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I received this email asking for information to be used in a novel. I wouldnt even know where to begin to fathom a guess. With the difference in driving styles, road infastructure, etc. So I thought I would post this hear, and let you gents chime in on it.

"Dear Kev,

I was quite happy to find your site, but couldn't find the information I was hoping for. I'm a novelist, working on a piece set in March 1926. In it, two characters intend to drive from New York City to St. Catharines, Ontario, an approximately 450 mile drive (according to Mapquest). Mapquest puts the estimated drive time at about seven hours. However, that's using today's speeds, speed limits, and mpg. The characters will be driving a 1925 Packard. Would you be able to tell me how fast those models went at top speed, how long they could go without refueling -- and even how long it might realistically have taken to make the described journey?

Any help would be appreciated.

Yours,

Persia

--
Persia Walker
Author, www.PersiaWalker.com
SUCH A LUCKY, PRETTY GIRL: A Short Story (BLUE RELIGION: New Stories About Cops, Criminals, and the Chase)
DARKNESS AND THE DEVIL BEHIND ME: A Lanie Price Mystery
HARLEM REDUX: A Novel"

Mapquest's estimate is an average speed of 64MPH. I doubt you could do it that fast today.

In 1926 in a Packard I would estimate 10 or 12 hours which would be an average of 35 to 45 MPH including stops for meals, fuel, etc.

The roads were good in that section of the country. I know that in Canada Hwy 2 had recently been paved with concrete at that time, my grandfather helped pave it. This was in the early 20s. Old timers have told me what a thrill it was to let their cars out on the smooth concrete at 70 to 80 MPH, compared to the old dirt or gravel roads.

Most of the old concrete has been covered up but I can show you 1 or 2 short sections where it was bypassed. The road was narrower than today's typical 2 lane road.

The Ontario Provincial Police had motorcycle patrolmen on the hiways but did not have patrol cars yet. But speed limit enforcement was not as strict as it is today. And population density was less than half what it is now. If you wanted to "make time" between towns you could do so safely, especially at night when there was almost no traffic.

Normal comfortable cruising speed would be 45 to 50 MPH, but in a Packard you could go faster if you wanted to.Up to 60 without undue strain.

Top speed of a 1926 Packard would be 80 to 85 MPH but that would really be "flying low" and not sustainable for very long. The car would do it, but it would be like going over 120 MPH in today's cars. Neither comfortable nor safe.

On a trip like that the Packard would average around 15 MPG. Assuming a 20 gallon tank, it would require at least one refuelling stop on the way. Probably 2, if the driver was prudent.

These would probably coincide with a meal stop.

I don't know what the weather was like in March 1926 but cars in those days had no heaters. So regular stops to warm up would be likely.

Hot tea would be the popular beverage on the Canadian route. Canada is a nation of tea drinkers, even more then than today.

Diners restaurants gas stations and hotels would likely be open between 7 am and 5 or 6pm. Hotel dining rooms possibly as late as 9. I would not expect to find any all night diners restaurants or gas stations.

In a late model car with good tires it would be reasonable to make such a trip without a breakdown or involuntary stop. The driver would likely have the car serviced by a Packard dealer or good garage before such a trip. Cars in those days required more service work than today, an oil change and lubrication every 1000 miles and tuneups twice a year. So it would be sensible to have the car checked over.

Tire life about 5000 miles. Someone who used his car a lot might run up 5000 miles in a year so he might have new tires fitted for the trip too, if the old ones were wearing thin.

A family or older people on a pleasure trip might divide the journey into 2 days and potter along at 30 to 40 MPH. A young blood in a hurry could drive straight through with one or 2 stops for food and gas, and do it in under 10 hours.It would be no problem to do the trip in a day.

That was another thing. In those days journey times varied widely. To a lot of motorists it was quite a bragging point to say "I made it from New York to St. Catherines in 10 hours". Or to try to beat their best time, on a journey they made regularly. "With the new Packard I cut 45 minutes off my best time".

The weather would be more of a factor too. Rain or snow would cut speed considerably. Tires and windshield wipers were not as good as what we are used to, there was also the lack of heater and defroster.

If there was much snow, say an inch or more, tire chains would be de rigeur. They would cut speed to 20 or 25 MPH.

Don't know what else to tell you. There were trip guides and tourist guides published at that time. They would give you the suggested route, describe roads, towns, etc and give a complete itinerary with times to various points along the way.

Perhaps your local library or historical society could help. These trip guides were widely published and I'm sure some of them survive.

