1: A Texaco bulk oil dealer, in Woodland, California,
December 17, 1939. The siding is part of the
Sacramento Northern (by this time a property of the
Western Pacific).This silver tank car is a relatively
rare car with such a paint scheme, assigned to deliver
consumer products and thus given a brighter paint
scheme. Note also the adjoining dealership, with its
Signal Gasoline tank logo – Wilbur C. Whittaker photo.
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abandoned siding is still in place. I will just present illustrative
examples here, chosen to be reasonably representative of pro-
totype variety.
One of the better prototype photos out there is this one from
Woodland, California (1), taken by Wilbur Whittaker. It shows
a Texaco dealership, with the next-door Signal Oil company
tank just visible. The tank car is that modeler’s favorite, the
silver tank with black lettering. But nearly all the tank cars in
every oil company fleet were plain black, and in most cases
only a few cars, assigned to consumer products such as kero-
sene, would receive the silver paint scheme. Nevertheless, as
