitable tube, you can use a cut-down ping pong ball for the top (cut in half, glue to the tube, trim with scissors, finish the trim with toenail clippers). The pipework on the sides are various thicknesses of wire and a straw can be used for the big gas pipe coming down from the top, modern straws have a handy 'bendy' bit that looks well on a refinery. Man holes in the sides of the towers are disks of plastic cut with a paper hole punch and bedded onto a blob of Milliput, The ladders are from signal laddering, man loops can be cut from drinking straws (although gluing these can be tricky, test a sample before doing a lot of work). Hand rails can be added using etched signal laddering (O gauge can be used as-is, OO gauge needs supports) or Slaters brass wire (rose wire and most other wires are not stiff enough to survive).

The image below was found on Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) and a hi-res version is available on that site if you search for 'fractionating towers'. To give some idea of the scale of the things the 'man rings' on the ladders are about 3 ft or 1m apart. You can reduce the overall height quite a lot and still keep the look of the thing as they are usually seen from below (in the same way that very short model train points look okay because the real thing is seen at a shallow angle).

Fig ___ Photo of fractionating columns



As the demand for the lighter spirits is high the heavy oils are further refined in 'cracking towers', where a heat treatment breaks down the liquid, pressurised to raise its boiling point, into a series of lighter products. The cracking process was originally developed in the later 19th century (in America and Russia) but the modern methodology was developed in the early 1930's by an American called Eugene Houndry (1892-1962) and arrived in Britain shortly thereafter. At the time the industry was carrying the bulk of the oil as low value 'crude', refining it in the UK and selling the high value products. The process has been further refined and modern systems use a powdered catalyst as a 'fluidised bed' through with the gasses are passed, first developed in 1944 this is usually called an FCC plant for fluid catalytic cracking.

Fig ___ Cracking Tower



Some years ago I made a small cracking tower (for a chemical plant) using a Vicks Inhaler (available from your local chemist) which has a nice dome ended cover. I just added a second section to make it taller and some pipework, a couple of platforms and some ladders. The tower was silver stained with black, the ladders and platforms were painted white.

The products of the various distillations are not useable without further treatment, the distillates are commonly treated with sulphuric acid and caustic soda, when there is a lot of sulphur in the oil cupric oxide ('litharge') is employed as a desulphurizing agent. The acid and caustic soda are usually delivered as liquids in tanker wagons.

Petroleum oil processing developed after the advent of the railways, and the railways provided a convenient way of moving the product inland from the coastal refineries. Oil for British refineries (including refined products such as petrol) has always been imported and a number of large establishments equipped with storage tanks of various kinds have been operating since at least the early twentieth century (possibly earlier). The 'tank farms' associated with refineries tend to be rather large, just one of the refineries at Milford Haven has 145 storage tanks, 11 for crude oil delivered by the ships and the rest for the storage of petrol and other refined product. Early oil storage tanks were (typically) 90 feet (30m) in diameter and 30 feet (10m) tall, they had a low conical top (usually wood covered with metal plates). By the later 1930s domed tops made of welded steel were widely seen, these had replaced the older conical topped tanks by the 1960s. On an N Gauge layout a tank farm of several seven inch (18cm) diameter tanks requires a prodigious amount of room, however you can get down to tanks of only four inches (100mm) diameter and just under two inches (50mm) in height and they still (just about) look big enough to be acceptable.

Storage tanks in a refinery are always surrounded by a low wall or earth embankment, perhaps five foot high, to act as a containment should the tank leak, technically termed a 'bund wall' the enclosed space has to be sufficient to contain a completely drained tank full, which in practice means as much space around the tank as is contained in the upper part of the tank (above the height of the wall). The pipes emerging from the tank pass over the top of this wall or bank, they do not as a rule pass through it. There are several kits of storage tanks for both liquids and gasses available. Kibri offer what I believe is the best storage tank (B-7466 is in Esso livery, B-7462 is in Aral livery), consisting of a pair of tanks complete with a low surrounding wall and a set of pipework and control valves feeding into 'buried pipes'. Also from Kibri is a set of four small horizontal tanks and a small vertical tank ((B-7456). Faller offer a spherical tank of the kind used for holding pressurised gasses (kit number 2130) and they also offer a pair of rather small tanks, however I would suggest replacing the rather heavy handrails on the latter with Plastruct Fineline mouldings. The tops from aerosol canisters can be used to good effect to represent smaller storage tanks. Roads in the refinery area are also commonly raised on an earth bank so they will not be covered by a spill.

Refineries also make use of the tall cylindrical tanks, similar to the 'boiler' tanks used in coal tar works (see Lineside Industries - Coal Tar and Wood Tar Distillers for a drawing), although those I have seen have all been rather clean steel or clad in concrete. These were presumably used to handle bitumen and similar very viscous liquids, hence they would heated to allow the product to flow and would be seen close to sidings dealing with bitumen tank wagons.

Also produced at the refineries are the Liquid Petroleum Gasses (LPG), such as Butane, Propane and Ammonia. These are liquefied (usually by refrigeration) and mainly stored in spherical tanks (see Lineside Industries - Prototype industrial ancillary structures) before being shipped out in pressurised tank wagons. The BP refinery at Llandarcy (opened in 1928 and the UK's first crude oil refinery) was only source of marketable propane was produced, production began there in 1936, stopped during the war, and was resumed in 1951. Propane production at BP's Grangemouth refinery only started late in 1955.
Rail tanker LPG traffic only started in the later 1960's, prior to that date limited quantities were shipped in smaller pressure canisters and cylinders in standard railway wagons. LPG is discussed in more detail below.

From the early 1950s several refineries set up chemicals units to manufacture alkylbenzenes, the basis of household detergents.

Fig ___ View of the ConocoPhillips refinery, Humberside



Image copyright and courtesy of ConocoPhillips

Note that pipework in a refinery is almost always raised, typically to chest height but in crowded areas there is room to walk underneath. Raised pipes allow spills and leaks to be quickly spotted and metal trays can be placed under them until a repair can be effected.

Another feature of a refinery (as opposed to a storage depot) would be a few tall chimneys. The process produces a series of unpleasant gasses which are passed up the chimney and often 'flared' (deliberately set on fire) at the top. The chimneys should be at least six inches tall in N and will not be the standard brick affairs associated with mills but are more likely to be silver metal with an external framework (these often have multiple pipes running up them) or a concrete tube with perhaps three metal pipes sticking out at the top.

The metal type can be made using any suitable tubing, the framework can be represented using microstrip with angled side supports from three or four Heljan 'lighting masts', suitably sanded down to give a thinner look. The side supports should extend a minimum of about two thirds of the way up the tube.

The concrete type is typically eight foot (2.5m) in diameter and white but usually the top twenty foot or so is painted black, as are the pipes sticking out of the top. The chimneys used are usually straight sided with no taper, you could use Plastruct tubing but pens with a suitably shaped body about ten to fifteen millimetres in diameter would do just as well.

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Principal Oil Refining Areas

Due to the obvious danger of fire, and to save money on the purchase of land, oil depots were usually located outside built-up areas and tended to grow rather haphazardly as consumption for fuel and chemical industry feed-stock increased.

Because most oil is imported most oil refineries and associated petro-chemical establishments are located on large river estuaries. Generally they prefer flat land and they tend to need a lot of water for cooling purposes. Inland depots tended to be somewhat smaller but that is a relative term and they were still on the big side for inclusion on a model railway.

Fig ___ Major rail connected oil installations



As noted above however there were smaller refineries, such as the Briggs plant in Dundee, which further processed the refineries's waste products to extract saleable materials. These were often very small (compared to a full refinery), they often employed rail for both deliveries of the raw materials and shipping of the products. These small establishments represent the bridge between oil refineries and petrochemical plants.

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British on-shore and off-shore oil fields

There are only limited deposits of (liquid) oil found in the UK mainland at East Nottinghamshire and in north Leicestershire, with a post war field at Wytch Farm Dorset. Oil shale (described below) was however a very significant source of certain oil products from the 1830s until after World War One (the last plants closing in the 1960s).

British Oil Shale Refining

Oil shale is a kind of rock which contains an oily liquid called kerogen which can be distilled to produce hydrocarbons similar to those in petroleum. Oil shale was regularly used from about the sixteenth century but this was mainly seen as a medicinal material. In the seventeenth century an Italian town was heated using gas made from oil shale but serious commercial exploitation only began in 1838 in France where the oil was distilled for lamp oil. If you heat oil shale to about 500 degrees Celsius you get hydrocarbons and a range of solid products most of the solids are useless but some are valuable, notably sulphur, ammonia, alumina, soda ash and nahcolite (which is used in industrial exhaust gas scrubbing).

