The first carrier to transport crude oil by rail was in Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. They were loaded into barrels then those barrels would be tied down to flat cars. In 1885 was when the first tank cars were developed, starting as tub cars with These tank cars were originally used on standard gauge railway networks but were converted into narrow gauge. Between the tubs would sit vertically on the platform of the railcars. The next solution would be to have a vertical tub on the platform. In 1869, the same year the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, the tank cars as we see them today were invented. Again, with a horizontal iron barrel on top of the platform. A dome and ladders are on both sides of the tank car, located in the middle for access to load. Throughout the years, the iron and wood tank cars would be replaced with steel. In the 1880s, private rail car companies built tank cars, allowing railroads to operate them. In 1866, Star Tank Lines was one. One of the first rail car leasing companies in the United States.
They were primarily used to ship oil from Pennsylvania to Chicago, Illinois. In 1873, a man by the name of John Rockefeller purchased the Star Tank Line and moved the headquarters to Ohio. In 1878, the name changed from Star Tank Line to Union Tank Car Company. Union Tank Car Company had a fleet of ten thousand tank cars by 1905, which made it have a bigger fleet than its competitors at the time. In 1911, the Standard Oil Trust was dissolved due to its monopoly over the United States Government and the oil industry. During the 1920s, Union Tank Car Company moved its headquarters to Illinois and grew the fleet up to thirty thousand tank cars. These tank cars were originally operated on standard-gauge railroad networks. However, 1920s and the 1930s, they were converted to narrow gauge. They served in Colorado and New Mexico. Colorado had huge railroad networks that were with narrow gauge tracks. The Continental Oil Company in Oklahoma, or Conoco, built its fleet of tank cars with both the traditional iron tank on a wooden flat car and steel tank cars. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad would be the primary railroad carrier to pull these tank cars throughout Colorado. There were other oil carriers, such as the Texas Company or Texaco would also have a fleet of narrow-gauge tank cars. They also would have the tank cars with double domes. And there were also smaller operating competitors to have narrow-gauge tank cars pulled. But the Union Tank Car Company had the most business. These narrow-gauge railroads began services in 1924, starting with only 25 tank cars in service. They served on the Rio Grande Railroad from Farmington, New Mexico, to Durango, Colorado, where they were transferred to the Rio Grande Southern Railroad to get transported up to Ridgeway and back to Rio Grande to Montrose so the oil could be pumped from the narrow-gauge tank cars and loaded onto standard cars. Gauge tank cars that'll take the oil to its destination in Salt Lake City, Utah. Standard gauge tank cars were converted to narrow gauge between 1927 and the 1930s for the Rio Grande Southern Railroad. The Gilmore Oil Products out of California leased twenty-five tank cars in 1937 from Union Tank Car Company. This was to assist in paving Highway 160, which stretched from Colorado to Utah. The tank cars used were standard gauge, loaded with oil to Alamosa, Colorado, and re-trucked by the Rio Grande to narrow gauge. They'd be assisting in paving the highway, making the oil transport by rail go out of business. The Rio Grande Railroad insisted that the twenty-five needed the higher-capacity wheelsets in 1940. So, Union Tank Car Company installed new trucks. Fourteen of these were leased to the Denver & Rio Grande. A new oil refinery in Alamosa by a man named Lafayette
Hughes needed oil to get from an oil field in New Mexico. The majority of the 14 tank cars were marked Gramps for the company's name, Gramps Oil & Refinery. Mr. Hughes wanted the cars marked for his grandchildren to recognize the railcars of what he was leasing as they went by. The oil field had a pipeline that went all the way to the Chama, New Mexico, Rail Yard, where the loading docks were built to load the tank cars. There were unloading docks at the other end of this route in Alamosa at the refinery, which was close to the Rio Grande roundhouse and shops. This service continued for twenty-five years. A few of these frameless tank cars have been sent for static display at the Colorado Railroad. Museum.