Riding the Coast Starlight in the 80s through southern California brought many sights of what appeared to be pivoting devices connected to the ground in the hills . . someone told me they were oil well pumps or something. They look like some kind of teetering hammer with a cable going into the ground on one end and a connecting rod hooked up to a motor on the other. So . . . experienced SP socal modelers, show us your oil well pumps please. I'm assuming they must be scratch built. I need at least one of them for sure, and maybe a wind turbine. Socal hills are full of them.
All you have to do is go to Texas is you want to find these. Officially they are a horse head type well pump, but ask any Texan and its a Pump Jack. They work on the same pricipal as a hand operated water well pump. Model are made in several scales and I doubled checked Walthers tonight, there are some there you have to look around...do a search for "oil" might help. Below is a link to a picture of one. My dad was an oil field worker most of his life working both oil and natural gas. I just wish a company would make a HO scale natural gas compressor =) If you ever get out to Midland Odessa check out the Permian Basin Petrolium Museum, I assume its still there. http://www.pothierphoto.com/citco.htm
The term for them in Oklahoma is a "pump jack", but i'm not sure who manufactures them. I'm a member of OKNrail and we have 2 on our traveling layout, so I know they're made, at least in the 5 years or so. If i get a chance, I'll get ahold of one of the other club members and re-post a mfg. I imagine you could find them through walthers....
Hi If your talking about a "nodding donkey", then walthers do a kit and a motorising unit for them. Walthers Nodding Donkey I know theres at least one in Sarnia in Ontario, and am planning on putting one on my layout, even if I am swapping ends of Ontario for purposes of fun Hope this helps. Graham
"Horse Heads" is what I have know them to be called. They are come in lots of sizes around here. Some only reach about 12 feet in the air. Others can reach as high as 30 feet! Most people view them from the highway as they drive by, so they appear deceptively small. When you actually stand next to one of these things, they are huge!
How about if you went further north than Oklahoma. Would some of these be completely enclosed because of cold weather? Are they always outside?
There are a few of these in central Illinois--considerably north of Oklahoma--and they're open to the weather. And we called them "grasshoppers" there...
I'm planning on a couple for my layout, probably the Walthers ones. They're just durn cool looking. And a good excuse for a spur and an oil tank too. I was waiting for somebody to call them grasshoppers! I've always called them that but the horsehead revolution has left me feeling misinformed. Thanks Rob
In California we called them "grasshoppers". Think about it, look at them, they look like a bug, a grasshopper.
I've heard pump jack, horse heads, grasshoppers. There are decorated ones too with antennae and big eyeballs.
I have spent my whole career, around these things. Here is a link to a major manufacturer Lufkin industries Check out the pictures
The ones I have been around all have two cycle engines. They sound pretty neat. Dont forget that you can have small diameter pipelins (3" or so) running along the groud from a well to a central pump station where several lines from different wells combine into a larger pipeline or are stored in tanks tobe trucked to a refinery. Dan, have you ever seen anyone model a natural gas compressor? If you are modeling around a major oil area dont forget seperators and salt water disposal plus the pruduction meter box for each well. I forget anything Dan?
as to one of the earlier posts, i don't know of any place around here (oklahoma) that has rail spurs for these. typically there are 2 or 3 storage tanks in a cluster (serving several pump jacks). the oil is collected every other day by semi and taken to a pipeline hub or a refinery. most of them are out in the middle of the pasture and is served by an "oil lease road" with a cattle crossing at the edge of the field so the drivers don't have to stop traffic to get into the field. I imagine that there would be few who would want to load into a rail tank car. does anyone else have any information????
Back in the early 70's, a friend and I were on a road trip from Galveston to Idaho and back. We were poor college kids so we did not stay in motels but threw our sleeping bags out on the ground and slept under the stars. Our only problem was finding a quiet place away from traffic to sleep. On the way up we drove down a few back roads off the interstate between Pueblo and Colorado Springs where we found a nice quiet meadow with a little embankment at one end. It was dark so we just went to sleep. We awoke with the ground shaking and the trees around us lighting up only to find we were right next to the Rio Grande/ATSF joint line. Had trains all night long and did not get much sleep. On the way back we thought we knew what we were doing when we took a small road away from the FW&D (BN) rail line east of Amarillo and wound up in an oil field. We camped out right next to a silent non-moving pump jack. Little did we realize that it was on a timer and came to life for 15 minutes every hour or so. Did not get much sleep that night either.
Some of those old pump motors are really interesting. Hit or miss cycles. There are people who buy and restore some of the more antique versions. You can see a few at tractor, and farm equipment shows. Boxcab E50