By driving off the oil in retorts (similar in principle to those used in gas works) four types of oil could be recovered paraffin oil for burning, paraffin oil for lubricating machinery, a light volatile fluid called naphtha, and solid paraffin. The oil from the retorts was purified by mixing with sulphuric acid and allowing the acid to precipitate out the impurities. The waste material was sold as fuel (the acid was not recovered and would require regular shipments to replenish the stocks). Caustic soda was then mixed in to deal with any residual sulphuric acid and the entire process of distillation and purification was then repeated to produce the pure oils.

Most people used whale oil for domestic lighting but by the mid nineteenth century whale oil could not meet the demand for lamp oil and prices rose. Around this time various shale oil recovery firms were established. You may see references to 'tar tunnels', these were usually coal mines which encountered a layer of oil shale the liquid in which then leaked out and could be processed. The Ironbridge Gorge Museum complex in Shropshire includes a tar tunnel of this type.

James Young (1811-1883) was the originator of the British paraffin industry. In the later 1840's he was engaged in the manufacture of oils from a petroleum spring at Alfreton, Derbyshire, and in 1850 set up a partnership to manufacture oils from `Torbane Hill mineral', or `Boghead coal', at Bathgate. He began selling paraffin in 1856 and had a great deal of success with the product (which did not smell nearly as badly as the fish oils used in lamps). Young bought out his partners and sold the enterprise (`Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company') in 1866.

Many shale oil works failed at the end of the nineteenth century as comparatively cheap US and Middle Eastern oil came in to the UK but where the shale contained more than about five percent oil by volume recovery remained an economic proposition. These were quite large enterprises, several operated their own internal (narrow gauge) railways, Andrew Barclay of Kilmarnock supplied at least three such engines to Young's works at Addiewell and Uphall. Shale oil was commercially refined in the Lothian area of Scotland (to the West of Edinburgh) from the 1860's until the 1960's and, on a smaller scale, in north Somerset near Watchet. The Scottish shale oil works used the Pumpherston process which employs external heating of the retort. For a time in the early nineteenth century Britain was an oil exporting country but this did not last long and the vast majority of the UK's oil was imported prior to the North Sea oil boom of the late 1970's.
In the oil business oil from shale and tar sands is called syncrude. A 2005 estimate set the total world resources of oil shale at 411 gigatons — enough to yield 2.8 to 3.3 trillion barrels (520 km3) of shale oil. This exceeds the world's proven conventional oil reserves, estimated at 1.317 trillion barrels, as of 1 January 2007. The United States, Russia and Brazil account for 86 percent of the world's resources in terms of shale-oil content with the US holding just over 60 percent.

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Imported Oils

An American called Drake discovered Pensylvanian crude oil in 1859 and the business expanded rapidly but as with most oils in the Western hemisphere the proportion of lighter fractions (kerosene, petrol, naphtha and diesel oils) was small. Oils from the Eastern hemisphere contain a higher proportion of the valuable light ingredients but less sulphur and thick residues such as asphalt and coke (which often contain metals). The heavy western oils need more energy input to break them down, typically to get two barrels of goodies from heavy oil you use one barrel of the oil as fuel. A light oil well produces about 10,000 barrels per day, heavy oil wells only deliver 5-100 barrels a day. As result there were expeditions to various parts of the world and in the Middle East large deposits were found. The British had a considerable influence in that part of the world and by the early 20th century the UK was importing oil from this area in purpose built tanker ships (this was the basis of Shell's oil business in the early days). One of the reasons for tension between Britain and France and the Germans in the run up to World War One was the shift to oil fired warships, the Germans had no domestic oil production and were actually going to build a railway line from Berlin down to Basra in Iraq to bring oil for their fleet. The first (and one of the largest) deployment of British troops in World War One was in fact to Basra to secure the Iraqi oil fields.

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Oil from Coal and Other Synthetic Fuels

Germany has no oil reserves but does have a lot of coal and a vigorous chemical industry. In the 1920s they developed a method of making fuel oil from coal using the Fischer-Tropsch process (or Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis). This takes in a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen,m passing them over a catalyst (usually iron or cobal based but nickel and ruthenium have also been used). Using this process you can make a synthetic petroleum substitute for use as synthetic lubrication oil or as synthetic fuel. In Britain, a German chemist by the name of Alfred August Aicher (who became a British subject) obtained several patents for improvements to the process in the 1930s and 1940s. Aicher set up a company in 1930 called Synthetic Oils Ltd. (There is no connection with the Canadian company of the same name.) and from 1940 he was associated with a company called Petrocarbon Ltd.

In Britain Benzole (extracted from coal tar) was a popular fuel, although motorists preferred it as a 50-50 ix with petrol, and larger gas works often incorporated a benzole plant to recover this and other products from the distillation of coal tar. There is an illustration of the distillation towers at a benzole plant in the section Lineside Industries - Gas Works. Many such plants were described as a Naphtha Refinery. Benzol is made up mainly of benzene and toluene, the latter being an ingredient of TNT it was of particular importance during wartime.

Two companies marketed benzole based motor fuel, National Benzole Co. Ltd. (a subsidiary of Shell-Mex and BP's joint UK operation) and Cleveland Petroleum Co. Ltd (a subsidiary of Esso, although they maintained a separate fleet of tankers). Tanks wagons for any of these companies might therefore be seen at such a plant.

Also in Britain with the problems caused by World War One there some interest in producing motor fuels from coal, of which the UK had plentiful supplies. The photo below shows a coal to oil plant built by ICI at Billingham in the 1930s to manufacture Benzole (used as petrol or as a petrol additive). This plant is nicely compact and allows regular visits by coal wagons and tank wagons, both sharing a common siding if space is tight (note the coal wagons can remain at the end of the siding whilst tankers are filled closer to the entrance).

Fig ___ Model of the ICI oil plant at Billingham



In the 1930s ICI had some Class A 14 ton tanks marked 'Imperial Cehmical Industries Limited' on the upper sides and 'Synthetic ammonia & nitrates limited' on the lower sides below the red band. I am not sure what they were carrying but they also had some standard 14 ton four wheelers in the 1930s with what looks like a white barrel with red bands to either end and I.C.I. in (I think) red about four feet tall on the sides, these wagons had a single black 'fast traffic star'. This is not any standard livery I am aware of, the red bands at the ends were about a foot wide and may have been some odd ICI marking. Photographs of both may be found on the Stockton on tees local picture website ( http://picture.stockton.gov.uk/photos/t821.aspx ).

During World War Two German and Japan both used the Fischer-Tropsch process to produce fuels, in Germany these were known as ersatz (which is German for substitute). One side effect was that they found these oils were less liable to freeze during the Russian winter (petroleum oils contain waxes which do freeze at low temperatures). Synthetic oil fell from favour after World War Two as supplies of cheap oil became plentiful, however countries with limited access to the cheap oil developed the process further (even today a lot of the diesel in South Africa is made from synthetic oils). As a component for lubricating oils however the synthetics remained of considerable interest (based on the Germans experience in the Russian winters) and modern synthetic lubrication oils are widely considered preferable to mineral oils. It is estimated that we have now consumed about a third of the available petroleum oil and hence in the future synthetic oils (which can be made from coal or vegetable matter) will become increasingly important.

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Modelling Oil Refineries and Storage/Distribution Depots

Oil has been imported in bulk since the 1880's but up to the 1920's most internal movement was still in wooden barrels. Tank wagons with tubular barrels resembling the Peco ten foot wheelbase model appeared on the railways in the 1880's but there were few routes with facilities to handle bulk liquids at both ends. Horse drawn road tank wagons appeared at about the same time but these do not seem to have been very common. In the later 1920's oil tank railway wagons began to appear in greater numbers as recipients developed rail links and installed bulk storage tanks and by the mid 1930's the wooden barrels had largely been displaced.

Fortunately railway access to any oil installation is usually restricted to a small corner of the refinery and locomotives are not allowed to enter the loading or unloading area. The loading area will usually feature several quite long sidings to accommodate the rolling stock, and such a loading point could form part of a layout with most of the 'depot' or 'refinery' painted on the back-scene. A typical installation has a single line passing through a gated entry into a fenced area, they might be three or four sidings, each long enough to handle perhaps ten of the 100 ton bogie tankers (or the equivalent length of other types).

It has long been standard practice to have a fairly long wheelbase wagon on hand, known as a 'reach wagon' which can be coupled between the loco and the rail tanker wagons so that the loco does not have to get too far into a dangerous installation when shunting tanks. Old plate wagons (the Peco long wheelbase 'plate' wagon) are often used as 'reach' wagons, kept at the terminal these often have their sides removed and laid on the floor. In the early 1980's redundant ferry wagons similar to the Peco long wheelbase 'tarpaulin' wagons were also used as reach wagons. If a long wagon was not available a pair of standard five plank open wagons was used, a single ten foot wheelbase wagon would not be long enough.

One point to remember is that bottom discharge of Class A (very flammable) liquids such as petrol was banned at the turn of the century, following leaks onto the track. Class A tankers were loaded and discharged through the top using hoses and at even a small terminal there would be a raised walk-way to give access to the tank tops. This would be equipped with swinging arms from which dangled the black rubber loading or discharge pipes for the wagons.

