Great Western Coffee Shop

Whilst researching something else, I came across a photostream of stations. Some of these are disused, others have found new uses, but many of them speak of a different time. The thought crossed my mind that these stations were once focal points for their communities, and are disappearing before our (largely) unseeing eyes.

I suppose most people cared no more or less when local railway stations were closing everywhere in the 1960's...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131286969@N05/50536026151/in/photostream/

I thought that I had been taken to the wrong link for a moment before the penny dropped.  Who's plays the Beeching role here I wonder?

Market forces and large supermarket changes I expect.

There might be a Christmas quiz here - guess the year from the petrol price?

They’ll all be gone by 2050 with no fuel to sell electric/hydrogen vehicles

No Beeching was needed, since these sites were not kept running for forty years after their economic justification had vanished. And their sites were usually valuable for other uses.

Some, though did hang on - here's a little "halt" that was still open (but no longer selling petrol) ten years ago, and now has planning for houses. Last time I went past it was still awaiting demolition, and while the pumps have been replaced by Buddleia that red "bunker" (were they for storing motor oil?) is still there.

A rather nice preserved one in Colyford, Devon, just up the road from the trams. No longer dispensing petrol though. Instead a cafe and cycle shop. Grade II Listed.

(https://i.ibb.co/G7wt8Cr/101405728-81415-800.jpg)

Great Missenden https://goo.gl/maps/FR6LiTavAsDcCMz36
That one made its way into one of Roald Dahls books.

Also Stockbridge (Google Streetview 2008) https://goo.gl/maps/ikksrZmJ2ktGCeDv7
It's gone by 2011 though. :(  https://goo.gl/maps/SaWwKTSkX2DvDYte9

One in wareham, near the railway station:

https://goo.gl/maps/ajFkESK1UvxU6dNEA

_{Edit: shortened link - Red Squirrel}

Maybe not disused, but...

I stayed in Bala, Gwynedd, a few years ago. Remember seeing this station on my walk to another sort of station. Old, but not ancient, pumps still operating when I was there, August 2016. I remember thinking to myself how rare to see working pumps right on the pavement.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QLpLkkdJrXCTacP5A

Some more from around the UK:

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/community/take-a-tour-of-britains-preserved-and-crumbling-local-petrol-stations/

This one, in Clifton, Bristol, is nicely preserved:

(https://scontent-lhr8-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/243286831_10159230122250250_3948483324984040231_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=b9115d&_nc_ohc=g5XsN1U07XkAX_d3qUZ&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-2.xx&oh=1379cb18bbc5a510aff3b540803cb6f0&oe=61936683)
Image from Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/53395433265)

This was the home, incidentally, of Maggie Shapland, doyenne of the Clifton Rocks Railway preservation project.

This website is a great resource for those interested in disused stations and associated lines http://disused-stations.org.uk/

I hope that the pumps are all now used to fill bike tyres with air.

I think the red container might have been for bottles or cans of paraffin?

Paul

I did think it was a cabinet, so could hold anything for which being lockable, leakproof, and somewhat fireproof was required. However, based on what Google can find for me, I think it contains hand pumps with storage tanks for lubricating oils. The steel cabinets were found mainly in workshops, but somewhere really small like this they did appear on forecourts too. Being red, it's probably Esso or perhaps Shell.

There are pictures of similar things here, taken from this page of history (https://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app1/gar-pet.htm) in "International Good Guys" - Mike Smith's web site of stuff for railway modellers.
(https://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app1/pet-oilc.jpg)

And here's one that's a more exact match for shape, though missing its flip-top (if it's not too heavy for flipping): it's on Pinterest so I can't link to the image, but this should show the object: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/565412928199602877/
I think this one is American.

This one in Loxton, between WsM and Axbridge, features in an annual cycling treasure hunt type event.

https://goo.gl/maps/BRUvQrckQk8TonBQ7

Oil dispensers makes most sense stuving, now you’ve added that set of pics.  In fact the remaining white markings on the red cabinet almost match the position of those on the later photo of an Esso Oil cabinet.

My Saturday job as a 15/16 year old was on a forecourt on the A1 in Newcastle, and we had about 6 or 7 teenage “pump attendants” doing all the fuelling, and every customer was offered an oil check, and we topped up with the owners preferred oil from branded metal jugs, that were filled from a number of steel barrels fitted with hand pumps, out the back and out of sight. I suspect many cars got the same oil…

I think in 1970/71 ish, maybe about a quarter of cars passing through bought some oil with their petrol. 

Then there were a significant number wanted the “shots” of RedEx, whatever that did.  I think it had a pretty high margin and we were encouraged to upsell it all the time…

Paul

Similarly, we'll know electric vehicles are truly mainstream once charging stations dispense premium 'five-star electrons'.  ;)

Aren't they muons? Though persuading those to shuffle along a copper wire is tricky.

Nice to know that the pump on the left is called Keith. Looks like the one on the right has had its name blurred by Google Streetview.

And for all you pump anoraks/foamers out there...

http://www.petroliana.co.uk/

There's dozens of pictures of old pumps, oil cabinets, cans, globes and other 'petroliana' on that website.

Good grief!

Well, everyone needs a hobby I guess!!!  :D

Another listed building former petrol station. In East Preston, West Sussex.

(https://i.ibb.co/JRKNs6c/MANOR-GARAGE.jpg)

Now converted to residential accommodation. Very rare surviving Art Deco/Moderne design.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1392321

Yes quite so they are known as Oil Safes , and RedEx is and was an upper cylinder lubricant which when mixed with petrol was said to promote a more even burn in the cylinders,and to help prevent pinking audible detonation.

_{Edit - Fix quote - Red Squirrel}

Reminds me of something I once saw in a French phrasebook:

Je voudrais du mélange           I would like some upper-cylinder lubricant

...which for some reason appealed to my sense of humour. I think we'd normally refer to it as two-stroke mix.

 Sounds a bit Dune-esque

Cantaloupe mélange or mélange d'eau?

I can confirm that these were still in-situ this afternoon, but I wasn’t able to ascertain whether or not they were disused….!