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The Transdimensional Gas Station

******BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND*******

Sorry I haven't read this thread for a while - my name is Mark Bellis, not Ellis.

Diesel fuel that's intended for use in industries and on farms is dyed red in North America - I understand they do the same sort of thing in the UK - it's taxed at a lower rate than diesel sold at a station but it is illegal to use it in any licensed vehicle operating on a public road - inspectors check the tanks of trucks all the time to make sure no one's trying to beat the system.

Still, what Auro described sounded like stale gas rather than diesel, which would shut down a gas burning engine very quickly. (Although I've read a second hand claim that some high compression engines might do it - http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdieselvsgas.html )

Has anybody checked the land registry in the Kommun to see if there were any nearby gas stations or farms with a pump?
 
markbellis said:
Sorry I haven't read this thread for a while - my name is Mark Bellis, not Ellis.
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Ahhh but it could be read as mark b. ellis, you see.

I think one of the reasons this thread resonates so much for me, and Ill take this opportunity to bounce it back up to the top of the pack, is that it reminds me of 1992 when I lived in San Fran, and worked all over the Bay Area as a refrigeration mechanic, smoking along winding Napa Valley roads and all the way up to Santa Rosa in a chevy pick-up with my old workmate buddy-pals. I can just see us cruising on the last fumes of gas and pulling into a 1950s garage...

Come on Auro, lets see that ticket.
 
HenryFort said:
markbellis said:
Sorry I haven't read this thread for a while - my name is Mark Bellis, not Ellis.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Ahhh but it could be read as mark b. ellis, you see.

It happens, Bellis is just a patronymic form of Ellis.
 
In these days of planet google, can you give us the reference of the road? Can you show us that tree lined nordic highway?
 
Do your homework baby:

Aouroborous said:
The coordinates are:

58"17'32.49" N
15"10'52.93" E

The road runs in a north-south direction from the tiny village of Västra Harg to the slightly larger township of Mjölby. The road, I think, has changed over the years, but its still going through the same neck of the woods, so to speak.
Click to expand...
 
Sadly, that area of Sweden is not shown in great detail on Google Earth.
The road runs in a north-south direction from the tiny village of Västra Harg to the slightly larger township of Mjölby.
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According to Google Map, Mjölby is NE of Västra Harg, rather than S, as the quotation implies. (Unless there's an even smaller Västra Harg elsewhere! Maybe I'm just being picky, but I am a one-time navigator!)

It's about 10 km as the crow flies. (The OP says 15 km, which is probably close enough, , depending which side of the lake you go!)

More than that, Google cannot tell us.... :(
 
rynner said:
Sadly, that area of Sweden is not shown in great detail on Google Earth.
The road runs in a north-south direction from the tiny village of Västra Harg to the slightly larger township of Mjölby.
Click to expand...
According to Google Map, Mjölby is NE of Västra Harg, rather than S, as the quotation implies. (Unless there's an even smaller Västra Harg elsewhere! Maybe I'm just being picky, but I am a one-time navigator!)

It's about 10 km as the crow flies. (The OP says 15 km, which is probably close enough, , depending which side of the lake you go!)

More than that, Google cannot tell us.... :(
Click to expand...

From what I can see on Google Earth, Mjölby is NW of Västra Harg.

It's possible to do a search for Västra Harg on Eniro Maps(Kartor) and Aerial photos.

The aerial photos gives a lot better resolution than Google Earth. After finding the place on the map click Flygfoto to get aerial photos of the area.
 
I've found it!

Well, here it is, a Gulf gas station from 1978 in Mjolby - now the only question is why anyone would want to buy two photos of it...

(this is from an online auction site, where 2 pics of a gas station went for 46 krona)

http://www.tradera.com/Gulf_Bensinstati ... n-42515395

According to the map,
http://karta.mjolby.se:8008/foo/website ... Viewer.htm ,
(it zooms! )
5-7 km from Västra Harg and a few more minutes pretty much gets you to Mjolby, so the station would have had to have been somewhere on the southern outskirts.
 
SameOldVardoger said:
From what I can see on Google Earth, Mjölby is NW of Västra Harg.
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Oops, me bad! (raps typing fingers with ruler.) MB won't let me edit my post now,
but NW it is.

