Annapolis Royal Texaco Bulk Plant

Annapolis Royal Texaco Bulk Plant

Doug Shaffner contributes this recollection for the wiki:

This tank car in the photo "Image:Annapolis Royal Station & Yard.jpg" is unloading gasoline for the Texaco bulk plant. This plant distributed gasoline and lubricating oils throughout Annapolis & Digby Counties and it was operated by my father from 1929 until 1962. During my teenage years I unloaded many tank cars from the facility shown in photo. A ten foot aluminum pipe would be balanced on my shoulder, I would walk out to the end of the car and then walk forward and drop this pipe down through the open dome. The horizontal pipe in photo would be swung up from the unloading rack and connected to the vertical pipe in the tank. A leather washer at this connection was a constant source of trouble. Underground pipes ran from here, under the north leg of the wye, to the storage tanks about 300 feet away. A single cylinder gas engine ran the pump, and it would take four hours to empty a large 8500 gallon tank car. Beyond the tank car in photo can be seen the unloading rack for the Imperial Oil bulk plant, which was adjacent to ours. They employed a series of jointed elbows, resulting in a much higher configuration.

• 

  No. 25, Strathcona with a westbound express at the Annapolis Royal Station. Note also the freight shed and the bulk fuel facility behind the station.

• 

  Water tower at left, station in centre and freight shed at right at Annapolis Royal on August 27, 1956.

• 

  Loading Christmas trees at Annapolis Royal in 1956. Beyond the box cars, you can see the tank cars unloading to the bulk plant.

• 

  Annapolis Royal Station and Freight Shed in 1973.