Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-23
MITCHELL AGENT BACK
FROM LONE PINE TRIP
INTERESTING STORY OF CARS
ENGAGED IN STAGE SERVICE
Fourteen Passengers to Car, and In
Eighteen Months Never Failed
but Once In Making Train
Connections

p. II. Greer of the Greer-Robbins
company has just returned from a ten
days trip through Inyo county, along
the line of the Los Angeles aqueduct,
where he. went to note the conditions
under which four Mitchell cars, as sold
by the Greer-Robbins company, are
being operated as a stage line from Mo-
jave through to Lone Pine.
Two 1908 Mitchell touring cars and
two 1909, seven passenger Mitchells are
being used and the first two have been
in service about eighteen months, the
latter two about ten months, making
regular trips from Lone Pine through
to Mojave and from Lone Pine to Lit
tie Lake, a station about half way be-
tween the other two points.
Mr.. Greer says that he shas had a
great many reports from the wonderful
work these cars are doing, on account
of the extreme conditions under which
they must operate at all times. None
of these roads have ever been graded,
and in reality is only a trail up the
valley, part of it being quite level, hav-
ing a hard smooth surface, but two
thirds of 1t is through the regulation
desert sand, and over rocky knollS,
through cuts and bitches that have
never been fixed up in any manner,
and the machines must operate under
constant strain at all times. Rocks
project from the surface of the road,
which 1t seems when striking them
at speed with an automobile, would jar
and ruin the machinery beyond repair.
Must Have Wide Tread
The sand roads are such that the ma
chine to progress rapidly must have
a sixty-inch tread, that is, four inches
wider than the regular tread as put
out by automobile manufacturers, as
all wagons have the wide tread, and all
automobiles must use these wagon
tracks, as plowing through the sand is
practically impossible. 1t is also nee
essary to use cars of the lower gear
ratio than regular, as greater speed
than forty miles an hour is not neces-
sary, and additional power is desired.
Extra large tires are used on these
machines, those being used being "a
inches by inches, with specially heavy
treads, and it was interesting to find
that the tire expense on these four
machines has run as high as $500 per
month during the hotter part of the
summer, when the loads carried were
excessive, and the hot burning sand
tended to deteriorate the tires very
rapidly.
These Mitchell cars are designed to
carry seven passengers, but on this
stage line as many as fourteen passen-
gers have been carried at one time, and
in addition each passenger usually has
from one to three suit cases or grips,
and all other baggage must be han
died. In a great many cases large size
trunks and merchandise, which pas
sengers carry with them, all of which
must go, and 1t was remarkable to see
how these machines are loaded down,
and it is a wonder that they can keep
going under such excessive loads.
One of these machines leaves Lone
Pine, CAL, each morning at a. M
a very nice time of day, it seemed to
Mr.. Greer, for passengers to be called
out of their slumbers for an automo-
bile ride of fifty-four or 12S miles, ac-
cording to the direction in which they
wish to go.
Makes Only One Failure
Their schedule to Little Lake, fifty
four miles distant, is four hours, to
catch a train which leaves at a! m,
and it is claimed by Mr.. Hay, the
owner of these machines, that only
once since he has operated this line,
approximately eighteen months, has his
machine failed to make this train con-
nection.
To the average driver of an automo-
bile going for the first time over such
a stage route it would seem incredi"
BILE that these machines could con-
tinue to operate day after day and year
after year. as the conditions are such
that they would balk the average
driver the first time he was ever forced
to drive his machine up against them,
and Mr.. Greer states that in talking
with an individual driver going through