The Swedish map sites are interesting, but what we really need is a time machine..! :D
 
From the OP:
After driving approximatively 5-7 kilometres along this road, my co-worker (who was driving) happened to notice that we were running low on gas - in fact, the needle of the gauge didn’t even move from its bottom position. The car was still running smoothly, but we doubted we could run on petrol fumes for another 10 km or so. At this point we had entered one of the few places along the road where it was flanked by woods on both sides (the area is otherwise fairly open, mostly farm land).
................................
Anyway, we kept on driving for a few more minutes when suddenly we come upon a small collection of buildings on the right side of the road – a farm house in a pretty dilapidated condition, covered in grubby Eternit plates (I’m not sure of the English name, but it´s an asbestos-like synthetic substance which was used extensively in house exteriors in the 50:s and 60:s). In front of the house, right up against the edge of the tarmac of the road, sat a long, shed-type structure covered in corrugated metal plate and roofed with tar paper. On the short end of the shed, facing the way we were coming from, was an old, orange-striped gas pump. Set into the side of the shed was an open door and a large, grimy window cluttered with cans of motor oil and other stuff. In this window hung a large plastic sign saying, simply, “Gas”.
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I've highlighted parts that can be used in a search of aerial photos.
As far as I can see, there's nowhere on the current pictures that match this description.

Doesn't mean there wasn't any such place in '93, of course, and anyway, we are dealing with a possibly paranormal event which (as we all know) rarely leaves hard evidence - not even a receipt! ;)
 
Personal PS: on clicking Vardoger's link http://kartor.eniro.se/
just a few Swedish cities are shown on the small scale opening map, one of which is Gothenburg (as we say in English!), which is the setting of a detective story I'm currently reading.

Also, the first girl I ever kissed came from there... :oops: - I still have a little Troll and a Viking longship she sent me!
 
Re: I've found it!

markbellis said:
Well, here it is, a Gulf gas station from 1978 in Mjolby - now the only question is why anyone would want to buy two photos of it...

(this is from an online auction site, where 2 pics of a gas station went for 46 krona)

http://www.tradera.com/Gulf_Bensinstati ... n-42515395
Click to expand...
Good detective work. Looks a little more up-to-date than originally described but I guess Auro needs to take a look:

46929475_1.jpg
 
rynner said:
SameOldVardoger said:
From what I can see on Google Earth, Mjölby is NW of Västra Harg.
Click to expand...
Oops, me bad! (raps typing fingers with ruler.) MB won't let me edit my post now,
but NW it is.

The Swedish map sites are interesting, but what we really need is a time machine..! :D
Click to expand...

Didn't mean to be picky. Just wanted people to look for Mjolby in the right direction. They could get lost...
;)

Regarding the Eniro maps. Just put Västra Harg in the search field Visa Karta and click Sok. The map finds it automatically.
 
from: http://www.mjolby.se/cgi-bin/datasidor/ ... ?sida=6730


"Västra Harg Church


"The area has several hill forts, which are quite difficult to access in the woods. A while from the church, on a cape, in Kilarpassjön resides Svanholmen castle ruin that was built in the 14th century."

Why can't there be a transdimensional 14th c. castle or prehistoric hill fort instead of a gas station? It would be a lot more interesting.

Here's Västra Harg official web page - looks like a charming little village - http://www.vastraharg.com/vastraharg/index.asp
 
Re: The Strange Saga of Mr Squirrel

graylien said:
So, it seemed that Mr Squirrel had bought brand-new 1920's envelopes from a brand-new Edwardian shop (which accepted decimal money) which had then aged 15 years over a period of only 18 months.
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As you said, "post-WW2 shillings were still in circulation then" and indeed were still valid right through the 80s. One shilling coins were used as 5p and two shilling 'florins' were 10p. It would still mean that the lady in the shop accepted shillings presumably dated decades into her future, but to be honest at that price I'd probably do the same if only for the novelty.

The old timer at the petrol station might have had bad eyesight or just wanted to get rid of the weird guys that were freaking him out in their futuremobile! On the other hand, I saw Derren Brown on TV paying for goods in New York with blank slips of paper, so who knows?
 
Happy Birthday to You!

Aouroborous said:
I´ll get back to you in a few weeks with a picture of the slip. Perhaps someone knows what to look for, in regards to paper type etc?
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You know, this thread's turned 2! (Sings: Happy Birthday to You!). It might even be old enough to drive itself before we see the slip.....
 
Indeed Happy Birthday!!

The original story was an absolute classic but for me it has diluted somewhat since 2005. Having read many 'Timeslip' stories over the years, Auro's first thread had the potential to surpass even the best examples of this phenomena. It had some unique and key evidence that is rare in Timeslip stories.

1. A first hand witness to collaborate the story - Auro's co-worker Tony
2. Two pieces of real evidence - The receipt and the fuel
3. Interaction and possible contact with the old timer

It only really lacks the 'hazy', 'oppressive', atmospheric feelings victims experience, as noted in the majority of Timeslip examples (Or the 'Oz factor' named by the one and only Jenny Randles). Indeed, it was interesting the read Jenny's response to our mystery journalist.

Now I know that the Swedes are pretty laid back, but if you had the hard evidence of a receipt that may or may not have un-locked some of the answers to possibly the greatest Timeslip example of all time, would you not tear your house down to find it? I would!!!

