I’m adding a plasticville gas station to a corner of my layout, just off the roadway. I’m trying to decide wether to make an asphalt ground surface using the same roadway technique I used on the roads or gravel using sand like I used on the berms of the roads. The layout is semi rural 40’s 50’s and I’m thinking some little stations were just gravel pull offs. Any ideas for details around the gas station? I’m puttting a tanker truck, junker car, two or three greasy mechanics and car in one of the bays.
Thanks
Jim
That sounds exactly like the kind of station that would have a concrete pad under the pumps, another over the underground tanks and gravel everywhere else. Don’t forget the clumps of crabgrass in the less-traveled part of the gravel, and the tall weeds right alongside the station building (and, probably, under that junker if it hasn’t moved recently.)
For a real 40’s touch, you could hang out a modest sign - “Model Garage.” (Which was a series that ran in Popular Mechanics back then, not a reference to the scale of the 2006 version.)
Chuck (who just dated himself terribly!)
Take a look at www.jlinnovative.com for a lot of those little detail items. (Surf around their site a bit. I would have posted a more direct link, but then you’d miss half the fun. Look under “Details.”)
They’ve got a lot of small things like racks of motor oil and old Coke machines. (I got a Dr. Pepper machine for my old Texaco station, along with pumps and things.) These really are nice. You can make quite a showpiece model without a lot of effort. I was lucky enough to find some of these at the Big East train show in Springfield this year, and some more at a LHS on Cape Cod.
Look up what gas prices were in the year you plan to model, and post the price prominently. It will certainly draw comments from the peanut gallery when folks look at your layout.
Tom is correct. For the era you indicate the most likely surface covering would have been light gray gravel…almost universally employed at gas stations I recall from my youth.
CNJ831
Thesite you posted the link to is very cool. I saw several things I may be interested in. They are HO and my layout is S, some things can work, and I’m not a total slave to scale. Were the gas storage tanks above or below ground in the 40’s and 50’s? I’m getting several ideas here!!!
Thanks
Jim
Both were quite typical.
CNJ831