New Vintage Fuel Tankers from Trainworx

[cfritschle]

I know Sinclair is all over the PNW, but I remember Hess from back East. Can anyone tell me if Hess had a footprint in the PNW in the very early 70s?

Bryan,

They were not in southern Idaho or eastern Oregon.

[sundowner]

The Hess ruck because I had the toy version when I was kid, The Gulf because they were a big racing sponsor back in the day and Shell and Texaco because my granddad had a gas station with those brands when I was a kid.

[up1950s]

I am going to buy just one because of the price . And a two tone one that was in Wyoming in the 50's . I  just have to figure if any fit that bill , that bill of a half a C note . To bad they didn't do Richfield , might have gotten 2 or 3 .

[up1950s]

The price shown in the MB Klein post is - Retail Price: $41.95, then the discounted price. So, a 20% increase...


Hmm... Kiz, the math
wizard...

I stand embarrassed , as usual .

[wazzou]

My only wish is that the Texaco been run on the 351 Pete platform instead of the 350 but I might just get one anyway.

[peteski]

In a some what related twist, there is a complete set of the "movie" trucks on evilbay right now, with a current bid of 449.00...Almost double what they sold for new, and the auction is not done yet.....So, expensive, yes, but they seem to at least hold their value, and even possibly go up in price once they become unavailable..

That is because only like 150 or 200 sets were made. That makes them a very rare commodity coveted by collectors (not people who just want to use them on their layouts).  There are many hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of collectors out there and only few of those sets available on the secondary market. That drives the price to extremely unrealistic levels.

I actually think that Trainworx (intentionally or unintentionally) manipulates the prices of those (wonderful) models by making all the runs small enough to be instantly sold out.  At that point the street price goes way up driven by people who are reselling the out-of-stock models.

[Mark5]

Pretty sure these tanks were long gone before 1970.

Here's a Getty in 1974:

http://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.4214840.1352777370!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/display_960/image.jpg

I have a soft spot for Sinclair, there was a Sinclair in Wheaton MD when I was growing up - I was dinosaur crazy and probably drove my parents nuts asking them to buy gas there.

But not a $50 soft spot.

Mark

[Kisatchie]

I stand embarrassed , as usual .

Hmm... you don't hold a
candle to Kiz. Kiz is always
embarrassing himself...

[Missaberoad]

I found this:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Trainworx-N-33-Tank-Trailer-Duel-p/twx-55195.htm

Looks like Trainworx raised the price 20%.

Not quite that much the Duel truck was the cheapest of the lot, due to the simple graphics...

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Trainworx-N-40-Reefer-Smokey-and-the-Bandit-p/twx-59094.htm

Price still has gone up a bit but what hasn't 

[cfritschle]

Pretty sure these tanks were long gone before 1970.

Mark

Mark,

I am quite certain you are right.  I remember these tankers  (and several of the paint schemes being offered) from the late 1950s to mid 1960s.  By the 1970s most of the tank trailers were looking a lot like the ones we still see today.  At least that is what I am finding in my reference books.

However, a lot of these old trailers still exist, but not in fuel service.  I took a picture of an old Mobilgas trailer that was along the tracks during the train ride out of Railtown at the Sacramento convention in 2015.  I have also seen vintage tank trailers in use as water trailers at construction sites.
 

[Cajonpassfan]

Pretty cool. Anyone want to establish what vintage these are? I am guessing 1950s to early 1960s.

Mark

I'm *guessing* that as well. Does anyone actually *know*? My cutoff date is March '51 and I think these are too new for me. Looks like I'm going to save some money here, as much as I'm tempted
Otto K.

[mu26aeh]

But not a $50 soft spot.

Mark

BLW has them listed for pre-order, at $36.98

[pdx1955]

I was digging through my old photographs and I found a Shell tanker truck in 1954 looking pretty close to the Trainworx version just to east of my layout area in Portland. Around the same intersection I found a Texaco and Union 76 stations from the same period, so its gonna be which couple do I want to get?

[cfritschle]

I'm *guessing* that as well. Does anyone actually *know*? My cutoff date is March '51 and I think these are too new for me. Looks like I'm going to save some money here, as much as I'm tempted
Otto K.

Otto,

The production dates for the prototype Peterbilt 350 were 1949 to 1957.  The production dates for the Peterbilt 351 were 1954 to 1976.

I have started doing the research to determine if the paint schemes featured in the Peterbilt 350 sets are good back to 1949.  At this point, I am fairly certain the Texaco truck will be good for 1951, and most likely the others as well.

Edit:  Classic Metal Works made their HO 1941-46 Chevy in a very similar Texaco paint scheme.

[nkalanaga]

As far as I know there were no Sinclair stations in Washington or Oregon, and probably none in northern Idaho.  I can remember noticing them in Montana on vacation, specifically because of the dinosaur logo, as a specifically "Montana" thing.  Of course, I later found that they were all over the northern Rockies and upper Midwest, not just in Montana.

After moving to Kentucky, I don't remember seeing them on trips back to the Northwest until somewhere in SD.

Wall, SD, home of Wall Drug, has a life-size, possibly ex-Sinclair, brontosaurus at the eastern I-90 interchange.

It seems that where you'll find Sinclair stations depends very heavily on your era, as the company has a rather complicated history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Oil_Corporation