I would like to add some 55-gallon drums to add a little clutter to some of my model industries.
What dimensions are prototype 55-gallon drums? I think they're about 22" diameter x 33" high; I'd appreciate anyone who can confirm that. How about 70-gallon drums?
Just went outside and measured some (I'm at work),24" diameter, 34" high. As far as 70 gallon drums, the math on those drums I gave you the size for works out to 66 gallons. Some is lost to head room, and some to wall thickness (I measured from the outside of the top band, too). The capacity is not readily apparent on the full size drums, so the difference would be infinitesimal at scale sizes.
Don't know about 70-gallon dimensions, but your guess for 55 is about right. Measuring three 55s nearby, I get three sets for drum height and O. D. : 34x22, 36x22, and 34x24. There are also over-pack drums used for containing leaking drums prior to disposal. They're on the order of 42+ x 30+; leakers are placed inside, with the annulus filled with vermiculite or other absorbent.
John Monrad
The only thing I can think of that may be what you are talking about concerning 70 gallon drums is what is called over-packs. They are drums large enough to contain a 55 gallon drum that is being shipped to a hazardous waste storage sight and are yellow. Have very few of them.
David Woodell
A "35 gallon" drum is usually a standard "120 pound" grease drum.
Don Dellmann
I model HO scale, and am hoping I can perhaps mass produce the drums cheaply using 1/4" diameter styrene rod x 3/8" long (that scales to 21. 8" x 32. 7"). Do you think this simplified construction
will work fine, or does the lack of raised "ridges" (at about the third points of the drum) become painfully obvious in HO?
I'm not looking to produce an award-winning model; rather, my model industries will merely be a backdrop for operating my layout. If not scratch built drums, does anyone have recommendations for a good source of reasonable looking, reasonable priced drums in HO?
Ribs would help them look a whole lot more real. Maybe you could use a strip of pinstripe material, and then paint over it, and the drum.
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Slightly over-size (22 inches dia x 43 inches high in HO), but *free*, are pencil eraser ferrules. Just like the prototype, they come in various rib configurations. Whenever I need some, I look for some pencil stubs which can be trashed. A piece of cardboard on each end and what ever color you like paint completes the drum.
Dan Mickey
Depends on your pain threshold. From any appreciable distance, the ridges don't even show up on newly-painted drums. Once they get banged around and aged, they become more obvious as rust starts to form along the ridges. Some careful painting might be easier than trying to fabricate bands. What will be more obvious if it's missing is the overhang of the top on closed drums. Otherwise Grandt Line. Several in a package, with tops. Can be given a crumpled look with judicious heating.
John Monrad
Prototype drums usually came in a variety of colors - black, red, yellow, green. Is there some sort of standard as to what types of materials are stored in the different color drums?
IMHO, use drums everywhere. They were and are used for any liquid product used by an industry that doesn't use enough at one time to get it in a tanker, or doesn't have the pumps and storage tanks to take advantage of the price breaks available for bulk users. This goes for today as well as yesteryear. In my experience, besides petroleum products and related solvents, 55 gallon drums are used for paint (latex, oil, epoxy, and whatever), caustics (NaOH is used by diaries, breweries, and other food type processing plants for cleaning), and Phosphoric acid (used in soda pop, hub cap cleaner, and so many other things. . . . . ). If you really wanted to be prototypical for the modern era, you could have a bunch of 55 gallon drums, with figures standing around them, some in TYVEK suits, with a hazmat official arguing with the plant manager.
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Colors were usually indicative of the manufacturer. Blue was Standard Oil, Yellow for Shell, Green was Quaker State. I'd have to think a while on the rest. There are also 30 gallon drums; used primarily for gear oils, brake fluids, cleansers, etc. Waste recovery barrels are larger; I believe about 70 gallons.