Fig ___ Petrol cranes



This requirement for top loading and discharge of Class A liquids was dispensed with the 1960's but some of the terminals equipped for this kind of handling remained operational at least into the early 1970's as the older top-discharge wagons remained in service.

Where a permanent walk-way was not justified a light frame mounted on small wheels would be provided. This frame carried a swinging arm or gallows arranged to be higher than the rail tanker top hatch, and from this would trail the black rubber two inch discharge hose.

Very similar implements were regularly used for loading Bitumen wagons at the refineries into the 1970's and possibly the 1980's. This was for practical rather than regulatory reasons, the product will set solid at normal temperatures (it is supplied from heated tanks), but raised pipes can be drained between jobs. Making one of these mobile loaders would be rather more difficult in N as they were rather light and flimsy in appearance. The best bet would be to make the whole thing from wire and extend the vertical post down into the baseboard for support as shown in the drawing below.

Fig ___ Top loading apparatus used for Bitumen



A simple storage or distribution depot is an attractive option for a layout, it might be located anywhere in the country and would consist of tanks and rail and possibly road tanker facilities. The storage tanks might be some distance from the loading/unloading point and this would not be on a siding close to the main line where sparks from steam locos would be a hazard. A spur to an oil or petrol terminal can therefore be used to fill in an awkward corner of a layout. There are kits of oil storage tanks available in Continental ranges if you have room for them but they can be assumed to be some distance away.

A modern oil depot can be a very compact affair, these days the top discharge for Class A liquids is no longer required, flexible hoses leading to simple hydrant type connections are used. Generally at larger terminals there are two tracks, one to each side of the hydrants, however smaller terminals can have only a single track.

The hydrants feed into pipes which are sometimes buried under the ground, in which case the pipework usually comes to the surface close by and thereafter most pipes are above ground, supported on simple steel bench work and usually a light grey colour. At many installations there is a single large (6-10 inch (15-25cm) diameter) pipe running alongside the siding. The flexible hoses are dark grey (silver for LPG) and about four inches (10cm) diameter with a light grey coupling on the ends, the hoses are normally left attached to the valves and at modern installations there is sometimes a hooped support to carry the hose when not in use. The example illustrated below is typical, the hydrant at the front has a problem, hence no hose and a red warning label attached to it. The track is laid on bare concrete and sits in a shallow trench to contain any spillage, the hydrant and pipe are on a raised concrete platform and the area to the right is gravel.

Fig ___ Fuel oil terminal



Coloured bands are sometimes seen on pipes, to help the terminal workers to trace out the line. Loading valves are often painted black, red or green but the oil products break up most paints so near the hydrant connections the paint gets patchy with black areas showing through. The loading or unloading area would have a raised bank of earth round it and the gate into the area might have a rubber seal along the bottom.

Fig ___ Class B oil loading/discharging





One standard feature of any oil or gas handling installation since the 1960's would be fire monitors (a small depot might have only one). These are metal 'cannon' like objects that squirt out foam in case of a fire, they are always painted red. They can be fixed or mounted on a mobile trolley, for modelling purposes the fixed type are much easier to make.

In addition where volatile chemicals are involved (LPG, Ammonia and the like) there are usually 'Spray Rails' mounted above the tracks, these are two inch diameter pipes fitted with spray nozzles on the under side. In the event of a fire these generate a water mist over the rake of wagons, which is the best way to prevent the fire spreading and also stops the heat of the flames reaching nearby tanks etc. Normally there are two rails above each track, so that each side of every wagon will be covered, they are supported about every ten to fifteen feet by a light metal arm. Often there are two sets of arms, each one supporting one of the spray rails.

Not all depots were so complicated however, oil fired central heating appeared in the 1930's and was popular from the 1940's until the big oil price rises in the 1970's. Heating oils are Class B liquids, which do not require the top loading/discharging arrangement. Coal merchants often had a yard adjoining the railway goods yard at the local station and these firms often branched out into supplying domestic heating oil. These yard based facilities are discussed in the section on Railway Company Goods Facilities - Coal and Heating Oil. The tanks would be quite large, in N a 'till roll' with plastic card ends would serve for a horizontal tank. Add an access hatch from a disc of 40 thou card at one end and a bit of wire bent over at the top as a 'breather pipe' at the other. Alternatively the tank body from an American oil tank wagon can be used. It would be normal to enclose the tank in a brick wall so that if it leaked the spill would be contained. In addition there will be a small building housing the pump (used to transfer the oil from the rail tanks to the storage tanks and also to load delivery lorries).

Larger heating oil terminals had large storage tanks but often had smaller tanks acting as buffer stored for loading the lorries. The sketch below assumes you have used the tops from aerosol cans for the storage tanks and Ratio oil tanks for the buffer stores (raised on tall brick supporting walls so they drain into the lorries by gravity). The loading point consists of cranes supported on the H section girders supporting the corrugated iron pitched roof. The general arrangement is very loosely based on a rather larger heating oil terminal operated in the 1960's by Charringtons, a major London fuel merchant. The layout as shown is about the minimum for such a depot, the prototype had two rail tracks, several large storage tanks, a number of lorry loading points each with a smaller buffer tank or two close by and several odd buildings including a canteen or mess for the lorry crews and terminal staff.

Fig ___ Rail Connected Heating Oil Merchants



A further variation is a tank farm operated by an oil importer, of which there were quite a few dotted around the coastline, mainly in industrial centres such as London, Manchster and the North East. One such establishment was set up in the early 1880s had a series of large circular iron tanks, some capable of holding 3,000 barrels of petrol. Many of the tanks were situated 15ft below ground level in a special 'oil pit', and the majority of the wharf was itself below the level of the river. This establishment was taken over by the London Oil Storage Company in 1885 and in 1913 the site was described as comprising 'a two-storey brick office building and dwelling house, a brick coopers' shop and a corrugated-iron store in a group at the entrance; two brick warehouses for storage and filling, a pump and filling house, engine house and boiler house, a carpenters' shop, blacksmiths' shop, store, and cloakroom and a total of 27 oil-storage tanks with a combined capacity of over 14,000 tons, including two giant tanks named 'Reliance' and 'Excellent' with individual capacities of 3,000 and 4,000 tons respectively.' I believe they had a railway siding from the London docks for dispatching the imported oils inland. Such a facility can be modelled against the backscene and need not take up as much room as might be thought.

The tanks at a larger inland depot do not need to be modelled unless you have the room, they were often be buried in the ground close by but small tanks from the various kit manufacturers would serve and simple tanks made from snap-on aerosol canister caps would do.

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Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)

LPG's include propane, butane and various more exotic gasses. The first two are routinely used for heating but propane cannot be used indoors as the products of combustion are poisonous. One slight problem is that butane is a liquid at below about XXX degrees Celsius, so it is no use as a fuel in cold climates. LPG was produced in Britain by the Riverside Oil Co around the turn of the century although there was little interest in it at the time. In America however things moved rather more quickly and by the time of the First World War the Americans were using butane for domestic heating and cooking. The idea was taken up by the French and in about 1935 the Modern Gas and Equipment Company was set up in Britain to sell imported French 'Calor Gas'. This became the Calor (Distributing) Co. Ltd., a British registered company (for many years this was owned by the Imperial Continental Gas Association, set up in 1824, Calor Gas was sold to the SHV Gas Group, a private Dutch company, in 1984).

Customs officers felt that butane was a rather dangerous material to be shipped across the channel so supplies were purchased from Shell Mex and BP, both of whom viewed it as a waste product at the time. As no British firm had ever made gas cylinders the Home Office and ICI (who were making petrol from coal at Billingham with butane as a by-product) devised a British specification.

In 1936 dealerships were established to sell cylinders of calor gas, each dealer was given an eight horsepower Fordson van, and supplies were delivered in cylinders by rail.

Fig ___ Calor Gas Dealers Van


Up to 1947 all distribution relied on rail transport, but following that hard winter Calor began using road haulage as well (although I am not sure why this was). In the 1960s the bulk gas rail tanks appeared, followed by the larger bogie tankers. As far as I know there were no calor gas liveried tank wagons, but I could be wrong on that point. Eventually the dealers set up larger storage and bottling plants and these were supplied by rail tank wagons either running onto private sidings or decanting into road wagons (this was NOT done at normal goods yards).

If your layout is based in the 1960's or later you might consider a simple transshipment point for LPG to feed road tankers (the first LPG tanks, similar to the Peco offering, appeared in 1962, see also 'Livery - Tank Wagons'). Facilities at a remote LPG depot can be quite small, perhaps only taking two, three or four of the Peco fifteen foot wheelbase tank wagons, a 'reach wagon' would be stored at the terminal used so the loco would not enter the loading area. Four Peco tanks occupy the same length as two Farish tank wagons (these latter have to be converted to LPG tankers, introduced in 967, see also 'Goods Rolling Stock Design - Rail Tanks').

