Tin Litho MARX Cities Service Center/Gas Station w/Workin Elevator & Accessories

Description

This is a pressed-tin lithograph toy gas station service center that was probably made by
Louis Marx Toys
in the Fifties. I've never seen this exact style before, but it has so many traits to other stations
Marx
built. When I got it at an auction, it had no accessories; surface rust to a portion of the roof top parking and the front part of the "driveway area". I sanded and repainted the rusty area of the roof as close as I could to the original colors. The driveway area was white with green around the station. Again sanded and primed the rusty areas; repainted the green portions; changed the white areas to a flat black to represent asphalt with a white "curb". Because of the predominate colors of white and green, I decided to add
CITIES SERVICE
badging. You can see this on the front top of the elevator shaft, gas pumps, battery rack, and home made "lollipop" pole at the corner of the station. The back windows at the rear had no "glass" in the panes, so I added green celluloid in keeping with the green theme. As I said in the beginning, it came with no accessories, so I added three fuel pumps; a tire display; battery rack; floor jack; tool box; air meter with vinyl hose; "lollipop" advertising pole with logos; lubrication pump; working service lift; and three attendants. The roof parking, as well as the ground floor, would be a great place to show off a collection of 1:43 scale collector cars and trucks. The ones you see in the pictures are from my personal collection and are not included.