[PRCo] Old vs New Autos

Fri May 16 16:19:45 EDT 2014

Speaking of gravity fuel delivery reminds me that my father told the story
of having to travel the length of the Pike's Peak highway in reverse.  This
would have been in about 1932; I'm not sure what the auto was.

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounces at mailman.dementix.org] On Behalf Of
Dwight Long
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 3:59 PM
To: Fred Schneider; Western PA Trolley discussion
Subject: Re: [PRCo] Old vs New Autos

Fred

Interesting that your grandfather went from a Graham Paige to a Kaiser,
since the Kaiser-Fraser cars were the direct descendants of the Graham
Paige.  True loyalty!

The Graham Paige that I found most interesting was the Hollywood, which was
a sort of cobbled up version of a Cord after Cord got out of the car
business.  

Gravity fuel delivery does not seem like a good idea for mountainous
territory!  But OTOH it might have been superior to Ford fuel pumps of the
flat head era, which were noted for their propensity to vapor lock.  The one
on my first car, a re-engined 1947 Lincoln, did many times, the most
embarrassing being just inside the mouth of the Laurel Hill tunnel on the
Turnpike.  What a mess that caused (the tunnels were two lane at the time).

Yes, we sure aren't driving our grandfather's Olds any more, to say nothing
of his Graham Paige.

Dwight

From: Fred Schneider 
Sent: Friday, 16 May, 2014 13:28
To: Western PA Trolley discussion ; Dwight Long 
Subject: Re: [PRCo] UMW blamed for diesels
Understood.   I think we have to understand that the automobile became an
all-weather conveyance once roads were paved.   The lack of paved roads
didn't prevent the adventurous from using them for trips in a more primitive
era.   

Remember high school physics . you were told that it takes a critical mass
of uranium to make a bomb?   I think the term critical mass can be applied
to other things such as my conclusion that it also takes a critical mass of
motor vehicles to get the politicians to tax everyone to build highways .
about 25% of the families . and that happened about 1920.   Of course it
took a lot of prodding and cajoling from people like the Good Roads
Committee and the U. S. Army.   This book tells a lot about the army's
involvement:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Road-Story-Transcontinental-Journey/dp/080506
883X

I highly recommend it . great history.   Helps you to understand why Ike was
such an easy sell for the Interstate highway legislation. You begin to
realize how bad it was in 1919 in the first chapters when you find it took
two days to drive from Washington to Pittsburgh and those were some of the
best roads in the nation!

We both had grandparents from that era who were pioneers on the highway.
My parents told me several stories after I was old enough to appreciate them
(and sadly, after the perpetrators were dead).   

One involved my mother's father driving into some town up near Meadville,
Pa., before the highway was paved.   The man did not care to be embarrassed
by a dirty car so he stopped outside of town, got out a rag, and dusted the
car.   

Another tale involved one of his early cars that had a gravity feed fuel
system.   Do not ask me what it was for the oldest cars I remember were his
1937 Graham Paige and the 1949 Kaiser.   At any rate, he had a love for the
seashore but getting to Virginia Beach meant driving over the mountains .
not through them.   The only way that could be done was turning around and
backing up over about eight different ridges.   Can you imagine those who
cannot parallel park, backing a car three miles up a winding mountain road
and then doing it seven more times?   

You mentioned campgrounds being the Motel 6 of that era.   Well here is
luxury.   Adjacent to Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming is a restored
motel from the 1920s.  The chimneys indicate a coal stove in each room (you
better know how to light a fire or you'll freeze your ass in the winter).
Each room had one light bulb powered from the camp battery . no state wide
110 volt power network yet.

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You claim two or four spare tires?  Most touring cars in those days had two
spare tire wells in the front fenders.   Two was normal.   Patch a tube?
Well you sand down the tube and then glue the patch on it and then clamp it
until the glue dries.   Have not done that in years.   Dad's 1952 Ford was
the last car in the family with tubes and it had a nasty tendency to rim
cuts (the wheel would cut the tube . after about the 25th time he sold that
s.o.b. . I think that was one of those "Better Ideas from Ford."  )   

My father remembered driving from Marietta, Ohio to Cleveland one day in the
late 1920s . probably 1927-1928.   Cold day.  Claims it took all day to go
up through Cambridge, New Philadelphia, Canton and Akron.   Had to stop
every few miles and chip the ice off the windshield.   Remember until about
World War II that heaters were an optional extra.   He said he left in the
morning and it was late evening when he finally got back to his lodgings in
Cleveland.   Those 168 miles on I-77 today would probably take 3 hours at
worst.   (Unfortunately he chucked it when he was moving into a retirement
home, but he did have a nice picture of a Pennsy D-16 4-4-0 at Marietta on
the Cleveland passenger train in the 20s.   It might have been a little
faster.)