There will be a concrete area with rails inset into it surrounded by a low wall to contain spillages, there should be a low gate to close off the entrance to this area and fitted with a sealing rubber strip along the bottom edge.

Small hydrants will be located alongside the track for coupling up the discharge pipes. If it is a busy terminal there might be some hoses left connected to the hydrants, these are grey or natural metal steel reinforced flexible hoses about a foot thick, the coiled metal guitar string 'D' is about right for this. These metal flexible hoses, called Anaconda Hoses, are expensive and most of the pipe-work would be solid metal tubing, either buried or carried above the ground on a steel framework.

The wagons might discharge only into road tankers, the lorry loading point would normally be a couple of hundred yards from the railway siding. The loading point will have a metal framework to support a set of water-spray pipes in case of a fire.

There was an article on such a small LPG terminal in Model Railway Constructor magazine, unfortunately I cannot confirm the date but I believe it was in the early 1980's. The rail tankers are available in 'N' from the Peco range and bogie LPG tankers can be produced from the Grafar 100 ton bogie tanker.

xxx confirm date of article if possible



Fig ___ LPG Loading/Discharging point





Liquid Natural Gas

LNG is a very different animal, methane is the major component of natural gas, about 87% by volume, and this stuff only liquifies at -161 decrees C. or under very considerable pressure (about 60Kg per square cm if I remember correctly). This makes it exceptionally difficult to transport in road or rail tankers as a liquid as the pressure vessel has to be very heavy or the insulation very thick and the refrigeration plant required is much to big to be portable. The bulk LNG ships simply insulate their tanks and use the boil-off in their main engine. Naturally occurring LNG also contains significant quantities of ethane, propane, butane, and pentane (heavier hydrocarbons which are removed prior to its use as a consumer fuel) as well as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium and hydrogen sulfide. Having said which it is not toxic (unlike coal gas) and supplies are fairly plentiful at the moment. Compared to other hydrocarbon fuels burning methane produces only carbon dioxide and water and less CO2 than the other fuels.

UK imports began in 1964 with a shipment for Shell Oil from Algeria carried in the S.S. Methane Princess (LNG is only carried in purpose built ships) and more recently gas from the North Sea oilfields and more recently imported via pipelines.

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Oil Companies



For more on oil company branding see also Appendix One - Garages and Petrol Stations.

For details on Lubrication Oil companies see Lineside Industries - Lubricating Oils and Associated Works.

It is impractical to cover the details of all companies manufacturing or trading in oil and coal tar products, a good start for anyone interested in these areas is Mr. R. Tourret's book 'Petroleum tank wagons of Britain' (see bibliography for details). There were a lot of companies with 'oil' in their name, but many of these were vegetable or fish oil related industries. Examples include the Erith Oil Works who dealt in fish oils and the Kosmo-Lubric Oil Co of Stalybridge, Cheshire who were listed as oil importers and refiners in 1914, with a range of lubricants on offer, but on further investigation turned out to be dealing in vegetable oils. There are also the oil distributors, who buy oil for the refineries and re-sell it to their customers. Some of these did operate their own tank wagons but by no means all.

Where I was not able to trace a refinery operated by the company I have indicated this in the text, however although some firms bought their fuel from the oil companies others operated their own tank farms and imported the refined product (an example being Russian Oil Products). Also companies sometimes went in and back out of the refinery business. Most of the firms listed below have at some point operated tank wagons several of which have been seen in model form.

In 1939 all the oil firms were taken into an arrangement known as the 'pool'. The oil and petrol companies formed one pool, lubricating oil firms formed another. During the war only a single grade of petrol was produced for civilian use, with quite a low octane rating (improved slightly in 1942). Petrol was not 'branded' during the war and no advertising was used. These arrangements continued until 1953, at which point the petrol companies resumed their advertising and gradually reintroduced their multiple grade distributions.

The UK oil industry was moderately stable until the 1960s, the listings below are divided into companies that operated in the UK before 1960 and those that appeared after that date.

Pre 1960s Brands

Carless was one of the first UK oil companies, formed in 1859 by Eugene Carless. Carless became the leading distillery in Britain for the newly imported American crude oil, and made advances in refining coal tar and shales, from which were derived benzoline, paraffin oil, burning naphtha and carburine. In 1872 a partnership with George Bligh Capel and John Hare Leonard brought a name change with the company trading as Carless, Capel and Leonard. Leonard became the sole proprietor within eighteen months. Following a merger with a nearby chemical firm run by a Frederick Simms (who was associated with Gottlieb Daimler) Simms suggested the trade name of Petrol, to be used for a motor launch spirit in 1893, and this was accepted by William Leonard. It was not however accepted for registration as a trade mark as it was regarded by the Registrar as a descriptive word. Marketing petrol firmly linked the firm with the motor car and Carless Capel and Leonard supplied their new fuel for the Emancipation Run to Brighton in 1896. Simms and Leonard were both founder members of the Automobile Club, later the R.A.C. At the turn of the century Carless Petrol was still virtually the only British source of highly refined motor spirit, and by 1906 the firm had 1,500 agents throughout the country.

Fig ___ Carless 'Petrol' branding



The company developed the Coalite solid fuel in the 1920s and made TNT during the 39-45 war. The Company opened a new refinery at Harwich in 1964 taking on gas condensate from North Sea Oil. In 1965 a refining and storage depot was established at Longport, Staffordshire. With increasing demands for capital, Carless Capel and Leonard became a public company in 1971. Carless Petroleum was established as subsidiary in 1973, and Carless was also involved in on-shore fields at Humbly Grove and Wytch Farm. Production ceased at Hackney Wick in the early 1970s and the administration moved from the Hope Works to Petrol House, formerly a dry cleaning factory owned by Lush and Cook. The subsidiary Carless Solvents moved to Romford in 1984 and Carless Petroleum moved to Colchester in 1977. The parent company continued trading as Carless, Capel and Leonard Ltd from 1872 to 1989. In 1989 the Company was taken over and broken up and a new company, Carless Refining and Marketing, was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Repsol at Romford, they specialised in the production of high quality solvents, oils and speciality products for industry. The company was a leading supplier of solvents to the printing ink industry for over forty years. By the early 21st Century Carless Refining and Marketing was owned by a Spanish firm. It was then bought and merged with a company called Petrochem, (formed in 1981) to become Petrochem Carless, since when wagons bearing the new company branding have been seen on the railways.

Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company of Pumpherston, Pumpherston Oil Co. Ltd, Mid Calder and Broxburn, Clippens Oil Company of Paisley, Oakbank Oil Company of Midcalder, Caledonian Mineral Oil Co. Ltd., Cobbinshaw and the Midlothian Oil Company of Straiton.

These were all Scottish producers of Paraffin oils from mined shales, Young's being the largest and also the only one to make and sell oil lamps. Paraffin (so named on account of its want of affinity with most chemical substances) was discovered more or less simultaneously by Reichenbach in Germany and by Dr Christison, of Edinburgh in about 1830. By the early 1830s people were experimenting with recovering this oil from shale deposits (up to this point these had been seen merely as colliery waste). In the 1840s a Manchester chemist by the name of James Young was asked to investigate oily deposits occurring in a coal mine at Alfreton, Derbyshire. He discovered that it contained small quantities of paraffin and set up a works to extract this material close by the mine. The process is more fully described above. Scotland's oil production began in the 1850s with James 'Paraffin' Young's first works producing oil from the coal-like Torbaneite mineral deposits near Bathgate. There was a shortage of oil (mainly for lamps) and the whale oil and vegetable oil industries could not meet the demand. Mr Young's new process seemed to have developed just at the right time, but the emergence of cheap American mineral oil reserves threatened the fledgling industry. A Midlothian pioneer William Young (no relation of James) further developed the process or refining shale and allowed Scotland's oil industry to survive.
Young's Oil Coy Ltd were operating branded 10 ton tank wagons in 1902 (registered on the North British Rly). The Pumpherston Oil Co was operating a 10 ton twin cylinder tank wagons (similar to the N gauge model from W & T) in 1908 (registered on the North British Railway). The Oakbank works (which also operated a fleet of railway tank wagons) opened in the mid 1860s (as the original patents expired). Some elderly Oakbank tanks carried Oakbank livery at least into the 1940s (although the firm was taken over by APOC in 1919). Some of the early anchor mounted bogie tanks built for the Oakbank Oil Co lasted in service into the 1960s, the Oakbank tanks are illustrated in R Tourret's book on petroleum tank wagons (see Bibliography) with a drawing under the entry for BP and a photo associated with the entry for Oakbank. Broxburn Oil Co operated some sulphuric acid tanks and presumably also operated tankers for paraffin and liquid residues.
Scottish product names such as Smith's Royal Standard Lamp Oil, Sunlight Oil, and Taylor's Paraffine were all well known brands, Royal Standard Oil became (briefly) a worldwide brand (and many a Scot will tell you it may have prompted the choice of name in America of Standard Oil). The imported American lamp oils were cheaper but had a lower flashpoint which meant they were more likely to cause fires if spilled. In response to increasing public concern over deaths from oil lamp accidents, the Scottish oil producers campaigned to restrict competition from unsafe imported oils and highlighted the safety merits of their own products.
During the 1914-18 War the Scottish shale works were amalgamated with government backing as Scottish Oil Agency Ltd, this organisation expanded between 1918 and 1920 by absorbing other Scottish shale oil companies including Young's, Broxburn and at least one firm in Philpstoun. In turn Scottish Oil Agency Ltd became part of Scottish Oils Ltd. mainly owned by Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Scottish Oils Ltd was created in 1924 when APOC built their refinery at Grangemouth on the Forth estuary near Edinburgh (I am not certain when they took over the Scottish Oil Agency Ltd but that organisation was still building bulk depots in 1926).

