Station / Garage / Service
Mobility, mobility, mobility : This verbalism seems to capture the American Spirit better than any other . Whenever we asked ourselves : “… wovon leben die Menschen hier eigentlich ?” , the only possible answers seemed to be : Selling cars , repairing cars, granting loans on cars , vending tires and parts , fuel cars , cars , detailing cars , shipping cars around the country , renting cars , transporting goods , hosting trucks and provide lodging and food for truck drivers …
As many regions of the country do not locally manufacture goods or foods for people’s needs , the entire supply chain seems to rely on long- distance transportation . For all those tasks a myriad of buildings , storages and pumps are scattered around the landscape , resulting in a huge collection of settings in various stages of decay .
Case Study #1 : Gas Pumps , vintage , restored to please the eye
Visiting vintage gas stations clearly seems to be of primary interest to the “traditional” Route 66- Traveller , as all Travel Guide Books are crammed with hints & tipps to find those precious sights . This seems a strange concept to us , who are rather hunting down the “real” abandoned stuff wihtout any eye candy . Admittedly we are aware that this preference for the “authentic” might be a purely European idea ….
Case Study #2 : Gas Pumps , abandoned “new” type
And HERE THEY ARE in their full- size resplendence ! Those mostly vintage but still working pumps - high up in the clouds of ancient Santa Fe Trail :
Moving on to the buildings around and behind those pumps we could not get rid of the feeling that this station in Peach Springs, AZ ( below - cf. Russell A. Olson’s “Lost and Found” - series ) was modelled after the shape of a church . Which in a way ccould make a lot of symbolical sense : Since the automobile may be regarded as the tin god and fetish of US- culture , you take this precious object once in a while to a made to measure- temple for inspiration and Holy Communion …
Another impressive ruin is the abandoned station @ McLean , TX , shown below in a close- up of the beautiful front window to the garage .
A singular concept is to be discovered @ the double- headed “Janus” in McClean , TX ( below ) where Route 66 splits up in two one- way 2- lane segments right trhu’ town - resulting in an unique “service strip” between the two lanes and a cashpoint- structure built cleverly right between the two wings of the station .
Case Study #3 : Abandoned Gas Stations with little glory left around them
We should definitely not forget the impressive masthead signs of those domesticated fuel- sources - indicatiting to distant desperate motorists , that fuel , phone or food ( = redemption ) finally come into reach . 
Moving on to the supporting act, lube jobs , tire shacks , body shops and “collision services” ( What A name ! - Some other proove for an Anglo- Saxon sort of Black Humor ? ) are all over the road . Signs not as flashy as the high- profit stations , buildings even more desolate …
Case Study #4 : Supplementary Operations Signs
For all of those valued readers who followed this posting up to this point , we offer You as a special treat a series of idyllic impressions of an abandoned repair- workshop in Adrian, TX , famous “midpoint” of Route 66 : Nature seems to take over again -
Belive it or not : The light in natura ist even more magic than in the shot depicted above , not to mention the scent of herbs and spilled oil , the silence of ruins under a merciless sun … This purly is the quiet Ghost Hour haunted by archaic Gods , illuminated by their presence . Mire quietly as you would @ old Olympia , Troy , or the Forum Romanum !
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