Dave in AK
Nope, not by regulation, but some shippers adopted certain colors or combinations for specific products. Flammable or hazardous material containers tended to reds, but that wasn't/isn't a standard. Nowadays, with drum recycling common, it depends on what arrangements, if any, a drum user has with a recycler for painting.
If used for clutter, a nice shade of rust would be appropriate. Or if they're leftovers that an industry or business is using to store trash or off-spec material, they're commonly painted with whatever color the industry happens to have in opened paint containers.
John Monrad
As others have mentioned, the color was primarily an indicator of the oil company whose products were contained within. Chevron/Standard Oil of Ohio was blue, Quaker State was green, Texaco was grey and green, but Havolin (made by Texaco) was black (seems to me they had red tops but I don't remember for sure. Also, I don't remember when they started this. It might have been after your period. ), Shell was yellow and red. Richfield Oil had some that were a cream color -- before they merged with Atlantic and adopted the dark blue scheme. Seems like Standard Oil of Indiana (later Amoco) was white with red ∓ blue markings (but my memory is fuzzy on this one). Ashland Oil of Ohio had some drums too, but I can't remember the color. These are the people who make Valvoline. Mobile might have been white with the red Pegasus logo on the side.
Jack Phelps
Colors (at the plant I work at): Red for hazardous materials; black upper and lower 1/3 with orange in the middle 1/3 for platinum containing catalysts; solid black for everything else (numerous). For the most part, the lids are gray on the open top black or black and orange drums, red on red drums (no matter open top or bung type), and either white or black on black bung type drums.
David Woodell
Were 55-gallon drums really that common, or were other sizes often used? I'm modeling the mid-1960's.
Not only were they common, they are common, almost as common as those five gallon plastic buckets. Some are made of plastic these days, and may not have ribs. I bought some from a drum refurbishing place, of which there are several here. Both stack empties up to about 30' high. One place is next to the BNSF and UPSP mainlines. In remediating hazardous waste sites that date from the '50s through '70s, we've found 55s to be the most common, but there were a surprisingly large number of 30s or 35s at some sites.
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Two suggestions that won't take much time: Stick with a couple standard sizes (you're 1/4" x 3/8" being the primary size) -- a variety of sizes at the same place would look, ah, unusual. And don't forget to place groups of drums on pallets, to be moved by a fork lift (Dyna-Model has a couple nice ones already painted); if they've just been received or are stacked high, put banding around them. For in-use single drums or small groups, a nearby drum cart, like a hand cart, might be appropriate.
John Monrad
There are quite a few industrial situations in which you would be justified in having a cluster of these sitting around. But most importantly you should have some near a service station -- especially just outside the back door of the shop portion of the station. Remember, unlike those who are modeling more modern settings, you (as a 60s modeler) should have one or more "service" stations in your town -- as opposed to mere gas stations which would be more appropriate now. Oil drums inside the service bay and outside in the yard, lend realism to these scenes. For those out in the yard, some should be lying on their sides, because these will be empties awaiting pickup by the distributor and it was not uncommon for them to just be randomly cast outside after they were empty. Don't forget
to color coordinate the drums to the products sold at the station.
Also, bakeries would have some drums because bulk shortening and such was shipped in 55 gallon drums. Peanut oil also may have been packaged this way.
Another use I like to make of 55 gallon drums is to position one or more in an alley outside the back door of a store. Fabricate some "trash" and glue it to the top and it looks like a drum that has been cut open for use as a trash can. Also, you can place them in the back yard of a rural home. Paint the thing a dirty rust color on the sides and grimy black on the top. Closer to the bottom, leave remnants of the "original" oil company color showing, fading to rust as you move up the barrel. Then put a tiny scrap of tulle (veil material, like for a wedding veil) on the top painted rust color, but darken in the middle with burnt umber mixed with black to simulate a burnt wire mesh. Presto -- a burn barrel -- very common near farm houses and other rural residences.
Finally, if there are any farms on your layout, a few drums standing around (and inside of) the equipment sheds or garages is very appropriate.
Jack Phelps