Fig ___ Scottish shale oil company logos


Shale oil production in Scotland ceased in the early 1960s but there was an unsuccessful attempt to revive it in 1973. Scottish Oils Ltd still exists but is no longer in the shale oil business. According to the TUC The Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company still have an office in Aberdeen and I gather that BP has a 'Pumpherston Works' but I dont't know what it makes.

The first major foreign oil company to set up in Britain was the Anglo American Oil Co in 1888, this was the British distribution network for the American Standard Oil Co, these days known as Esso (Eastern Section Standard Oil) however Royal Daylight was the trading name which was used for their paraffin and domestic oils ranges and on many of their rail tank wagons. I believe they may have used the name Standard Oil Co on their bitumen wagons, but I am not at all sure on that.

Fig ___ Royal Daylight advert


When they started marketing motor spirit in 1896 they adopted the name Pratt's, sold as Pratt's Motor Spirit and later as Pratt's perfection Spirit. In the later 1920s the apostrophe was dropped.

Fig ___ Pratts logos



The Pratts brand is associated with one of the very few pre-war bogie oil tankers, it was re-painted with the Esso logo in the later 1930s and soldiered on for several years but I do not know if it survived World War Two (the wagon and markings are described in the section on Goods Rolling Stock - Rail Tanks). The Pratts Perfection Motor Spirit name continued in use in England until 1935-6 when first Essolube (for oils) then Esso (for petrol) replaced the older brands.

Fig ___ Esso logos from the later 1930s



The Esso logo was originally just the lettering as shown above, the `Esso' logo with the blue oval was introduced in 1938/39 (hence a lick of paint can back-date a wagon to pre-war livery). The illustration below shows Esso delivery lorries in the 1960s (left) and later 1970s (right).

Fig ___ Esso lorries in 1960s and 1970s livery



Esso also sold paraffin, in the 1930s they used the Royal Daylight Paraffin brand, changing to Esso Blue after the war. This was a Class A liquid but as far as I am aware the rail tankers were not branded for this traffic.

Esso built a large refinery at Fawley on the South Coast in 1949 (there had been a refinery there since 1921). Esso became part of the Exxon Corporation in 1978.

Mobil was established as the Standard Oil Company of New York, following the 1911 break up of Standard Oil and merged with the Vacuum Oil Corporation in 1931. The company traded in Britain as the Vacuum Oil Co from 1885 selling lubricants under the Mobiloil brand. Their oil blending and grease plant at Birkenhead (set up in 1910, after the warehouse burned down) included a grease plant and blending facilities and it was extensively developed until by 1939 it was one of the largest and most important blending units of its kind in Europe. This was bombed out in the war and rebuilt (lubricants are vital in wartime). Mobiloil was a major brand by the 1930s and in 1953 they opened a refinery at Coryton on the Thames and began selling petrol, originally under the Mobilgas name.

Fig ___ Mobilgas lorry in 1950s livery



I have found a reference to a 20 ton Class A anchor mounted rail tanker branded Mobil and owned by the Mobil Oil Co.Ltd. built in 1949 but I am not sure when that branding was applied to the wagon. It was in 1963 they changed their name to Mobil, introducing a new logo but still incorporating the flying horse, although Mobiloil continued as their oil brand until the 1970s. Mobil was the first major brand to adopt self service on a large scale in the mid 1960s. In (I think) the later 1980s they changed their logo to just the word Mobil with the 'O' in red and no flying horse. In 1996, Mobil's fuels operations in Europe were placed into a joint venture 70% owned by BP and the Mobil petrol brand disappeared from service stations. Mobil continued to sell lubricants through BP and independent service stations. In 1999 Mobil merged with Exxon and in 2000 BP acquired all the former Mobil petrol retailing assets as well as the Coryton refinery (but sold the refinery to Petroplus in 2007). Mobil returned to being purely a lubricant brand in Europe, and became the premium quality oil on sale at Esso service stations.

Fig ___ Mobil signs and pump tops



Around the end of the 19th and early 20th century the British oil industry expanded rapidly, Shell, Russian Petroleum, Anglo-Persian Oil Co, and Anglo Mexican Oil were all set up between 1890 and 1914.

Burmah Oil Company This was set up in Glasgow in 1896 with the intention of developing oil interests in India. It was an early shareholder in Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) and was the only oil company to operate in Burma until 1963 (when the oil fields were nationalised). Burmah was primarily an oils and petrochemicals company, petrol was always something of a side line. However in the 1960s Burmah began selling via petrol stations under their own brand, in the later 1960s they bought out the Curfew discount chain of stations (which they re branded Burmah) and the Major and Apex chains (which they did not re-brand as these were established firms). In 1966 they purchased Castrol Oil (the main British lubricant manufacturer). Halfords, the motor parts supplier, became a part of the Burmah Oil in 1969, following a takeover battle between Burmah Oil and Smiths Industries (Halfords was sold off again in 1983). In the 1970s Burmah Oil ran into financial difficulties and had to be helped out by the Bank of England, in 2000 the company was bought by BP-Amoco (now BP).

Fig ___ Burmah Oil - old logo and petrol station sign (introduced in 1969)



APOC & British Petroleum (see also Shell-BP below). BP is one of the world's largest oil companies and is today (1987) Britain's largest company. BP began life as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) in 1909 and in 1917 they purchased a smaller firm called British Petroleum and established this as their main marketing subsidiary. Hence most road and rail tank wagons were thereafter marked BP rather than APOC. The wagons shown below are both unusual, the twin tank is in standard APOC livery, the two-compartment tank is in early BP livery (although this should I believe be a serif font not plain as shown).

Fig ___ APOC and early BP liveries



In 1913 the firm was partially nationalised in order to secure oil supplies for the Royal Navy. Regarding branding they used B.P. in a plain font but with the full stops on many items, and British Petroleum (in full and in a serif font) was the norm on tank wagons. In 1920, they held a staff competition to design a new logo and came up with the shield design. In 1921 there was at least one Class A wagon branded B.P. MOTOR SPIRIT but I am unsure as to the details of the logo used. I think the flag design (often seen as a tinplate sign in garages) came after the shield as the BP has the inverted commas round it and resembles the lettering used for the shield design.

Fig ___ BP logos



APOC changed its name to the Anglo Iranian Oil Company in 1935 but as far as I am aware the AIOC logo was never used. The name changed again to the British Petroleum Company in 1954. The company was fully developed oil company marketing a wide range of oils as well as petrol. They sold a lot of paraffin under the brand name Aladdin Pink (the name changed after World War Two to Pink Paraffin). The pink dye was added as a safety feature in order to prevent paraffin being mistaken for other liquids. An uncoloured form was sold (much more cheaply) as ‘White May’. BP acquired the chemical interests of the Distillers Company 1967 (Distillers group had purchased a small pharmaceuticals company which was doing well on the sales of a new drug called Thalidomide. This drug was then found to cause birth defects, as the new owners Distillers were held liable and had to sell most of their assets to pay the compensation and legal costs. Distillers, one of the countries biggest companies, was dramatically reduced in size).

BP built a large refinery at Coryton on the Thames in 1953 (where there had been a tank farm for imported oil for many years).

