Back in 1969 while driving Highway 1 north of Richmond, VA I saw a gas station that incorporated a tank car into the building. There seem to have been a couple of chains that did this. Are there any of these stations left?

Not sure if there are any left, but here's a good discussion on them. One brand was TANKAR

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topi ... C_ID=47233

https://kip49x.smugmug.com/History/Gas- ... chmond-VA/

I was always curious as to what the inside was like. Did they cut into the tank car? Sure looks like they would have had to, or the ceiling would be really low.

Guessing the car was only for decoration. Obviously it didn't go anywhere, but the lack of any warning signs on the tank would seem to indicate it wasn't used for storage either.

This is really cool! Is this pretty much an east coast and mid west thing? I don't remember seeing anything like this on the west coast.

There was a "prototype you can model" article on this Va. tank car gas station long ago in Model Railroader (I'm thinking the 1970s, but I'm getting nowhere locating it in online indices.

There was one on Big Bend Rd in Maplewood, MO back in the 40s-50s.

Try March 1978, according to one of the posts in the Railroad-Line thread. I may be able to find that issue with minimal fuss. Will try this afternoon.

Update: I found some late '78 issues, but not the early ones. yet. will keep trying.