But by the 1930s the roads were mostly all paved . some exceptions.   The
only way from Allentown to Harrisburg was still through Reading.   Route 22
had not been shortened yet.   I think route 8 from Pittsburgh to Erie was
still dirt in 1930.   But mostly it was a state of paved roads.   We'll not
talk about Nevada or Utah . they might have still had a lot of miles of sand
and sagebrush.  

And by 1930 my Dad remembered a trip from Wheeling to Pittsburgh to see his
intended bride.   Now you understand all 23-year-olds are a little more
reckless than 73-year-olds.  He took his landlady along to the big city and
he said he "scared her half to death driving her back to Wheeling at 60 mph"
after dark.  Hey guys . that was 60 mph when the limit was probably 40 on
crowned macadam roads with non-sealed-beam headlights and with mechanical
instead of hydraulic brakes .   Flat out in a Model A Ford!   No Interstate
highways.   No expressways.   The concrete highway from Pittsburgh to
Washington through Thompsonville was not built until about 1940.   He was
driving the old road through Carnegie, Bridgeville, Morganza, Canonsburg and
Houston and then the old winding route 40 through Claysville and Elm Grove.
Truth be known . he probably knew the road . probably drove it with some
regularity.   Horny guys do that.   :<)

I just looked up sealed beam headlights in Wikipedia . introduced 1939;
became mandatory in 1940.   I remember my father replacing the original
reflectors and bulbs in his 1939 Chevy with sealed beams once the glass and
reflectors became cloudy and he was having trouble seeing at night . huge
difference.  

In researching brakes, I find that Duesenberg was the first to use hydraulic
brakes in 1915 and Ford, in 1939, was the last.   The first to use power
assist as a 1928 Pierce-Arrow.   Anti-lock systems go back to the 1966 in
Great Britain and 1969 on a Lincoln Continental Mark III.   

When did we begin making synchromesh transmissions for cars?   I find one
reference that claims Cadillac was the first in 1928.  Naturally the lower
priced cars came later.  I suspect Chevy got them by 1936 judging by this
advertising film.   Now we have so many people who cannot drive straight
shift in any form that we are building truck tractors with automatic
trannys.   

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFvj6RQOLtM

Yes, Dwight it was a different era.    And the kids of today have no
recollection.   Today we plot out a trip, look at the interstates . 360
miles . OK that's 6 hours plus stops . perhaps a little less.   The kids
today don't understand that as recently as the 1950s, a trip with a muscle
car with a big throbbing V-8 engine only averaged 30 miles per hour.   Maybe
35.  The car might do 75 or 80 or more but the roads were not up to it.    I
guess if you were crossing Utah or Wyoming or Nebraska, you might push that
average up to 45.   Speed limits were lower.   Tires were a lot more
fragile.   Brakes were not as good as today.  

Just one example to hammer it home.   In 1955 we left the grandparents in
Marietta, Ohio about 9 a.m. one day and pulled into a model in Wytheville,
Virginia around 7 p.m.   Wytheville is where US route 11 crossed US route
19.   Took the whole freaking day and by then they had a modern convenience
called the West Virginia Turnpike.   Now the comparison.   The end of April,
this year, I left Ed Lybarger's home in Washington County, Pa in the
morning, passed through Wytheville after lunch and holed up at Bruce Bente's
home in Hendersonville, NC for dinner.   That's close to 300 miles more than
the long day in 1955 and I started the more recent trip on ice and snow!
Now the admission . we did pause on the 1955 trip to photograph the
Powhattan Arrow coming through Bluefield as well as the Virginian's day
local.  (Dad was easy to convince.)

Frankly, Dwight and the rest of you guys, I think I would just like to go
back for a month and see what the 1920s was like.   

On May 15, 2014, at 9:52 PM, Dwight Long wrote:

> I got a chuckle out of your comment about being able to use cars once the
roads were paved, since my grandfather traveled all over the USA in the
1920s in an open touring car in order to take photos which were converted to
lantern slides (some members of this list will have to ask their parents or
grandparents what they were) for educational purposes in the Kansas City
Public School district.  He took his wife and my mother;  they sometimes
stayed in tents--campgrounds were the Motel 6s of the era--and sometimes in
the early "tourist courts."  Carried at least two and sometimes four spares,
air pump and patches and was well versed on how to patch a tire tube (again,
ask your parents).  Paved roads were for wusses!  But they sure got the
masses into motoring.

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