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I love the old gas stations that was full service but now they just are not around. so for my layout i had to have the old stations. i found a few but the price was just to hi. so the most logical thing was to build my own so last night I finished it and here it is what do ya think.View attachment 16620
Nice gas stations guys.
Jim's comment reminds of watching a cooking show with my wife a few weeks ago. (Nothing like 'quality time' with the family) They took great pains making a from scratch pie crust for a pie, then the next show made cookies from a ready made pie crust. It's OK to use a ready made crust, put not for a pie crust! Kind of like the way we repurpose structures on our layouts.
Let's see I've got a bank turned into a train station, a house into an office. I've stacked buildings to make taller ones. I've seen people cut down tall buildings. Some people will building anything but 'out-of-the-box'.
The City Classics gas station is a great piece. Also, don't over look the Plasticville gas station. The pumps and doors can be replaced with more scale stuff. If you can find one, the oldest version with the high clock tower looks good for 40's-50's.
Just remember to adjust the brand to your era since some have changed over the years:
Exxon: was Esso in the east and Enco in the west
Citgo: used to be Cities Service
BP: was BP and Amoco separate, and Amoco was Standard prior to that
Union 76 had several flavors depending on the region as well.
Seems that Sinclair had different logos and signs in different regions too.
I am sure there were more.
i love that gas station that would be perfect for me i am working a layout around steam but the only problem is i has 30 diesel and i dont have m big boy yet. i am buying a beat up engine and a new static model and making a new looking big boy i havent even started yet i still have to buy the engine i have the model on the way
There are still plenty of these stations still around. Many of them arent stations anymore but most of the buildings still exist. Either as independent repair shops or a completly different business. The pumps are usually long gone. I used to work as a technician in one of these old stations that is owned by the same family since the late 30s.
There are some stations out there that have been restored the way they were back then too.
Here's how I made the flags/pennants for the Standard Oil gas station, if anyone is interested.
I used dental floss for the string, and believe it or not, the flags were cut from red white and blue plastic confetti stars.
Finding the right material to use for the triangle flags took the longest time. But by chance I found the confetti stars in a party store, and I thought it would be easy to cut the star points off so they would look like triangle flags. I think they worked out great.
Here's my crummy little gas station. It's a Heljan kit and one I plan to replace someday. Matt, your method with flags was a lot better than mine. I printed out a colored strip in Excel and then used a manicure scissors to cut out each little triangle. It was a giant pain and the results aren't that good. Yours look a lot better.
