Friday, 29 October 2021

Nystrup Gravel Mentioned in Monumental Work on Danish Petrol Stations

No subject seems to be too small or mundane to escape unnoticed by writers and authors. Now Danish petrol stations have been treated in a book that must be considered as the difinitive and a monumental work on the subject. A whopping 472 pages of information, almost 800 pictures and stories about the people manning and customers using the small oases supplying fluid fossil fuel. And the book is in Danish - a language spoken by only 5.8 mio people.  The author is Nils Bloch, a Danish writer with several railway books on his CV, a range of university degrees as well as years of active service for railway preservation.

There is a small chapter devoted to petrol stations in model, and the petrol pump at Nystrup Gravel is given a favourable caption although it is a very modest creation.


Front cover of the book. The subtitle translates into 'High octane nostalgia' which is indeed a fitting description.

With a fascination of old petrol pumps I installed the red petrol pump on my first  1:35 scale Nystrup Gravel module in 2003. I wanted to create some of the atmosphere from the fueling areas at small industrial railways. The pump was a Plus Models resin kit that doesn't appear to be available any more.

The loco shed module on the 1:35 scale version of Nystrup Gravel during construction in January 2003. The fuel pump is seen in naked unassembled resin being test fitted in front of the shed. Sleepers are ready for track building.


Another image of the Plus Models pump on my old 1:35 scale layout. Here a Ford A tanker is slowly backing up to the pump's filler pipe to replenish the supply of petrol.


I can't build a layout without a petrol pump. Until a better model is aquired or built this rebuilt Pennzoil pump from a cheap Chinese manufacturer is destined for use on the 1/19 scale version of Nystrup Gravel. See info on the pump on this earlier post.

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