Diesel Fuel Facilities

Wedged between the Kenilworth main line and the adjacent storage track, at the rear of the yard, stood the Rahway Valley Railroad’s diesel fuel tank and pump house. Work on this new fueling facility began in December 1950, undertaken in anticipation of the railroad’s first diesel locomotive. That engine, No. 16, arrived on January 29, 1951, and construction of the fueling plant was completed that May.

The fuel tank had a capacity of 10,000 gallons, more than sufficient for the railroad’s 70-ton diesel locomotives, each of which carried approximately 500 gallons of fuel and typically consumed about fifty gallons per day. Diesel fuel was delivered to Kenilworth in 8,000-gallon tank cars from Bayonne, and Shop Foreman George Davis was responsible for transferring the fuel into the storage tank. At the time, diesel fuel cost roughly 8.3 cents per gallon.

The pump house itself was a one-story masonry structure measuring 10 feet by 12 feet, with an average height of 8 feet 6 inches. It rested on a six-inch-thick concrete slab, with walls constructed of eight-inch marble-faced concrete block. The roof was a single-pitch design framed with 2-inch by 6-inch joists spaced 16 inches on center and sheathed with one-inch wooden roofers, covered in Paroid roofing material. Access was provided by a single wooden panel door measuring 3 feet wide by 6 feet 9 inches tall, along with two double-hung windows measuring 28 by 42 inches. The interior walls and ceiling were finished in quarter-inch plywood, with all woodwork painted inside and out.

William Picone constructed the concrete floor and masonry walls, while Meister & Nans completed the carpentry. Painting was performed by Millburn Decorators. Inside the pump house was a Bowser two-inch, 50-gallon-per-minute driven pump (Figure 741), powered through reduction gears by a three-horsepower, two-phase, 60-cycle, 220-volt, 1,800-RPM explosion-proof motor. Associated equipment included a filter, fuel meter, two-inch air release, strainer, gate valve, spring-loaded check valve, hand pump with discharge hose, and black pipe and fittings throughout.

Electrical service to the pump house was supplied via No. 6 single-conductor DBWP copper wire, with interior wiring run in BX cable. The building was equipped with one ceiling socket (without fixture) and a single wall receptacle. Three-wire secondary racks with insulators were installed, along with a 30-amp circuit breaker housed in a metal wall box measuring 4 by 9 by 4 inches. A magnetic starter controlled the fuel pump, and quarter-inch galvanized conduit was used where required. All electrical work was performed by C. C. Zimmerman.

The fuel storage tank itself, supplied by the Buffalo Tank Corporation, was a cylindrical steel vessel 10 feet in diameter and 17 feet 2 inches long, fabricated from quarter-inch plate with convex dished ends. It was fitted with a three-inch vent, four-inch discharge connection, 18-inch top manhole, two-inch bottom drain, and three-inch sampling connection. The tank was supported on angle-iron framing with cross-bracing at the sides and ends and was set on four concrete piers, with a clearance of seven feet between the foundation and the bottom of the tank. The tank and its supports weighed 8,725 pounds. Additional features included an antifreeze drain valve and a tank-level indicator. The tank-car unloading assembly consisted of a three-inch connection with a ten-foot aluminum drop tube and bell strainer. Fuel was delivered to locomotives via a twelve-foot soft-wall hose, two inches in diameter, fitted with male and female couplings and a two-inch filling nozzle.

The fuel tank and associated equipment were erected by Geiger, and the total cost of the fueling facilities amounted to $4,096.90.

In later years, fuel procurement became increasingly difficult. As Ron Pietranowicz later recalled, “Towards the end we could not afford a tank car of diesel, which we would pump into the storage tank at Kenilworth. So we filled the engines with No. 2 heating oil by truck delivery. One of the engines was already smoking a lot, and when we switched to No. 2 we had to start the engine and evacuate the engine house while it warmed up. Smoke would pour out the garage door. I’m surprised the fire department never came.”