The Mobil Station

This rusty old Mobil sign is still lighted and it still turns. Bearing in mind that it's less than half an inch wide, this might be considered something of an achievement. For me it represented one of the largest investments of time for the fabrication of a single object.

The sign itself began as a thick sheet of clear styrene—actually, two layers of structure kit window glazing laminated together. The shape was cut to exactly match the profile of a Mobil logo from a Micro Scale decal set. Five holes were drilled edgewise from top to bottom: the four outer holes accommodated axial-lead microbulbs, and the fifth central hole fit the smallest thin-walled brass tubing I could find.

Next, I sliced a thin strip of sheet brass to match the thickness of the styrene and cut it to length such that it would wrap all the way around the edge of the sign. Four #80 holes were drilled to match the locations of the bulb holes along the bottom of the strip, and the ends were notched to fit around the thin-walled tubing.

Assembly was the trickiest part, especially considering a number of soldering steps took place while metal parts were in contact with styrene—I had to be quick! The four microbulbs were installed and their upper leads were positioned along a slot in the top of the styrene. After being trimmed to length, they were all soldered to a piece of solenoid wire that was fed down through the thin-walled tubing, which was then inserted into the sign from the bottom.

 
The brass strip that wrapped around the sign was positioned and the lower bulb leads fed through the drilled holes. The leads were soldered to the brass strip, and the brass strip was in turn soldered to the thin-walled tubing. The excess bulb leads were trimmed and the solder joints filed smooth.

This completed the hardest part; what is described above took about two weeks of spare time, with many reject parts left over. The next step was to build a mechanism that would rotate the sign. The thin-walled tube was fitted into a length of the next size up, which would not only serve as the sign pole, but also as one of the two electrical terminals. The sign pole was permanently installed in a large styrene base to which the motor drive was attached. A small plastic pulley scavenged from an old cassette player was press-fit onto the inner sign tube under the base. The pulley also provided a mounting point for another length of tubing to which the other end of the solenoid wire was soldered. A pair of spring-loaded electrical wipers made contact with this last part to complete the electrical circuit and illuminate the sign.

The rest of the work was cosmetic. The Mobil decals were applied, the brass parts painted with rusty paint, and the price sign was printed on a laser printer and attached with CA (visible in the last image, which shows how the station looked on the WR&N). The bottom end of the pole was inserted into to a small square of styrene detailed with four NBW castings to simulate the mounting plate. The motor that turns the sign does double-duty: it also raises and lowers the car on the lift in the repair bay. The fourth image shows most of the mechanism—out of frame is the sign pulley and electrical wiper.

The structure is a slightly modified kit, Wally's Filling Station from Showcase Miniatures (a nice etched brass kit that's sadly no longer available). It's been fully detailed throughout: the office has a counter with cash register, work orders and catalogs, as well as a patiently waiting customer; the repair bay has tool cabinets, service equipment and a grimy mechanic. Details abound—right down to the bell ringer hose, extension cord and work light. And everything is illuminated, naturally.

Image specs: The main image was captured with a Canon 20D digital SLR and a 50mm prime lens plus a 12mm extension tube. Balancing the lighting and getting sufficient depth of field proved a challenge, so several shots were taken at different exposures and focal settings, and the best portions of each were digitally blended (using principles similar to those discussed in the digital photography clinic). Also, since the WR&N IV no longer exists, the structure was relocated to Rick Spano's Sceniced and Undecided. At the time of photography, the installation was not yet complete, and so the foreground street had to be digitally added to the final scene. The last of the smaller images is a frame grab from a Hi-8 camcorder tape.

See the sign and car lift work! | Watch it on YouTube

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