Attached are a couple of photos of oilfield pipe storage racks. Does anyone have an idea of something already existing that would work for an HO scale version of this? They vary in length, but the most common size is 4' X 4' X 28' in length. Scratchbuilding them is possible, but I need three pairs and it would take forever. The only thing I thought of is to use Central Valley girder parts and make a 28' long triangle out of them. It wouldn't be correct, but it would be much quicker than cutting and gluing a bazillion little styrene round rods together. Any ideas are appreciated. Paul Moore
Plastruct and Evergreen make ladder stock in multiple sizes/scales. Could you get one close to the right spacing and glue them into triangles.
That's a terrific idea!!!!!!!!!! Let me do some research and see what's available. If there was something close to the right diameter, I could cut out the extra rungs. It might have to be O scale. The pieces in the piperack are roughly 4" diameter and each side is 4' wide. Thanks, Paul Moore
These pipe racks may also be found at the drill site. A drill rig may be described in several ways; one of which is by the number of “joints” (drill pipe sticks) it can stand at a time when tripping, I.e., a single, a double or a triple. Drill pipe is 30 feet more or less, in length, and before the well is spudded, the sufficient number of drill pipe sections are delivered to the well site. The drill pipes are placed on racks, which are adjacent to the rig, so that they can be hoisted through the vee-door to the drill floor as needed. As noted previously, the drill pipe is about thirty feet in length, and before each joint is added to the drill string, it is “strapped” (measured), and that value is added to the driller’s “pipe book”. This is a very big “triple”. This rig has the capability to reach TD’s (total depths), which exceed 20,000 feet. The 3-sections of 30-foot drill pipe can be seen “standing” on the drill floor. The drilling crew is in the process of tripping out/in of the hole. The photo also shows the ramp from the pipe rack to the vee-door. The male end of the drill pipe is called the pin and the female end of the drill pipe is called the box. The dp in the photo has been “strapped”, and the pipe length has been chalked above the pin. The pipe is measured to the nearest 100th of a meter; when there are hundreds sections of dp in the hole, that accuracy is needed. A small “single” rig with a different style of pipe rack. The height of of the racks are about the same as the height the “drill floor” so no ramp is needed. The vee-door is very small. This is a smaller “triple” with its drill pipe racks.
Thanks, Karl. Do you happen to know when they started using the triangular tubular pipe racks? Several of the people I know locally have given me good info regarding the pipe sizes; what was sold at oilfield supply stores; etc.; but nobody seems to know when the welded tubular pipe racks came into existence. One local oilfield supply company (Republic--they no longer has a presence here) had concrete pipe racks that were the same height as a railroad flatcar or flatbed truck so the pipes could be rolled directly from the rack onto the flatbed. This obviously predates the use of a forklift in the yard. A couple of cellphone photos of the area the oilfield supply yard will occupy. the switch ties represent where pipe racks will be located. On the right perimeter there will be a small open lean to with a corrugated roof for storing stuff to be sold other than pipe. On the right side there will be a small office building. Thanks, Paul Moore
Paul It’s my experience, that items such as pipe racks are usually made from second-hand drill pipe or casing. That being the case, I suspect that the tubular racks were common by the ’30’s.
Karl, Last November I was invited to watch the installation of the below pictured rig. Can you tell from the photo what size it is? Paul Moore
