Re: 1st Farmington-Salt Lake City OIL train.

Tomstp Wrote:
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> . . . this picture . . . . is supposed to be the
> first gasoline OIL train from Farmington,
> NM to Salt Lake City . . .

IIRC, your SUBJECT line is correct, Tom - it was the first OIL train from Farmington to Salt Lake City, where the refinery that created gasoline from the oil was located.

cdaspit Wrote:
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> So would this train go over the RGS to Ridg-
> {no 'e'} way and interchange with the D&RG{W}?


Correct -

IIRC, the oil was transferred from the narrow gauge cars to standard gauge cars in Montrose, and from there went via the D&RGW to Grand Junction and on to Salt Lake City.  (See pp 145-147 of Rio Grande Southern II by Richard L. Dorman and pp 35-36 of D&RGW: Durango to Alamosa and Salida by Dorman & Hayden for further information.)

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that some of the oil was shipped via the U.P. all the way to Long Beach, Ca., for refining, and also that in some cases the trucks on the tank cars were switched from narrow gauge to standard gauge on the way west and back to narrow when they returned in lieu of transferring the oil from narrow gauge to standard gauge cars, but I haven't been able to find the source of these possible 'urban legends'.

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2016 11:38AM by Russo Loco.