Oil in WW2

[Mark T]

I'm looking for any information about the oil-trains running near Southwell during the war. I'm interested in the story of the oil-field. I guess that the trains ran on the LNER and the LMS. My sources at the moment are the volume on Oil written for the Official History, and Alan Coppin's Oil on the Rails. Any pointers to photos or hard information about the loading of the tanks would be much appreciated.

[52D]

Hi Mark,
I am also interested in these trains often hauled by a Colwick K3 to Pumpherston oil refinery, Scotland where present day Livingstone is located. Crews engine changed at Tweedmouth with the Colwick men working empties back. This was a bit of a hush hush job in wartime. Churchill himself took great interest in the onshore oil fields of Nottinghamshire where oil is produced even today
https://oldestscottishcompanies.wikispa ... il+Company

[1H was 2E]

Although the query is about Southwell (Notts) during WW2 it might be relevant to mention that, driving around North Lincolnshire in the early seventies, I do remember 'nodding donkeys' which I was told at the time were connected with oil extraction; there was a concentration around Gainsborough and there was even a TV advert for the product ("It's the Gainsborough").

[Mark T]

Thanks for the information, much appreciated. I'll act on it. BTW I live near an old wagon - or waggon-way near Newcastle. A very restful place to take a walk, and a joy to appreciate in the summer.

[Mark T]

Although the query is about Southwell (Notts) during WW2 it might be relevant to mention that, driving around North Lincolnshire in the early seventies, I do remember 'nodding donkeys' which I was told at the time were connected with oil extraction; there was a concentration around Gainsborough and there was even a TV advert for the product ("It's the Gainsborough").

Yes, the 'nodding donkeys' are a real link to our industrial heritage. all the best

[Mark T]

Hi Mark,
I am also interested in these trains often hauled by a Colwick K3 to Pumpherston oil refinery, Scotland where present day Livingstone is located. Crews engine changed at Tweedmouth with the Colwick men working empties back. This was a bit of a hush hush job in wartime. Churchill himself took great interest in the onshore oil fields of Nottinghamshire where oil is produced even today
https://oldestscottishcompanies.wikispa ... il+Company

I attach the little I have found, without your information about the K3s.

At its’ height a thousand men commuted to the field each day. The qualified drillers were in the minority in British drilling ‘teams’ (the Americans used the word ‘crews’.) They needed to be given hot meals by day or night.

Pipelines ran from the oilfield to large settling tanks to allow grit and impurities in the raw crude to settle. The remaining oil was carefully measured. Output needed to be measured meticulously as the Treasury levied duty on the net volume of oil produced. The Anglo-Iranian Company had agreed to pay out royalties on oil, excluding water and impurities. The men from the Ministry were persuaded that this particular oil had a special affinity for water, in fact it “retained some water quite effortlessly, needing refining or other special or costly treatment to completely eliminate it.” No doubt some of that water came from tears shed by the Inland Revenue.

After the settling tanks had done their job, two large storage tanks loaded up the railway tank cars with settled oil. Their contents measured with special dips and tanker cables, the wagons would be sent on. A railway siding lay not far from the oil-field. The sidings took on three or four train-loads each week. Each “train” was made up of 38 tank short wheelbase cars, each 9-foot car holding twelve tons of oil. These figures cannot be verified. They are provided by miners at the Bilsthorpe colliery. Wherever the tanker-wagons were loaded, it seems they were moved out from Bilsthorpe.

Getting solid information about the oil-tankers and the trains that ran them has been difficult – the locos could have been the commonplace 4F or 3F 0-6-0s, which Hugh Tilley remembers seeing waiting for a load on the local rail line in wartime. The oil tankers could have been a mixture of privately-owned Class B wagons, which could be used for transporting less volatile fluids. There should have been barrier wagons between the loco and the tanker wagons, perhaps three empty mineral wagons, and at the brake van end there should have been one or two ‘minerals’.

The place and method of loading the tankers is - at present - unknown. The rail-line we can be a little more positive about. The LMS, the London, Midland and Scottish railway connected Southwell and Newark, and from there it ran south to London, or across the Midlands, to Liverpool and up to Scotland. But there is every chance that the LNER carried some of the oil.

The senior management at Eaking would have known – or had a good guess – as to how the oil was handled after loading in the sidings. Much was taken to the Lobitos refinery at Ellesmere Port for refining, and some went to Pumpherston refinery near Edinburgh. This picture is said to have been taken at Pumpherston. Any further refining to make lubricating oil would take place at the Shell refinery at Stanlow. The Eakring oil was very welcome in the war effort: the specific gravity was 0.86, which made it high grade oil.

As time went on miles of metalled roads were laid around the field to permit the haulage of equipment. Many of the wells were in open country and the pumps were only camouflaged with light green paint. It is unlikely that the Germans were completely in the dark about the oilfield, as the shadows of the derricks could be seen in oblique views. A neighbouring village, Edingley was blitzed in a night raid. The Germans, if they had been aiming at the D’Arcy project, simply could not spare the resources to re-visit the target.

[richard]

For some of the background, the first British domestic oil exploration goes back to WW1. That Mr Churchill again. After telling the Navy to switch to oil, there was the realisation that a domestic oil supply might be a good strategic idea...

Progress was slow - clearly not the highest priority, but the background and drilling of Britain's first well at Hardstoft (Derbyshire) was covered in a recent Geoscientist article:

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Geoscientist/ ... t-Oilfield

[Mark T]

Thank you Richard. I think this project will have to hang fire until I get photos.