NSWGR 4-wheel Rail Tankers
I see from the latest Australian Model Railway Magazine that Austrains have brought out a model of a NSWGR 4-wheel rail tanker that was used by Shell back in the day.
Sadly because of trademark issues Austrains were not given permission to release the wagon with the correct lettering so they’ve offered it in three other Australian oil company colour schemes and from the photos it looks like a very decent model.
However this particular 4-wheel rail tanker wasn’t the only in use in New South Wales. Esso had at least one in their fleet and it often appeared at the Esso depot in Bathurst.
That’s where I grabbed these photos late one afternoon. Sadly I didn’t record the date but it would have been no earlier than 1978 when I was posted to Bathurst and probably no later than about 1980.
This 4-wheel tanker had a capacity of 3,000 gallons (approx. 11,246 litres) and was obviously painted black … although that had weathered to something closer to a rusty grey by the time I photographed it.
If you compare this to the tanker that was the basis of the Austrains model you will see that there are detail differences … the walkway is shorter on the Esso tanker and the access ladder is in the centre of the wagon rather than towards the end.
The Esso depot in Bathurst was located in Russell Street just beyond the underpass at the eastern end of the yard.
I should also point out that none of the 4-wheel or bogie petrol tankers that ran in NSW actually belonged to the NSWGR. Each tanker belonged to the fuel company whose name appeared on the tanker so the one in these photos was owned by Esso.
John Beckhaus … in his 1970 booklet ‘Railway Freight Wagons of New South Wales (long out of print) … notes that in 1970 the 4-wheel petrol tankers that were in use at that time had capacities ranging from 2,500 gallons to 5,000 gallons.