Shell (see also Shell-BP below). Shell is an Anglo-Dutch oil-development and exploration concern Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and is one of the world's biggest companies. The business originated in the early 19th century with a curio shop in East London that sold shell ornaments. By the time the railways arrived in 1830 the dealer, Marcus Samuel, had built up an international trade in copra and oriental artefacts. They spotted a hole in the market for oil transportation from the main European supply in Baku (Russia). The Rothchilds had invested heavily in building railways and digging tunnels to get the oil to the coast but a certain Mr Rockerfeller (owner of Standard Oil) had monopolised the wooden barrel market (Standard Oil played rough, a bit like Microsoft in the later 20th Century). Mr Samuel and his associates commissioned (in secret) a fleet of oil tanker ships (it had to be in secret or Rockerfeller would have seen to it that they failed.) Then oil was found in the Dutch East Indies and they built ships to bring the oil through the Suez canal to Europe. 1897 The Samuel brothers initially called their company The Tank Syndicate dealing in oil and kerosene (paraffin oil) using the name Asiatic Petroleum Company but in 1897 renamed it the Shell Transport and Trading Company. The British owned Shell Transport and Trading Co was then merged with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company in 1907 becoming one of the worlds first multi-national companies. The company continued to expand and took over the Anglo Mexican Oil Company in the early 1930's giving the brand name Shell Mex. Prior to World War Two Shell was the best selling petrol in the UK. Over the years there have been various changes to the logo as shown below with the date of introduction (they also used a plain red shell symbol on some of their advertising signs).

Fig ___ Shell logos




In 1912 the company built a tank farm at Shell Haven (the name is noting to do with the company the place was already called that) and refining started at the site in 1916. In 1948 a further expansion added a 'crude distillation plant' to handle oil from Kuwait (this took two years to build, opening in 1950). The Shell refinery at Stanlow dates back to 1924, when a small bitumen plant was established at the site, bringing in the crude product in rail tankers and shipping out the refined products. The site was built up over the years into a full oil refinery, in the 1970s an oil pipeline was constructed from Amlwch, Anglesey to Stanlow so that large tankers could pump oil ashore for the refinery but rail tank traffic remained a major feature, shipping out the product of the plant. The Anglesey pipeline closed in the 1980s, replaced by a much shorter 15 mile line to the Tranmere Oil Terminal on the River Mersey. Output is delivered by pipeline via the UKOP pipeline, road, rail, and the Manchester Ship Canal.

The Shell business has always made use of rail transport, in the May 1967 Rodel Railway Constructor Magazine there was a photo dated 1919 of a SHELL-MEX Ltd. light fuel oil tank (their No.88 and registered on the GWR). In 1921 they purchased a 14 ton tank which was branded MEX FUEL OIL. In 1927 they had at least one triple compartment tank marked Shell Lubrication Oil (their number No.2454 1927 and registered on the LMS) and I believe they were behind a company called Lubricant Oil Producers who operated 45 ton tanks in the later 1960s. Shell is the world's largest oil and gas producer, with the largest oil reserves, and is responsible for 5% of the world's oil and gas production (1987). It has 2,000 operating companies worldwide. It is also the world's largest retailer, with (1994) 40,000 petrol stations in 100 countries. Its sales turnover in 1992 amounted to more than the gross national product of any country except the 23 richest.

Shell-BP

Shell-BP was a joint oil shipping operation formed in 1932 which lasted until 1976 when they again split their distribution networks. During this period the lorries and railway tanks were marked SHELL-BP. Not all the railway tanks were marked in the joint logo however, the petrol retail outlets were not joined and some tanks had BP or Shell liveries, these were usually class A tanks with liveries mentioning Motor Spirit. Some class A tanks had the word SHELL (plain lettering in red, not the logo) on one side with BP (in a serif font and green) on the other, both in lettering about three feet high.

Fig ___ Shell-BP lorry in early 1960s



From 1966 the Shell and the BP Service Station networks were managed by separate sales organisations within Shell-Mex and B.P and in 1976 the two companies decided to end their co-operation in the UK distribution market. The road lorries were then re-branded with the individual company livery, although the rail tankers took a lot longer to be brought into line.

This operation was very wide ranging, covering all aspects of the petroleum trade, they purchased some anchor mounted 14 ton bitumen tankers in 1942, branded MEXPHALTE.

Power Petroleum I have not found out very much about this firm and could not find any reference to a refinery owned by them although they definitely owned some rail tank wagons in their livery (one had the number 540 on the side). They were taken over by Shell-Mex & BP Ltd. in 1934 but the name continued in use for some time under the new ownership. In the post war era there have been a number of petrol stations branded Power, however I do not know if these are connected in any way to the original firm.

The National Benzole company was formed in 1919, Benzole refers to an additive they employed, derived from coal tar. At first they simply sold the benzole for use as an additive to petrol, this prevented engine knocking and improved acceleration and smoothness. Motorists liked the product but some preferred to mix it 50/50 with petrol, and in 1922 the National Benzole brand (selling the benzole petrol mixture) was set up. I am not sure of the production details but they did buy benzole from the Scottish Oil Agency. They used a picture of Mercury (they called him Mr Mercury) in advertising and adopted the head (in black and gold) as their logo. The mixture proved to be very popular with British motorists and the National Brand became a common sight at the roadside.

Fig ___ 1950 Austin K4 5 ton lorry in 1950s National Benzole livery



After the war they were the UK's best selling brand but were taken over by Shell-Mex-BP in 1957 (their operation being merged with the Power Petroleum business). During the late 1950s Benzole was found to be hazardous to health and therefore from the early 1960s onwards National only sold petrol, at this time they changed the logo to a 'more modern' yellow blue and white design, although still based on the Mr Mercury head.

Fig ___ National Benzole logos



From the later 1980s BP steadily re-branded the 'National' stations as BP, but in 2001 a Scottish firm (Scottish Fuels, formed in 2001 by buying some of BP's local assets in Scotland) licenced the name and for several years there were several stations using it, although the petrol was supplied by BP.

Cleveland Oil Cleveland petrols were originally an independent company based in North East England, established in about 1935. They were supplied by ICI with benzol and alcohol which they blended with petrol marketing their fuels as Cleveland Motor Spirits and Cleveland Discol Motor Spirit respectively. I could not find any reference to an refinery owned by them. In the later 1930s (possibly just post war, sources differ), this company was acquired by the Anglo-American Oil Co (Esso), but the Cleveland name and blended fuels continued in production, trading as the Cleveland Petroleum Products Co. This gave Cleveland five different petrols at a time when many firms had only two or three. In 1973, Esso chose to end the Cleveland brand and gave up selling benzole or alcohol blends. Cleveland's 2,000 filling stations were switched to the Esso brand.

Carburine Motor Spirit was produced by the Gas Lighting Improvement Co Limited based at West Ham marsh, London. Established in 1888 they were in business in 1914 but beyond that I have no information. Carburine was a by-product of coal distillation, however I do not know if they purchased this or purchased the raw tar and distilled it themselves. I could not find any reference to a refinery (tar or oil) owned by them.

Fig ___ Carburine logo



Cities Service Oil Co An American company with a refinery in Louisianna, in the 1930s this firm had a fleet of Class A tank wagons carrying their 'Citex Motor Spirit' in the UK. I do not believe they operated any refineries in the UK. They changed their name to CITGO in 1965 and were bought out by Occidental Petroleum in 1982. CITGO was incorporated as a wholly owned refining, marketing and transportation subsidiary in the spring of the following year. It is now owned by a Venezuelan company.

Cory Brothers of London operated a fleet of Class A tanks in the 1930s branded Corys Motor Spirit . This firm started life as a coal merchant on the grand scale. They were at one time the owner of the largest private owner wagon fleet in the UK and their mines in Wales supplied coal to coaling stations around the world. In 1942, the company was bought by the Powell Duffryn Group, but has maintained its identity as a shipping agent to the present. The Coryton district of Cardiff is named after Sir Herbert Cory, one of the brothers of the title.

Assam Oil Co established in 1899, mainly to deal with railways in India, by the 1914 they were recognised as a supplier of crude and refined oils (although I was not able to trace any reference to a UK based refinery or railway wagons in their livery). They were still listed as an 'oil producer' in the mid 1930s but by this time they were based at Britannic House in London, as this was the headquarters of BP they may well may have been a subsidiary of that company. I believe BP moved to new headquarters in 1999.

Dominion started supplying petrol to English filling stations in the 1920s and was soon acquired by the US company Marland Oil. I could not find any reference to a UK refinery owned by either Dominion or Marland. In 1934 Dominion Motor Spirit was sold to Shell-Mex & BP Ltd, but the name continued to be used as a discount brand at free stations. When they started out they used a distinctive petrol pump 'globe', when using ordinary globes these were marked with a picture of their original design.

Fig ___ Dominion branding



ZIP Russian Oil Products (R.O.P.) a UK registered company that distributed Russian petrol from the Caspian Sea within the UK during the 1920s and 30s, initially branded as R.O.P. but using the ZIP brand in the 1930s. I believe the original name was Russian Petroleum prior to the First World War and the Russian Revolution. I could not find any reference to a refinery owned by the company and I suspect they imported already refined products direct from Russian refineries. This would entail a 'tank farm' close by a port. R.O.P. was sold to Regent in 1948.

