Amazing how an idea can take off and conquer a segment of the toy industry in the blink of an eye. In 1950, three manufacturers introduced oil derricks.
No big deal except that, even though toy manufactures had been producing miniature oil cars since the very first years of the 20th century, there were no derricks to accompany them. Not one of the prewar giants – American Flyer Manufacturing Co., Ives Manufacturing Corp., and Lionel Corp. – had offered a tinplated painted derrick.
Lionel’s breakthrough after the war
Model railroaders discovered new, realistic O and S gauge tank cars on the market after World War II. The new American Flyer line developed by the A.C. Gilbert Co. featured a single-dome tank car that came painted black, orange, or silver with Shell graphics. Between 1945 and 1953, Lionel continued to expand its roster of tank cars decorated for Sunoco.
Frank Pettit, who served as Lionel’s development engineer, wracked his brain to come up with a companion to the single- and double-dome Sunoco cars. He built mock-ups of an oil storage facility and a gasoline truck, but neither of them went into production.
Then in 1950, Lionel introduced the No. 455 operating oil derrick and pump, an accessory with two kinds of animation. Inside the metal tower, designers mounted a glass tube partially filled with lightweight oil that, at a low temperature, boiled.
While the liquid suggested crude oil bubbling up from the ground, a second type of animation occurred when a bimetallic switch activated the solenoid and plunger mechanism. Then a plastic “walking beam” rocked back and forth.
Competition from Colber
By the time Lionel’s 455 appeared in the 1950 advance catalog, it faced competition from a simpler accessory. The Colber Corp., located near Lionel’s factory in northern New Jersey, was heralding its No. 109 “Oklahoma” oil gusher.
Colber, led by Tony Collett and Bill Berke (the firm’s name was derived from syllables from their last names), had found ways to tweak its powerful neighbor. First came a streetlight in 1948, followed a year later by a simplified and less expensive version of Lionel’s No. 45 automatic gateman.
Collett and Berke, who were collaborating with designer Cosmo Gabriele, a former Lionel employee, gambled that their simple oil gusher could snatch sales from Lionel.
Cleverly, Colber offered two versions of its new accessory. The non-operating derrick came as an easy-to-assemble plastic kit. The operating gusher also stood 13 inches high and had a gray plastic tower and platform, a red plastic base (measuring 5 x 5 inches), and a black plastic ladder secured to one side. (Early examples came with a die-cast metal worker that could be placed on the ladder.)
Rising from the middle of the base was a plastic tube with a liquid blend inside that, when heated by electricity from a toy train transformer, pushed bubble after bubble to the top. Kids used their imagination to envision oil being pumped.
A deal with Gilbert
The “Oklahoma” oil gusher might have lacked the second form of animation found on Lionel’s 455 but it looked great and operated smoothly. And it fit on O gauge and S gauge layouts. With that in mind, Colber contacted Gilbert about handling its line of merchandise.
Maury Romer, who oversaw the Flyer line, recalled that his superiors had wanted to offer their own towers. Instead, they recommended buying oil gushers and water towers from Colber to be sold under the Gilbert name.
Before the end of 1950, Colber had reached an agreement with Gilbert to make fully built versions of its gusher. Flyer’s No. 773 oil derrick (cataloged 1950 through 1952) had a plastic tower molded in gray or red.
Colber cataloged the No. 109 “Oklahoma” oil gusher from 1950 through 1954 and the no. 109K kit from 1950 through 1951. Their values range from $50 in good condition to $80 in excellent.
Buyer’s checklist:
- Broken tower?
- Damaged platform?
- Warped or missing ladder?
- Scratched base?
- Operating bubble tube?
