O Scale Motor Vehicle Chronicle June 26

Richard; you are correct about Esso being used in other countries. When I was in Australia in 1996 I noticed all the Esso signs there, no Exxon.

OK, here's a connection to die-cast. This is by Corgi. It's apparently collectable; I got mine for a reasonable price at a train show but I've seen them go for surprising prices on eBay. Lionel made a Mobil tractor-trailer to go with traditional size trains; I imagine it's about 1/64 but I'm not sure. I'll post a photograph if I can remember where mine is. 

I like the Mobil "Flying Red Horse" logo. I have several trucks and tank cars lettered for Mobil and I just bought a batch of decals from LBR to reletter a couple more tank cars.

Corgi Mobil tanker 

Back where I grew up in Milwaukee, we had Socony-Vacuum stations, selling Mobiloil Products, that were of a very distinctive "Chinese Pagoda" style.  they  all had red tile roofs and their roof corners were turned up, ala the Oriental design.  Very distinctive and I would love to have a model of one for the layout.  Eventually, they were replaced by more modern gas stations with service bays, but a few remained for some years.  Last time I went back to Milw, I looked but couldn't find any remaining.

Mobil also used a stylized "Gargoyle" as a symbol for a number of years, but that was replaced by the "Pegasus" the famous "Flying Red Horse", which is also pretty much gone by now.  Wonder what the story behind these symbols really was?

Paul fischer

Here's the Lionel Mobil truck. It's either MPC or Kughn era, probably the latter. Long discontinued but easily found on the secondary market. Somebody out there probably knows the approximate scale - it's sized for a traditional size TOFC load.

I have four tank trucks, all relettered, but not with decals, which I need to special

order.  I have Skelly and Frontier gas stations, and for those, I have a Skelly

lettered 1934 Ford tanktruck of unknown brand (you've seen these in the dealer hall), two Frontier Oil Corgi White engine-forward tank trucks, two different wheelbases and tanks, one a kitbash, and an Ertl 1937 Ford tractor trailer tank truck...(a bank with the coin slot filled), and painted and lettered for Frontier Oil.  I also have a Matchbox

1930 Bulldog Mack Conoco oil tank truck, as it came, but  I don't have any photos I can find fast, although I think I have some.   I should build a 1930's Conoco gas station, if I find a photo of an interesting one, although I'd rather have one from one of the following.   I hunted regional, defunct 1930-1940, front range Colorado gas station brands, and tracked down brands but not good photos, of even stations, much less trucks.  There are petroliana collectors who offer the signs on the net, so you can come up with emblems for decals.

Colorado:

Do you have Lionel's Skelly tank car to go with your Skelly tank truck? It's an old-style 8000-gallon car, so it would be era-appropriate. I don't know about the graphics though, if they are authentic steam era or not. 

SE:  There are three Skelly tank cars I have tracked down, 2 are Lionel S.K.Y.X

2293 and 2294, 2293 looks like an 8,000 gal car and 2294, with a platform around the

dome, as a 10,000 gal. car, however both are shown with 80,000 lbs. capacity.  MTH #20-96121 is a modern frameless Skelly tank car, that is out of my era.   MTH 20-96088 is a modern, frameless Frontier gas car, also out of era,  for which I have found nobody's earlier version (OR a protoype photo of ones like the two Lionel Skelly cars).  Rail King 30-74192 is a Frontier Gas box car (I'd like to see prototype photos of one, and certainly of frame 8000/10000 gal. Frontier tankcars.).  (I don't remember 8-10000 gal. Conoco cars, but haven't really looked for them)

I was dusting some display shelves this afternoon and noticed some more Mobil die cast - airplanes. I do not know for sure if the decoration is prototypical. These are Ertl airplane banks like the well-known "Wings of Texaco" series, but with different decoration. I have some decorated for Texaco, some Mobil, and some painted for non-petroleum prototypes, including a Ford Tri-Motor on skis from one of Admiral Byrd's polar expeditions. 

DC-3 

Lockheed Air Express. Note the open cockpit. The passengers sit inside, but the pilot is out there in the weather. Sort of like an old-fashioned chauffeured limo.

Ford trimotor, Tin Goose.  Corrugated siding.  First airplane I ever flew on, out unto

the Lake Erie Islands in northern Ohio, was a Ford trimotor.  I have always been

proud of that, and I am not that old, it was a tourist flight.  I don't think it still flies..

insurance got them.

For fisch330

Paul,

If you get back to the Milwaukee area again, check out the northwest corner of 76th street and National Avenue in West Allis.  That is the site of a preserved pagoda style mobil gas station.  Here is a link to a wikipedia write up about it.  Another link to a Wisconsin history page.  Last is a link to a page with an article in the Milwaukee Journal at the time it was sold by the longtime owner/operator to the city of West Allis.

The attached PDF is a screen print from Google street views of this station.

Walthers did have an HO scale kit available of the pagoda style gas stations (now sold out).

Larry

We are a Shell refinery with supporting equipment.

Richard,

the Mobil tanker in your photo, is that made by Ertl?  I'm working on a Walthers kit and and was looking for a Mobil tanker to go with it.

FYI:

"ENCO" (another former Standard Oil brand) is a Japanese abbreviation for stalled car! LOL 

I found a couple more interesting Mobil items, a magazine ad and an airplane. The airplane is a restored Luscombe; according to the caption it is an authentic paint scheme used by Mobil for pipeline patrol aircraft. It is not clear whether this is an actual ex-Mobil airplane or if the owner just had it painted that way. 

Larry:  I will do that, and thanx for the notice.  i do remember that there was a huge, multi story SOCONY VACUUM station on Wisconsin Ave, either at 27th or 35th streets.

We're kinda planning a trip up there, maybe in September.  Now I have something else to look for.  We also located a gorgeous Texaco station from about that same time, still standing in Canfield, OH.  It's no longer in use for gas but has been repurposed as a window covering store.  But they still have two "visible" gas pumps standing out in front plus Texaco lettering all over the place.  Worth looking up if you ever get to the Youngstown area.  If you do go, by all means visit T.P Tools: Their showroom itself is worth seeing but they have a private museum of cars that is to die for.  Free entrance on Saturdays.  About 50 cars from various eras.  A 1930 LaSalle convert is next to a '47 Cadillac convert, in front of a really neat Divco milk truck in Borden's livery.  (Just like one on my layout!)  Lots more cars in likely settings as old gas stations, drive restaurants, diners, etc.  And it's only about 20 miles from the National Packard Museum.  All well worth while. (And in the park in Canfield, is an 0-6-0 from the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company.)  If you ever go there, let me know and I'll tell you about a little diner, close by, that makes the best samiches you ever ate!

Paul Fischer

PRRfan

Yes, that is an Ertl model, but I repainted and decaled it Mobilegas.

Thanks, Richard - it looks great.  I've thought about repainting that same Ertl casting in Sinclair like the one MTH cataloged, but couldn't produce before they lost the license agreement.

BTW, who made your Mobil decals?