TPBO

[Russ Bellinis]

When I worked in Los Angeles Harbor, there was a petroleum company across the street from the container terminal where I worked. There were probably 6 or 8 large tanks for various petroleum products spread out in an area taking up perhaps 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile. they had a small area on one side where they loaded tanker trucks and trailers if I remember correctly, but they received their product by rail, all refined petroleum, no evidence of a refinery on the property. The company was either a Penzoil or Quaker State facility, and they also had a small warehouse where they received oil in case lots on pallets. The pallets came in by boxcar, but bulk oils came in by tank car. There were two spurs across the street from our terminal with the valves and manifold to unload the tanks between and to one side of the spurs. Both boxcars and tank cars used the same tracks, but never at the same time. Also there was no room to pull empties and set out loads (all product shipped out of the facility went by truck). I think it was a distribution center where oil products would be stored and delivered to local stores or warehouses for distribution to stores. When the railroad had loaded cars to set out, they would drop the loads one day. The next day they would show up to pick up the empties. If they had a cut of tank cars and a cut of boxcars to unload, that would be at best a 2 day job, but only if the tank cars could be dropped in the morning and the the empties picked up that night, and then the boxcars dropped the next morning and picked up the next night. More typical was a 3 day job where one type of car would be dropped one morning, picked up the next morning and the other type dropped that afternoon, and empties picked up the next morning.