Old gas stations

[Fading Fast]

It was a baby dinosaur. The long red car ran him over.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Rob

From New Mexico, I'd guess . . . "Santa Fe Trail Stages" on the door of the car, and the destinations "Socorro" and "Springerville" on the plate above the windshield.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

Note the "MORE GAS PER GALLON" advertising sign -- part of the long-running Amoco marketing campaign attacking the idea of leaded gasoline as a money-wasting unecessary product. Alone among the major gasoline retailers of the Era, Amoco didn't offer a leaded or "Ethyl" product, fortifying its fuel instead with benzine, and its advertising not only called leaded fuel a waste of money, but also, from time to time, a risk to health and safety.

 

[David Conwill]

Omaha, Nebraska in the early 1930s.

 

[Fading Fast]

Rob

1. The station is Art Deco heaven!
2. Cute as heck car in foreground which, asking our car experts, is?

 

[Benzadmiral]

1. The station is Art Deco heaven!
2. Cute as heck car in foreground which, asking our car experts, is?

Too short to be a Lincoln Continental Mark I (and the only color I've ever seen those in, in pictures, is black). I expect it would be hard to park with such poor visibility (i.e., none) out of the rear quarter -- but it would look sharp with the top down.

The car on the lift with the door open might be one of those "business coupes" we see so often in '30s and '40s films.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Rob

That's from the UK, isn't it? "Petrol Supply ___ 1957 Ltd." instead of "Inc.", and "SpecialiSed" instead of the U.S. "SpecialiZed"? Plus the car just outside the garage looks to be right-hand-drive. And I can't imagine a U.S. body shop advertising "panel beating" instead of "body work."

 

[David Conwill]

1. The station is Art Deco heaven!
2. Cute as heck car in foreground which, asking our car experts, is?

I'm pretty sure that's a 1940 Ford.

 

[David Conwill]

The car on the lift with the door open might be one of those "business coupes" we see so often in '30s and '40s films.

The car on the lift looks like a '39 Buick.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm pretty sure that's a 1940 Ford.

Thank you. What an elegantly proportioned car.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I'm pretty sure that's a 1940 Ford.

Hm! I built I don't know how many 1/25 scale versions of that car in the '60s, but always as a hardtop or 2-door sedan, never as a convertible. AMT didn't offer one. I've heard that the '39 and '40 were superb cars, solid and reliable.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

That's from the UK, isn't it? "Petrol Supply ___ 1957 Ltd." instead of "Inc.", and "SpecialiSed" instead of the U.S. "SpecialiZed"? Plus the car just outside the garage looks to be right-hand-drive. And I can't imagine a U.S. body shop advertising "panel beating" instead of "body work."

New Zealand, if my memory serves.

Rob

 

[David Conwill]

Hm! I built I don't know how many 1/25 scale versions of that car in the '60s, but always as a hardtop or 2-door sedan, never as a convertible. AMT didn't offer one. I've heard that the '39 and '40 were superb cars, solid and reliable.

Lindberg produced a 1/32-scale '40 Ford convertible, but I'm not aware of one produced in 1/24 or 1/25. I built the AMT coupe model myself as a kid.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The whole idea of a "business coupe" was its enormous trunk, which was designed for traveling salesmen to use for their sample cases or other merchandise. If you line up a coupe of the Era against a four-door sedan of the same make, they've got the same wheelbase, but the entire section of the car behind the front seat in the sedan is the trunk area on the coupe.

Many business coupes had a removable plywood panel covering the opening between the front seat and the trunk, and this could be taken out to allow sufficient room for the car's owner to sleep in the trunk.

 

[Stearmen]

The business coupes had the greatest option of any car in history, the trunk mounted pickup bed!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

What state's that last one in again?

 

[David Conwill]

Rob

Those buildings are both still standing and only about two minutes drive from my house. The Gulf Station doesn't look much like that anymore, though.

The Cherry Court is right around the corner from the Tydol station I posted above.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

What state's that last one in again?

I'm not sure, Lizzie, but it makes me want to visit Rock City.

Rob