Here is another suggestion. Perhaps you could go for a ride in a 1925 Packard and get the feel for such a journey. I bet there are Packard owners on this board who would be happy to help with your research.

I don't know where you are but there are antique car meets all around the country this time of year. You might attend one and look at the cars, ask around and see if you can find a suitable Packard. I am sure any Packard owner would be pleased to take you for a short ride, and answer your questions.

Or give us your name and locality and someone here may step up and have his car immortalized in print.

Here's an account of a road trip from New York to Detroit in the winter of 1929. From an interview with Ford designer Eugene Gregorie.

"Frank had given up a nice room in one of the big, old mansions out on West Grand Boulevard they'd had been turned into rooming houses. A nice, old lady-like gal and her daughter had this big place, and Frank was giving up the room there and taking an apartment with some other chap, so I moved up there. In the meantime, I

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went back to New York , to Long Island , to get my little French Citroen car--five horsepower Citroen. This was in early December, very cold, mean, so I went back one weekend and I started back with it for Detroit in the little convertible. No heater, cold, mean, and I got up into Pennsylvania in a little town called Hawley, broke a valve spring, went to a country garage. Talk about nerve driving a thing like that out there in those days! You couldn't have gotten a part for that thing this side of Paris .

Q: What company was it? You said Citroen.

A: Citroen, little Citroen. It was their little bread and butter car. A little, tiny five-horsepower, didn't have a...there was no starter, and didn't have a fan, or a water pump, thermo syphon cooling. It was a real adventure to drive that thing to Detroit in the Winter. Well, anyway, I got to Hawley , Pennsylvania , and had a valve spring go out on it. I went to a little, country garage, and this old fellow took the valve spring out. It was all simple you know, it only took a few minutes to get at the valve spring. He said, "Well, this looks like an inner valve spring on a '24 Buick." This is a little, tiny inner spring. So, he got one out of a trash bin he had, and popped it in there, and he said, "By golly," he says, "that'll work." So, he put the valve spring in, and Lord, the whole thing was a half hour, and two bucks, and I was on my way again. I did all right until I got up to a little place called Wayland , New York . It was about 40 miles below Rochester , and it had been snowing all day, and the snow had been laying in the fields but melting on the road. Along about 5 o'clock in the evening, it unknowingly had turned to a glaze of ice, and this little bugger spun
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around three or four times in the middle of the road and went over the corn field and laid on its beam ends.

Q: You didn't have seat belts in those days?

A: No, and they only had one door--one door on one side. Fortunately, the side with the door was up. So, I had sense enough to reach down and turn the gasoline off. It had a gasoline tank in the cowl like a Model A Ford, and I cut the gas off before it set fire to the thing. So, I got out, crawled around, straightened myself up, and along came two farmers and a Model A Ford Touring Car, and in the back they had a big piece of rope. We hooked the rope on, and tipped it up right. The three of us tipped it up, pulled it up on the road, and he towed me into Wayland, about a mile. We put the car in a little country garage there. An old gal had a little farm house down the road, so I bunked in there for two or three nights. The morning after that the snow was four feet deep up over the windows, so I was holed up there for three or four days with this little car. I went to the country garage, the rear wheel was bent, and we put it in a press and straightened the wheel out. I was really tied up there five days, then I went on, finally, to Detroit . It took me about eight or ten days to get from New York to Detroit . It was so cold going across Canada in the little convertible, I had to take newspaper and caulk the window frames up. There was no heat, and every now and then I would stop at a country store and get a cup of hot tea. They always had hot tea in Canada . I'd stand there and warm my feet, you know. I finally got to Detroit , and things were rough there. There was no work anywhere. As it happened....

Q: This is the winter of...?
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A: Winter of '29 and '30."

http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Gregorie_interview.htm

Depending on the weather your trip in March could go something like this. Although, the Packard would be much more suitable for such a journey than the little Citroen.

Rusty,

Very informative.

I'm sure with the advice you've provided, together with the first hand trip account, that Persia Walker will have a basis for her trip story or at least give her matters which she can further research.

You might check out this thread on lap robes and hot brick heaters.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=9772&topic_id=1235&#forumpost9772

Also at that time, your characters would be more likely to take the train especially at that time of year. Not that they couldn't make the trip by auto but it would be considered doing it the hard way.

One bit of local color. In south western Ontario an asphalt pavement was called "tarvy" as in "tarvy road".

I believe this comes from "Tarvia", a brand of asphalt paving compound used in the 20s.