Faller filling station - internals

[47137]

I picked up a Faller kit for a filling station - p/n 131258. The idea is to build the kit and add an interior, but the more I look I wonder if this is a freelance sort of model, not based on a prototype.

 

The building itself is barely 100 x 50 mm. What would be inside? Especially, what is the area at the end with the translucent roof for? All I can think of is a convenience store with perhaps a toilet and store room at the back, and a tiny car showroom at the end, under the translucent roof. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

 

- Richard.

[Oldddudders]

This model dates from the 50's/60's and is actually too small for H0. It's closer to TT scale.

 

As for the interior: back then, no 'convenience' goods, just car stuff like oil, grease and various types of accessories (radiator covers for winter, remember those?!). And of courser, tires. White-wall, black-wall, for summer or winter. But, like now, a Tankstelle wouldn't sell cars. You won't find that on a current petrol forecourt, wouldn't you   What it would have, in the area you described, is a work pit for servicing cars. No bridge, not enough room above!

 

Just been looking in my 1963/4 Faller catalogue, and the filling station they offered then was different. I also feel the pumps on this model look fairly modern. I agree the bay at the end, which seems to have sliding doors, and a mechanic posed outside, is probably a "greasing bay", dating from times when chassis needed that treatment periodically. 

[BernardTPM]

I think it is quite likely that is it based on a real building, though I agree it does look to be to small for H0, nearer 3mm scale or 1:120. The probable internal arrangements are as Dutch Master outlined. There might be a 'convenience' (Ladies and Gents) for the use of customers round the back, given the window arrangement.

There was a similar filling station in the Minic Motorways range and that was based on a real type, part of which can be seen in this picture - there's a better shot in a 'Transport Age' magazine, but I can't find that online.

[47137]

Yes, the doors on the side wall measure up at around 19 x 6.5 mm so somewhere around 1:100/120. And that 'greasing bay' really is bijou.

 

However, I did not get to the age I am by sticking kits together the way manufacturers told me. The entrance door on the front of the shop is about 9 mm wide, say 2' 6" in H0, which is ok to me. So if I lengthen the walls with plain styrene, and pad them up 3 or 4 mm, it can get some H0-ish stature. New roof panels. The traffic island can take two pumps, not four. The awning needs to bigger with a taller column, or no awning at all. The biggest sticking point is the servicing bay - I think the doors are meant to be the sort which fold up like a concertina, but it needs four not three. This can be an MoT bay.

 

I do like the look of the Minic garage.

 

I am a bit too young for radiator covers, but I do remember Father tying a sheet of hardboard over the radiator on Mother's Morris 1300.

 

- Richard.