Old technology fuel "station" from 1985

[Tim Cullis]

Video cameras in the early 1980s were heavy devices that recorded onto an even heavier VHS tape recorder slung over one's shoulder.

Our rental Renault sounded like it was falling to pieces on the track to the waterfalls which even in those days was mainly dry due to the water being diverted for irrigation.

But the key bit of this video is the "petrol station" where the attendant pumped fuel into the one-litre sight glass, and then released it into the tank. Then pumped again for the next litre. And so on, and on and on. It could take quite a few minutes to fill the tank.

[IanC]

Not come across of those. But I remember a fuel station on the Atlantic route in Western Sahara where they had to wind the fuel pump with a handle. 2002 I believe. Could have just been a power loss I guess.

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[mark manley]

I have had my bike filled from a similar pump in Thailand in the 1990s, my most recent filled from a jerrycan experience was in Baja California three years ago on a 200 mile stretch with no stations, enterprising locals were offering the service at around the half way point.

[IanC]

This was an interesting one! Angola 2010. The guy blew into the can rather than sucked, to push the fuel out.

[shu...]

Who needs technology. Tajikistan older technology skips the pumping and measuring and goes straight to gravity and the gerry can estimate....



.............shu

[shu...]

My most memorable fueling experience was at an old Soviet style station in Georgia:

- Walk up to the tiny glass window in the concrete bunker and show fingers to indicate the number of liters you want.

- You pay and the attendant sets the pump to your amount.

- Local denizens start to wander out of the brush to gather around.

- Put the nozzle in the tank.

- Man runs across the street to bring back a bottle of vodka and some glasses.

-The pump starts up at full pressure.

-Find out that though you estimated 16 liters, your tank is full at 14! Gas spewing all over your moto and the parking lot because the pump won't stop until it hits the full amount.

-Lots of laughing and clinking of glasses and shots tossed back. Best entertainment in town!

............shu

[backofbeyond]

That’s a great little bit of film Tim. I really wish we’d had some way of filming on our early trips but even Instamatic stills cameras were a stretch back then so an 8mm was way beyond our reach. I don’t think I got a half decent video camera until some time in the 90’s.

Re old school fuel stops, no 1 on my list was back in 1971 when we needed fuel somewhere in the Greek mountains. We rode up a dirt track into a tiny village, not expecting to buy fuel but hoping someone could tell us where to buy it. They kept pointing to the village shop. We went in and asked and the shopkeeper brought some out from his back room in home brew style glass jars. It took about three to fill the bike. Why he kept it I’ve no idea because there were no cars in the village. Plenty of donkeys though. Sadly no pictures - it just didn’t seem that noteworthy back then.

I’ve come across handcranked pumps (but without the dispensing reservoir) a few times over the years - once in the middle of France in 1970 and again in southern Morocco in 1978. There were six of us on three bikes that time and what seemed like the whole village turned out to watch. Good job we found the place as we were running on fumes at that point.

[Vaufi]

In the 1950's you still cam across some of those gasoline pumps in the video. Yep, and we then still had gallons, pounds, shillings & pence, yards and miles As a kid it was fascinating to see the petrol level rise in the glass bulb and suddenly drain whilst the other bulb filled up again.


In Albania not long after the Balkan war very often you could only buy petrol in Coke or other plastic bottles.

[backofbeyond]

Originally Posted by Vaufi

In the 1950's you still cam across some of those gasoline pumps in the video. Yep, and we then still had gallons, pounds, shillings & pence, yards and miles As a kid it was fascinating to see the petrol level rise in the glass bulb and suddenly drain whilst the other bulb filled up again.

Technology moves on in fits and starts. It's hard to imagine life here without all the common utilities now but most of them are fairly recent additions.

As a kid in the late 50's we used to visit my aunt in southern Ireland. The garage/ village shop about 1/4 mile from their house had just upgraded their pumps to electric power when electricity had come to the village a few years earlier but my aunt's street still had to get their water from a single hand pump at the end of the road. That became my job - every time they wanted to make a cup of tea I had to run down to the pump with the kettle. I presume a generation earlier it was a bucket down a well.

[Threewheelbonnie]

I liked the ones behind the Iron Curtain that had the extra dispenser for the 2-smoke oil.

Stil, nostalgia isn't what it used to be

Andy

[Tomkat]

Originally Posted by Threewheelbonnie

I liked the ones behind the Iron Curtain that had the extra dispenser for the 2-smoke oil.

Stil, nostalgia isn't what it used to be

Andy

In the UK as recently as the 70s (yeah I know, but it's recent to me!) many filling stations had a 2T oil dispenser pump and you could buy "shots" of oil to put in the tank. You set the dial to the mixture you wanted and pumped the required number of shots into your tank for the number of gallons you had. Of course, you could save money by setting double the mixture and taking half the shots

[tony johnston]

Stopped at a handpump in Southern Oman in 1990 and the attendant gave my wife a new goat kid he was nursing to hold while he stiffed me on the pump

[Hound_Dog]

Still quite common in remote parts of Asia. Bottle fuel is everywhere!

[Homers GSA]

Tim, the Battle Bus sounds like a horse and cart on that road;

Ahhh technology...

A friend of mine bought an older dual cab 4wd. Her daughters were in the back and for the life of them couldn’t work out how to wind the windows down.

No electric button.

[chris gale]

Talking about electric windows I came across an accident on the way to work old couple in a brand new car as in only two miles on the clock . They had never had electric windows before and were so busy playing with them they failed to see the roundabout.....you can guess the rest