Growing up in our small town, South Central Virginia, it was Texaco, Pure, Shell, Cities Service, Flying A, and ESSO. I have an oil distributor facility started on my layout that will be "PURE". Mostly because I scored about 5 or 6 of their early 50's delivery trucks (Classic Metals). I also have a spot for 2 small filling stations. I'll probably go w/ Texaco and something else. Reading through this thread may be the impetus to move the oil distributor along since it is already in progress on the layout.
Way back, up here in the province of Quebec, we had Shell, Texaco, Esso, Fina, Gulf, B/A, Sunoco, and a few independents. Shell and Esso survive, but new ones cropped up like Ultramar (whose oil train is called the Ultratrain), and Petro-Canada. Among the independents there's Belisle, Super Gaz, Crevier, Flying-J, etc. Even some convenience stores like Couche-Tard (means "go to bed late", though I'm more of a Leve-Tot, an early bird) have gas pumps. When I was a kid, peering out the back seat window of my Dad's car, I was fascinated by the gas pumps and how the numbers rolled on their little wheels... Family drives were fun for me in more ways than one!
When I was akid growing up in a town of 1600 people, we had Pure, Gulf, Shell, Standard, Sinclair, Marathon and White Rose. The Marathon station switched to Sunoco and the Pure station eVentually became an Arrow Station (a local brand distributed by Foster Oil of Richmond, MI). Eventually we also had a Total station. On the layout, I'll have Pure as well as Shell and Sunoco. (also got some of the CMW Pure trucks and have done a mix and match kitbash to come up with a Chevrolet tractor trailer, a '60 Ford straight tanker and a '54 Ford box truck decorated for Pure industrial oils as well as their off the shelf Chevy tanker. I'm also working on Shell and Sunoco trucks to include tow trucks. Also planned are Pure, Shell and Sunoco small town garages. You know the type- they'll fix almost anything and do a lot of it while you wait. The whole thing is going to be a series of fun projects.
Wow! The filler cap behind the license plate! Last car I had with that was my '69 Newport. It was fun to befuddle service station attendants with that one... "Uh, sir? Where's your gas cap?" She seems really happy about her car - or is it the gas prices? Mind you, I'd like to see that Nova in my driveway!
O the folly of man! Show him a pretty little woman and an ugly little Chevrolet, and which does he covet? Admittedly, she's undoubtedly thoroughly wrinkled by now. But she's not rusting out. And you stand a better chance of getting her motor running.
Where I put it on my pickup...along with the trailer hitch receiver. Still had a lot of work to do at this stage. Sumner
Take about 40 years off of me, and I'd probably covet both. I still have a few lame pickup lines in me. And the fun of getting wrinkles is doing it together.
The lady is about my age and pretty. That Nova was built when all American cars where in poor shape. I was a free man again at that time and driving a hot rodded Pinto wagon.
The lady bears more than a passing resemblance to my sister-in-law, but to the best of my knowledge she never owned a Nova.
I think I have one of those wagons on my layout. My first car was an '80 Pinto sedan... It was what motivated me to get my second car.
Remember when Sonoco had "Custom Blending Pumps" where you could choose from maybe a half dozen octane levels? My science teacher explained something about varying the hexane content depending on the selection, but I never quite understood how it all worked within the pump and what was contained in the underground supply tanks.
In the tanks was Regular and High Test. In the pump was something very much like a shower faucet, with regular coming in the hot side and high octane as cold. The 87/89/91 octane pumps today are the same; 89 is half and half.
We had a Sunoco up here in my home town, on the main boulevard. With the nice big yellow sign with the red arrow through it. Now it's Ultramar. They sure ain't chargin' halfway between 87 and 91. A lot closer to 91... Someone should switch the hot and cold pipes!
That's interesting. So then today's Mid-Range and Premium are blended at the pump, just like Sonoco did. I didn't know that.
Only the Mid-Range is blended at the pump. That way, there only have to be two storage tanks on site.
