Oil Tankers on the Road

Tanks full of oil destined for the gold mills in the mountains. The railroad's tank car unloading trestle can be seen in the background.

In the hills above Milton during the 1890s, there was an oil-powered gold processing mill. Obviously, the oil had to get to the mill, so oil-powered Holt steam tractors were used to haul tanks of oil from the rail-served oil storage tank. In my last post, I showed the Rio Grande Models kit of the steam tractor. RGM also made Holt 3-wheel trailers to be used for hauling whatever the owner needed. In this case, the Mountain Traction Company needed to move oil.
   

The prototype tanks being filled at Milton at the turn of the century.

The chassis for the tanks was the RGM kit. The tanks were made using PVC pipe with Precision Scale Models tank car domes. The ends were cut out of acrylic and glued to the ends of the pipe. Thanks to Rio Grande Models, I was able to easily model this aspect of what was happening on the railroad in my time period.

Some Progress Made But Not Too Much

Downtown Farmington with most of the new structures in places. The roll of paper on the right protects the train order signal from errant spray painters.

The road past Farmington leads down to the agricultural implement dealer and the winery. Static grass has been installed in most of the areas but a few trees, a boardwalk and some other details still need to be added.

By now, I thought I would have Farmington's scenery completed. Unfortunately, my left knee developed some sort of problem which left me sitting around putting ice on it for a couple of weeks. By then, the doc had figured out what needed to be done, gave me some pain pills and, at least, I could sit and do some modeling. Now I'm pretty much back in shape and able to move on. The last few weeks were not totally non-productive, though.
   

The George Fowler Son & Co. car is an old MDC car while the flat car is a Rio Grande Models kit of a 24-foot Virginia & Truckee car.

 By May 1, I had scenicked the rearmost portions of Farmington so the town is starting to look a little more like a town. Since then, I found some neat decals for a refrigerator car and built that up using an old MDC reefer kit. Following that, I found an old kit I had forgotten about and was able to assemble two 24-foot flat cars.
   

The prototype Holt Tractor, a complicated bit of machinery run by steam and
powered by oil

One of my goals for this railroad was to show the distinctive steam traction engine which were made in California in the 1890s. Fortunately for me, the Holt Tractor (made in Stockton) was represented in a kit by Rio Grande Models. I built one of these up to haul oil from the Milton oil storage tank to the mines in the mountains. The tractor kit went together fine even though there were quite a few pieces. The prototype used small three-wheeled trailers with tanks mounted on them to move the oil. Rio Grande Models also made the trailer kits which have been assembled but the tanks have yet to be built. More on those when they are finished.
 

My model of a Holt tractor. It still needs to have some trailers finished to haul the oil but this is a start. The kit is composed of all white metal castings.

 Now to think up something else to do while the knee finishes healing.