Contributed by R. Pelley

Old Gander Terminal 

 

The best known and one of the earliest shots of the terminal. This one was posted from Gander to Germany on 05 Oct 1949 and states that the passengers were on the ground for ½ hour.	An older sepia style photo of the same area. It was sent a bit    earlier than the last one, on 14 may 1947
Old Gander Lounge, shows a shot looking roughly west towards the inside of the terminal.  It is unused but has a hand written note inside : "Gander- in heavy fog - 8h45 PM Wed, July 2 - left 9:45, returned "engine trouble" 10:30, boarded 1:20 AM Thurs, July 3 - take off 2:30 AM".  I would imagine they were happy to have Gander as  a place to return to !   I looked up the calendars from that period and the only one with a Wednesday, 2 July, is 1952. If I remember correctly, it was understood that this area was to be left to passengers and that use by locals was frowned upon... but we had the other counter near the middle of the two hangers where the French fries and Coke floats were much more tasty!	Another shot of the same area. I can't tell you much about it except the date because it was sent to Yugoslavia and written in Croatian. It was sent on 28 May 1954.  Maybe it was one of Marshal Tito's friends - the others didn't get to visit North America very much!
This is a mint and fairly hard to find photo showing the ticket counters.  The first one is Trans Canada Airlines while the second is Trans World Airways.  This looks like a pre-April 1949 because the sign at the end says "Newfoundland Posts and Telegraphs".  No internet in those days!	This is the wonderful "Novelty booth" - what many Ganderites called what sounded like the "Nobbly Boot". Since I already posted this shot in another context, you can get the complete info at the following address :  http://www.gaflight.org/nobbly%20boot.htm
And of course, a place to relax after a long flight over 2500 miles of water in a piston engine plane - the famous, world-renown  "Big Dipper" !	This is a really wonderful shot of the back of the hangers, the side opposite the tarmac.  You can see near the middle of the 1st  hanger the door we used "on Sundays" to visit the terminal.   And would you just love to have today the "woody wagon" parked right next to it.  The other entrance (to get to the French fries and Coke floats) was near where the two hangers were joined by a lower section.  This photo dates from 1950.
This is "the" standard outside photo of Gander where one can see the terminal area quite well. The photo looks partly hand coloured and shows the set-up in the early to mid 50s.  An interesting point - if you look closely you can see overhead pipes from the steam plant that were the basis for the heating of just about all the buildings in Gander.  Wouldn't be legal today as they were covered with 4-5 inches of pure asbestos!	(click for enlargement)
While not a postcard, this is one of my rarest pieces of  Gander airport memorabilia - a Pan American World Airways boarding pass specifically used in Gander. This date from circa 1952-55.