I found these notes in some papers I was cleaning out today. These are the dome colors of the black SLSF "fuel oil" tank cars, i.e., SLSF 191083 and its brothers and cousins: Red - Gasoline Yellow - Diesel Fuel Blue - Waste Oil Black - Crude Oil White - Kerosene I don't know the source - somebody in Springfield I think. Anybody else have anything to confirm or modify these? Most of them had yellow domes. Ken
Sure seems like I've seen reference to yellow domes equating to diesel fuel service, Ken, and that's all I was aware of; these other colors are new to me. Did your cleaning turn up any indicators as to specifically assigned cars for steam-era fuel oil (seems like "Bunker C" was the name)? Wonder if this system was the precursor to the Frisco's color-coding of boxcars? Best Regards,
Ken thats some great info on the tank cars. Perhaps we can paint the domes and have a prototype Frisco tank car, out of one of the colors? I wonder if the fuel oil cars were the only ones with the huge domes? The blues ones didnt match the Athearn domes either it appears though. I have seen no other pictures of the colored dome other than the one in this thread. You seem to always come up with a twist somewhere, its great.
Here's what the Micro-Trains N scale car looks like: http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread...iesel-Fuel-Tank-Car&highlight=diesel+tank+car Tom G.
Look over the shoulder of #730 here: http://frisco.org/mainline/2014/04/24/gp35-730-2/ ; a yellow dome. And here are a few others.
We spotted several of these diesel cars daily at the diesel loading rack in the DX refinery (now Holly) for loading. Anyone modeling the Frisco would be safe having these cars on their layout as I believe they made it to the end. I have six of the Red Caboose ho models of these cars, and they are great representations of this tank. Terry
In 1969, I lived at Brookline, MO (First siding on the Oklahoma line going west of Springfield) and nearly every eastbound that went by had a string of those yellow domes. Four, six, ten, or a dozen or so. Also there were always a couple parked at the Springfield depot in the early 1960's on the furthest north station tracks. Tom G.
I've looked through my SLSF 191xxx series tank car pics, of which I have several, though none are mine. I find these following cars with blue, or likely blue, domes. I have no pics of cars with other colored domes (except yellow). I don't think the dome color guidelines, if that is what they were, were followed strictly, nor was each car lettered with what it was assigned to carry. Just like a railroad - set up guidelines, then don't follow them rigorously. Anyway, here's what I found in my pics: SLSF 191438 - yellow dome, but lettered "Waste Fuel Oil" (!) SLSF 191106 - blue dome, but no lettering SLSF 191065 - blue dome, lettered "Waste Fuel Oil" SLSF 191060, 191052 - ditto 191065 SLSF 191039 - bluish looking dome, lettering on the end (vs the sides) of the dome, can't read it SLSF 191012 - blue dome, lettered "Waste Fuel Oil" All the rest of them, probably twenty or so, are yellow domes, lettered for "Diesel Fuel Loading", or yellow domes with no lettering. Ken
There is a nice pic of SLSF 191029 in waste oil service, and so marked, available on eBay right now. The dome is dark, probably was blue when new, but looks dirty black in the pic. Dark blue was a bad color choice for this service! See eBay #331191921863 Ken
If you are interested pull up the auction and use the zoom feature and enlarge the wording on the left under the road number and notice that the word "WASTE" has been stenciled in in front of the word fuel and the wording on the right side of the care looks newly added. This car was used for another type of fuel loading at one point.
Agree - from the way the stenciling looks, the car was most likely in Diesel Fuel Service prior to this. Although, the dome does not look like it has a recent repainting (from yellow); perhaps the change was several years earlier. DOT 1993 is kind of a catch-all, indicating various combustible liquids. Possibilities could be contaminated fuel oil, creosote, tree or weed killing combustible materials, contaminated or used lube oil, etc. The presence of the DOT ID card in the brackets indicates the car is loaded. Tough service. Probably lots of gunk in the bottom of the tank! Ken