If Auro was so affected by his memory of this experience and it has made such a mark in his life, would you not un-pack every box, file, sideboard, loft or biscuit tin that you had in the house? If only to put your own mind at rest.

It's still a great story, but it's not a timeslip. I think we have to travel back ourselves to good old 2005, when I think Mark Bellis hit the nail on the head (Page 4) with a likely explanation that the Transdimensional Gas Station did exist, but was in fact an old ramshackle farm where the local farmer 'badly' maintained a single pump.

I holiday in rural France and there are many of these single pump redneck pumps still around today.

GMP
 
Thanks!
OK, to prove it's possible to find, scan and post a receipt from the early 1990s from a Scandinavian country, I hearby submit evidence to the effect that on or about 7:30 pm, local time, in Room 4 of the Haskolabio on the 14th of October, 1992, in Reykjavik, Iceland, "On Earth as in Heaven", a historical drama, was playing.
And God Bless Us Everyone! :_pished:

http://www.geocities.com/lostnprofound/1992.jpg
 
BAH!!

I so wanted this one to be the real deal...
 
meowfur said:
BAH!!

I so wanted this one to be the real deal...
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..and an aged receipt would convince you, would it? 8)
 
just a funny aside related to this story

a couple weeks ago i was travelling with a friend and i am currently on ft274 as im in canada and running a little behind ... i read her the hierophants apprentice dictionary of the damned no.38 time slips including the first story about the guy who comes across a timeslip gas station ... i then told her about this thread ... one of my very favourite from the forum

the following day we were driving through the country by a circuitous route although as a good driver and navigator i knew exactly the route we had come ... we took one turn on a main road and there in front of us was a transdimensional gas station ... it was a timeslip waiting to happen ... like something out of the 40s on a frankly deserted country road ... we both laughed about it and as we were due to retrace our steps later that day i decided to a) ensure it was still there on the way back and b) buy gas there if i could

anyway on our way back i couldnt find it ... it simply wasnt where i clearly remembered it ... and i had a firm idea of exactly where it should have been ... and then ... bombshell ! my friend told me she hadnt seen it earlier that day ! i nearly stopped the vehicle there and then ... she actually hadnt seen it and thought i was making a joke about something !

after a while of driving up and down i was actually getting very low on gas ... eventually i asked a couple of locals about the gas station - they said the only place for miles around was just down the road ... and when i described the gas station they said it was exactly that place - like something out of easy rider ...

two problems when we got there ... it was on a stretch of road which we hadnt driven along earlier that day ... and it didnt look as old as i remembered and it was too big ... so it couldnt have been the same place ... so i bought gas and asked the guy who ran it if there was another place ... even older than his place ... perhaps disused ... he was adamant there was nowhere for miles and miles around and in fact as we were kind of on an isthmus ( gotta love that word ) there was no other gas station north of where we were unless you took a ferry

well i was sure it was a fortean event ... i asked him about six times six different ways and he shook his head each time

but then just as we were about to drive off ... he said 'unless you mean the old --- place' ... and apparently there was a disused garage just south of the town we had driven to and back from ( a ferry town ) which he said was exactly what i was describing although it had just been sold and was going to be turned into a restaurant or something

then we worked out how we had missed it ... when we left the ferry town heading south my friend wanted to check out a antiques place she/d seen on the way in ... and when we left there i started to look for the TD gas station ... so it must have been very very near to the town and we passed it while we were looking for the antiques place ... although i didnt recollect it being that near to it

so there you have it ... and i guess a ... bump ... for this thread !
 
This is one of my favourite threads too. Thank you for bringing it back to the fore :yeay:
:Sigh: I guess we never will get to the bottom of this one now.
 
HenryFort said:
and there in front of us was a transdimensional gas station ... it was a timeslip waiting to happen ... like something out of the 40s on a frankly deserted country road
Click to expand...

Great adventure, and great retelling. Thank you!
 
When I saw this thread had new posts a part of me (the bit that hasn't been beaten down by life) thought the OP was back, with his receipt :)
I'm glad to say that I found your post interesting too though Henry :)
 
I think the evidence clearly suggests that in 2005, the OP posted on this forum from the future. How else to explain his complete disappearance off the face of the earth? This is a transdimensional message board.
 
It was a good story. Too bad it didn't hold water. :)
But then again, which story does...
 
jeff544 said:
This is one of my favourite threads too. Thank you for bringing it back to the fore :yeay:
:Sigh: I guess we never will get to the bottom of this one now.
Click to expand...

I am not sure we ever get to the bottom of anything for sure....we can all guess at these mysteries but we don't know if we're right.
We'll never know.
:(
 
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