Densmore Tank Car - Titusville, PA
Posted by: 
uccacher
N 41° 36.747 W 079° 39.395
17T E 611932 N 4607619
Replica of a very important railroad car in the early days of the oil industry. This example is on display outside the museum grounds at Drake Wel.
Waymark Code: WMC4H5
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 07/24/2011
Views: 5
This Densmore Tank Car stands outside the main museum grounds at Drake Well Park very near the Drake Well Station which is used by the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad.
A plaque attached to the car reads
REPLICA OF FIRST SUCCESSFUL TANK CAR FOR OIL
This type of tank car was designed in the summer of 1865 by Amos Densmore of Densmore Brothers, oil buyers at Miller Farm, on Oil Creek. Each tank held forty-two to forty-five barrels of oil. By the summer of 1866, hundreds of these cars were in use. They were replaced, starting in February 1869, by horizontal iron boiler tank cars.
The frame and trucks of this Densmore car were especially made and presented to Drake Well Memorial Park by the Union Tank Car Company of Chicago. The two tanks were once used in actual tank car service, and then did duty as storage tanks along Pithole Creek for years. They were finally given to the museum by the late George Hilton of Plumer.
The tanks are no longer on the car but
this link shows an older photo of the car with the tanks as well as a few other examples of early tank cars.
An
historical marker commemorating the Densmore Tank Car is located south of Titusville on Route 8.