Fina is the British arm of the Belgian company Petrofina, they started trading in the UK in the later 1940s (although I read somewhere the logo didn't appear until the mid 1950s) and were buying and using railway tank wagons in their livery by the end of that decade (some of which were second hand stock). They have operated rail tankers, both Class A and B, in their livery. The illustration below shows the early logo (left, still in use in 1958) and the more recent logo (right, in use by 1964). They also had some Class A and LPG tanks with the just the word FINA in red, outlined in black (as seen on several tank wagon models)

Fig ___ Fina tank branding





Total, a French company (a subsidiary of Compagnie Francaise des Petroles), Total was incorporated in 1955, arrived in Britain in 1958 and began using rail tanks in 1968 to transport fuel imported from French refineries. Initially the UK business sold their product only to commercial buyers but from 1960 they operated a number of petrol stations. They preferred solus type arrangements and began buying their own petrol stations in the early 1960s which they leased to tenants. Their (leased) Class B 100 ton bogie tankers were as shown below in the early 1980s.

Fig ___ 1980s leased tank in Total livery



TOTAL operates two refineries in the UK, Lindsey Oil Refinery in Immingham (shown on the map as Killinghome and jointly owned with Fina plc.) and Milford Haven Refinery in West Wales.

Regent appeared in the 1920s as and independent petrol station chain (no refineries they were just a distributor), they were purchased in 1930 by the Trinidad Oil Company to sell their (imported) products in the UK. They had a number of tank wagons during this period but I am unsure as to their livery (they bought some in Class A tanks 1942). The Regent Oil Company was formed in the United Kingdom in 1947 Texas Oil Co (Texaco Petroleum Products - see Texaco below) and the Trinidad Leaseholds Company merged. Texaco was an American petroleum company that had been operating in the United Kingdom since 1916. During the 1950s, Regent began to expand its operations, including selling branded petrol in the UK as well as shipping and refining ventures abroad. They operated large (for the time) tankers using ports such as Gloucester. Texaco opened the Pembroke Refinery in South Wales in 1964, Regent was then completely taken over by Texas Oil (Texaco) in 1956 but was then run as a joint operation by the US companies Texaco and Chevron until 1967. One retailer in 1956 displayed the notice: " Sold!—Regent to America together with the independence of thousands of British garages ". In 1967 the joint Texaco Chevron operation was wound up and after that date Texaco began replacing the Regent brand with the Texaco name. However, in 2004 the Regent brand name was reintroduced, as Texaco consolidated some of its smaller brands under one name that would be familiar to UK customers.

The illustration below is based on a Corgi model of a tanker in Regent livery, I believe the livery dates from the 1960s, and the standard Regent logo.

Fig ___ Regent lorry in 1960s and Regent sign



Regent stations sold Havoline lubricating oils (owned by Texaco) under the Regent brand.

Fig ___ Havoline branded as 'a Regent product'





Jet was established in 1953, owned by and supplying a group of commercial vehicle owners. They started selling to other haulage firms, buying their fuel from Regent (Jet has never owned a refinery, it is an oil dealer). Jet then started building ocean terminals with large tank farms to take imported oil, mainly from Germany.

Fig ___ Jet's first lorry in the 1950s



Jet initially painted their lorries all-over red, however the logo changed to the yellow box with black JET in the later 1950s.

Fig ___ Jet lorry in about 1960



A survey carried out by Jet at this time showed that about 7 per cent of all retailers in the United Kingdom were free of solus ties and in 1958 the company began supplying the retail market, though on a very small scale. In June, 1961 Jet became a subsidiary of Continental Oil Company of Delaware (better known as Conoco, and since 2002 as ConocoPhillips), described by Jet as a " big independent " with abundant sources of Libyan crude oil. It was the intention that Jet should market this oil after it had been processed in German or Italian refineries. In the same year Jet purchased its first petrol station and introduced its first solus agreements. The company continued through difficult times, in the 1980s it expanded a bit then in 2001 it sold all its outlets, although it still supplies them with petrol.

Fig ___ Jet commercial tanker and distributors tanker in 2009



Images copyright and courtesy of ConocoPhillips

Lobitos Oilfields Ltd was formed in 1908 to operate oil concessions in Peru, South America. Lobitos had its own refinery capacity in the United Kingdom but its main business was as an independent supplier in South America. Its main interest in Britain was the production of specialty products (white oils, transformer and cable oils and bitumen); petrol was produced only as an unavoidable by-product which the company supplied to retailers, commercial customers and ex-tank buyers. In 1962 they became a subsidiary of Burma Oil Co. but continued selling under their own brand. In 1964 the company's sales of petrol amounted to 12 million gallons. Nearly 80 per cent, of this total was supplied to the retail market, about 70 per cent of it in Northern Ireland where about half of the nearly 300 retailers marketing its petrol had entered into solus arrangements. In England, on the other hand, most of the petrol sold was to retailers without solus arrangements. Lobitos also owned a few petrol stations in the 1960s, branded Lobitos, which they set up because the solus schemes were killing the independent retailer market. I believe the logo shown below was used for their petrol stations but I am not sure about this.

Fig ___ Lobitos



William Briggs & Sons Ltd (based in Dundee) dealt in fuel oil and bitumen. Their Camperdown Refinery (occasionally known as Dundee Refinery) was built in 1931 adjacent to Dundee Gas Works, initially intended to process the coal tar produced at the gas works. The refinery now processes extra heavy crude oils to produce a comprehensive range of straight run and blown bitumens. Some of these are then further processed to produce cutback bitumen, emulsions and polymer modified emulsion. A range of distillates including gas oil, marine diesel, lubricating oil base stocks and fuel oils are also produced. By the later 1960s Briggs was the only oil refinery in Scotland outside the Grangemouth complex (Grangemouth was established as Scottish Oils in 1924 by APOC, BP sold off all its petrochemical interests in 2005, the Grangemouth refinery going to INEOS, a privately-owned chemicals company). The Briggs Dundee refinery was sold to Tarmac in 1968, the refinery throughput was increased from 100 000 to 330 000 tonnes/year in 1974 and then to 550 000 tonnes/year in 1989. Meanwhile however Briggs seem to have continued to operate a fleet of rail tank wagons, it may simply be that Tarmac did not repaint the wagons. On Paul Bartlett's fotopic site (see Appendix Seven - Links to Useful Websites - Photo Sites) there are pictures of some older anchor mounted for wheelers were still operating in 1977 in Briggs livery. In 1992 the refinery was sold to the specialist Swedish refiner Nynas Petroleum Group (who also operate from Ellesmere Port). I believe Briggs are still in existence but serving the shipping world with their main business being Briggs Marine.

Berry Wiggins & Co Established an oil refinery at Kingsnorth on the Hoo peninsular in Kent in 1930, accessed via a single line gated branch from the nearby Southern Railway line which ran as a three line set of long loops before serving numerous sidings in the works. This firm also operated a site at Weaste (near Manchester). The company produced bitumen from a plant at Sharnel Street on the Isle of Grain as early as 1924 but I gather their bitumen tank wagons did not appear until the later 1930s. This firm operated a large fleet of both Class A and Class B tank wagons, the latter often marked "Liquaphalt" in a yellowish roundel (this was their trade name for liquid asphalt, or bitumen). They also operated Class A tankers, with Kingsnort Petroleum inside a similar roundel.

Fig ___ Berry Wiggins & Co branding



The Berry Wiggins complex ceased to refine oil in 1977, and refining at the comparatively newer BP Isle of Grain complex (built in 1951) also stopped in 1982. Subsequently, oil was shipped into the country in an already refined state, but deliveries were still made to the Isle of Grain thereafter, the last oil train not departing until 1999.

Butlers Chemicals Ltd. This company started life as a tar distillers (for details of that operation see under Lineside Industries - Coal and Wood Tar Distillers). In 1903, William Butler & Co (Bristol) Ltd formed a subsidiary called The British Refined Motor Spirit Co. selling benzole from a distillation plant purchased in the 1890s. Butlers pulled out of the tar distilling business in 1962, by 1965 they had transferred everything to their oil products plant centered on the new Rockingham Works at Avonmouth where they operated under the name of Butlers Chemicals Ltd. In 1972 the name changed again, to Butlers Oil Products, by which time there were Butlers branded petrol stations. The company was taken over by Fina in 1988, and then Total Oil in 2001 however the brand seems to have remained in use into the 1990s. As far as I am aware this company distributes only by road haulage from the Avonmouth plant (but I could well be wrong on that).

Lion Emulsions Ltd This company operated railway tankers carrying bituminous emulsions (fine particles of bitumen suspended in water), used for road surfacing in a technique called Cold Spray (the water allowing the normally very viscous bitumen to be sprayed onto a road surface, the water then evaporates). The were operating tank wagons by the mid 1930s (possibly earlier) and were one of the last companies to operate a fleet of smaller tanks (most apparently second hand). Some of their 14 ton anchor mounted tanks continued in use into the 1980s (although the Lion Emulsions branding seems to have disappeared in the 80's, the tanks then being black with just the standard markings and twin traffic stars on them).
Cold Spray was invented at the beginning of the 1920s by Hugh Allan Mackay and George Samuel Illay in England, receiving a patent in 1922. By then, Mackay had formed his own company, Asphalt Cold Mix Limited, to exploit the patent in the United Kingdom. The secret is to electrostatically charge the bitumen particles so they do not coagulate and remain evenly suspended in the water. The French firm Colas purchased the exclusive rights to use the product in France and has since bought out Lion Emulsions, Colas was formed in 1924 to use the cold spray technique, the name Colas (for 'cold asphalt') was adopted because other firms were selling their own 'cold spray' products.

British Benzol and Coal Distillation Ltd based at the Bedwas coke plant in Monmouthshire operated at least one 14 ton tank wagon in 1930.

Benzole Producers Ltd I was not able to find this companies history, but they owned some branded rail tank wagons in the early 1950s, I gather some of these were marked 'benzine'.

Post 1960s British Petrol Company Names

During the 1960s, Britain was a booming market and many oil companies set up a UK based distribution system. Most did not last although Total, Conoco and Murco, who all arrived at this time, are still operating their own chains of service stations.

V.I.P. was a brand introduced in 1960 by a distributor called Isherwoods. Isherwoods was established in 1934 as a wholesale distributor of petrol and other oil products. Isherwoods owned and operated a small chain of petrol stations and a fleet of road tankers and purchased bulk supplies of petrol (both imported and from British refineries) both for its own stations and for sale to other retailers and to commercial consumers. In 1951 a new company was formed to hold and operate the chain of stations leaving Isherwoods to concentrate on wholesale distribution, originally in the Manchester area.
When the solus system was introduced Isherwoods lost most of its retail customers (although sales to commercial users remained). In 1960 the company introduced its V.I.P. brand petrol, pitching the price to compete with the likes of Jet. Towards the end of 1963 it took over the interests of two smaller wholesale distributors, Octane Petroleum Co. Ltd. and Orbit Petroleum Ltd., operating respectively in the London area and in Yorkshire, where their brands were sold at prices lower than those of the leading petrol companies. The company acquired ocean terminals and inland storage depots. In 1964 Signal Oil & Gas Company of California, the main supplier for the firm, bought out Isherwoods but retained the brand and the UK management. In in 1968 the brand was purchased by Occidental Oil and in the mid 1970s the brand was sold to Elf. I believe the V.I.P. brand had disappeared by the early 1970s.

Fig ___ VIP



Amoco (American Oil Company, also known as also known as Standard Oil of Indiana after 1925), entered the British market in 1964. Amoco had a large refinery at Milford Haven which came on stream in 1973, in 1981 Murco purchased a 30 percent share in the refinery and Amoco sold the rest to Elf in 1990 (I believe Murco are to buy out the Elf stake in 2008). In 1957 all the divisions of Amoco were consolidated into a single company, renamed the Amoco Corporation in 1985. In 1998 Amoco merged with BP to form BP Amoco, now known as BP. The sign below was photographed in the 1980s at an Amoco station.

Fig ___ Amoco



Murco established as a UK company in 1960 (as the British arm of the US oil company Murphy Oil) Murco entered the British market in 1962 by buying two small British chains EP (European Petroleum) and Olympic. Olympic was phased out by about 1970 but some EP branded stations remained. Initially they purchased an oil terminal at Grays in Essex, allowing them to tanker in their own fuel. This was followed by the development of rail fed terminals at Bedworth, Warwickshire and Theale, Berkshire to supply the expanding Murco and EP service station chains. In 1981 the company took an effective 30% interest in the (then Amoco now Elf) oil refinery in Milford Haven, Wales allowing them to refine their own North Sea Oil supplies. In 1990 the final link in the supply chain was added with the opening of the Westerleigh terminal near Bristol. Although a small company by comparison to others in the field Murco has managed to survive and thrive by reacting quickly and effectively to the ever changing market conditions. Today Murco supply over 160 company owned and 260 independently owned service stations in addition to a growing number of commercial customers. Being an independent company the benefits of rail transportation outweigh the costs of pipeline building so rail deliveries remain in use in 2007. At some point I believe they merged with Amoco and the petrol stations were branded as Amoco but I am very unsure on this.

Fig ___ Murco logo



ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd.) manufactured petrol from coal and after 1939 from creosote on Teesside from 1935, and continued to do so up to about 1950 (operating a number of Class A four wheeled tanks with ICI in red on the sides). In the early 1960s they were producing naphtha at Billingham but the petrol was a by-product of this process. At some point ICI went into partnership with Phillips Oil to form Phillips Imperial and in the early 21st century this company operated a jointly owned large oil refinery at North Tees. I am not sure when this company was set up but they were definitely operating in the mid 1960s, ICI sold its share to Petroplus in 2001. I am not sure what happened then but in 1965 when they offered 'surplus' petrol for sale to retailers and in the 1970s there were ICI branded petrol stations in Yorkshire. For this later traffic they used hired tank wagons until the early 1970s, after which they operated some tanks themselves, some of which carried their logo.



Texaco The Texaco Petroleum Products Company first began marketing fuel and lubricants in the UK in 1916, notably the Havolene lubricant brand (originally a 'wax free' petroleum based oil, which they had bought in 1909). It operated a joint distribution system with Standard Oil of California (later Chevron) from the mid 1930s supposedly using the brand name Caltex but in Britain the joint operation used the brand Regent from 1947 (Regent was an existing British independent distributor, see above). They purchased Regent Oil outright in 1956. Texaco opened its Milford Haven refinery in 1964 (their only UK refinery) and was one of the last companies to operate the original 35 ton 4 wheel anchor mounted tanks. Caltex was wound up in 1965, at which point the Regent brand was absorbed by Texaco. Texaco merged with Chevron Oil in 2001. The illustration shows the logo used in the 1930s and the post war logo.

Fig ___ Texaco logo



Chevron Originally Standard Oil of California, became a separate company with the break up of Standard Oil in 1911. The Chevron brand first appeared in the UK in 1967 following the end of the Chevron-Texaco joint operation under the Regent banner. Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979. Gulf Oil had operated in the UK since at least the 1920s (in 1929 Silvertown Lubricants on the Thames near London was acquired by the Gulf Oil Corporation, and in 1950 its name was changed to Gulf Oil (Great Britain) Ltd.) As a petrol station brand however Gulf first appeared in Britain in 1962. The Gulf Oil Refinery at Milford Haven operated from the mid-1960s until 1997, when refining operations ceased and the outlets were sold to Shell. The petrol was branded No-nox and Good-Gulf. The company was taken over by Chevron in 1984 but the Gulf brand was then sold to the Hinduja family and since 1999 the brand has been licenced to a number of smaller companies in Europe including in the UK (although obviously none of the Gulf-branded petrol now sold in the UK actually comes from a Gulf refinery).

Fig ___ Gulf logo



Conoco the Continental Oil Corp of the USA, began operating in the UK in the 1960s and built the Humber Refinery, South Killingholme which opened in 1969. In 2002 Conoco merged with Phillips Petroleum.

Agip(Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli), established in 1926 is an Italian automotive gasoline and diesel retailer. It was a subsidiary of multinational petroleum company Eni. Agip entered the British market in 1963 but I was not able to find a reference to a UK refinery. In 1966 the British operation was bought out by Esso.

Sinclair Union Petroleum Co, was an American firm that arrived in the 1960s and bought out the small Abco and Gainsborough chains of service stations but was in turn bought our by ARCO in 1969. I do not believe this firm operated a UK refinery but I understand it did operate a number of tanks carrying Kerosene and these may have been part of a pre-war operation in the UK.

Western Refining and Marketing Co Another American firm, based in Texas I believe, and listed in America as Western Refining. They (or someone using this name) operated a small fleet of Class A tanks in the UK at some point (pre World War Two), the logo from which is shown below, beyond which I have no details.

Fig ___ Western Refining and Marketing Co tank logo



Tenneco was another American firm which entered the UK market by buying the existing Globe and Golden outlets but I believe they sold the chain of outlets to Jet in the early 1980s. I do not believe they had a refinery in the UK and I have not traced any references to tank wagons in their livery.

Nafta was a company from the Soviet Union who arrived in the mid 1960s. They sold their chain to Q8 in 1987. I believe they imported their products from Russian refineries.

Fig ___ NAFTA logo



Atlantic Petroleum, arrived in the 1960s, became part of ARCO in 1968, sold its British network to Total by 1970. I believe this was just a distributor with no UK refineries.

Elf a French company, purchased Occidental's British VIP and OXY chains in 1974 and about that time merged with another big French firm but the Elf brand remained. Purchased Amoco and Heron chains in the UK in the later 1970s (I believe). Purchased a 70 percent share in the Milford Haven Refinery from Amoco in 1990. Merged with Total in 2000 (new firm called TotalFinaElf, but that was never a brand). Elf name was gone by about 2003 but the new company retained a 70 percent interest in the Milford Haven Refinery, this is (I believe) to be sold to Murco in 2008).

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