Jump to content

1924 740 Stanely Steamer Sedan for sale


Recommended Posts

On my way to Maryland on Wed night (in a snowstorm) I swung by Jared Schoenly's garage to check this out. I know a little about steam cars but a lot about Antique cars. This is appealing because it is what I would call "honest".

It has the 30hp boiler in it and some cool features (at least to me). I should have taken some pictures of the water level gauge in the dash as I thought it was neat.

PLEASE someone buy this so I don't end up with it. It needs some work to be steaming and someone more expert than me would be a better buyer.

 

https://www.facebook.com/SpringCitySteamWorks/

IMG_7574.JPG

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, trimacar said:

I know the later Stanley’s must be great road cars, but they all seem to be very unfortunate looking.....


I shall withhold comments as no to cause a problem......but it’s killing me!

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, gossp said:

You could buy it and let Ed know he can’t play with it until you get the Stearns back.


 

Who ever said he was getting the Stearns back? There are legal terms that apply.........Orin......please check in here........comments on abandoned property, mechanics lean, and the most appropriate term......conversion. 😇

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, trimacar said:

I know the later Stanley’s must be great road cars, but they all seem to be very unfortunate looking.....

 

The issue with the later cars is that they have basically the same propulsion system as the earlier cars that weigh 1/2 as much.    There are lots of guys that have dialed in their condensing cars to get decent performance.

 

I've only driven a non condensing car so I have no first hand knowledge and I'm just a rookie.   Perhaps StanleyRegister could comment?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, edinmass said:


 

Who ever said he was getting the Stearns back? There are legal terms that apply.........Orin......please check in here........comments on abandoned property, mechanics lean, and the most appropriate term......conversion. 😇

 

I don't want it back until it is the best sorted Stearns in existence.  😁

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, edinmass said:


 

Who ever said he was getting the Stearns back? There are legal terms that apply.........Orin......please check in here........comments on abandoned property, mechanics lean, and the most appropriate term......conversion. 😇


finders keepers losers weepers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, edinmass said:


I shall withhold comments as no to cause a problem......but it’s killing me!

Yes, I can see, for you, how not commenting  might be bad for your health!  Let it out.

 

I apologize if my comment offended anyone, but it's just my opinion, and it's not just going by pictures, I've stood next to them. 

 

I also have comprehensive understanding that in the early 20's there were a lot of other cars, too, that were boxy, and styling wasn't the driving force when manufacturing them.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dave......I was thinking outside the box on the unattractive comment...........going back to some of AJ’s lady friends back in the day.............🤭
 

 

He got very lucky and hit the lottery with his wife..........

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, alsancle said:

 

The issue with the later cars is that they have basically the same propulsion system as the earlier cars that weigh 1/2 as much.    There are lots of guys that have dialed in their condensing cars to get decent performance.

 

I've only driven a non condensing car so I have no first hand knowledge and I'm just a rookie.   Perhaps StanleyRegister could comment?


Why do I have this strange sensation that I’m about to relive my youth and somehow I will be fixing steam cars? 🤯

 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

AJ.......what do the steam guys think about mounting a hot dog stand on the running board heated with the steam from the car? You could drive around to car shows and cruise nights and pay for the car.......
 

 

 

AJ’s Stanley Steamer Steamed Hot Dogs!

 

Finally a way to pay for your hobby! Besides, now that your retired, you need something productive to do...........“Chez AJ Mobile Catering”

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, edinmass said:

AJ.......what do the steam guys think about mounting a hot dog stand on the running board heated with the steam from the car? You could drive around to car shows and cruise nights and pay for the car.......
 

 

 

AJ’s Stanley Steamer Steamed Hot Dogs!

 

Finally a way to pay for your hobby!

 

 

Funny boy.   I'll be shipping it directly to you.  Get your plumbing equipment out.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, alsancle said:

 

 

Funny boy.   I'll be shipping it directly to you.  Get your plumbing equipment out.


 

Don’t forget to send me the 401k account number...............besides, if I do allow you to buy a steamer........it’s going to be a 

 

White

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, edinmass said:


 

Don’t forget to send me the 401k account number...............besides, if I do allow you to buy a steamer........it’s going to be a 

 

White

 

Why are  you aiming so low?   Maybe we should be bugging Jay or Stan Lucas for one of their Doble's?


I think I said this somewhere else,  but Jim Crank calls the White the BEST steam car every built over the Doble.    My issue is that they make the Stanley look attractive.

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, alsancle said:

 

 

Not when you are a savant.   Note I left off the key prefix word there.


 

Not when you are a super savant.  Note I added it in the prefix for you.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The condensing cars are heavy, and closed cars are even heavier.  But this car has an oversized boiler, which should make it easy to fit an oversized burner.  As in any powered vehicle, the amount of fuel you can effectively burn is a big determinant of performance.  Power-to-weight ratio really jumps out at you in a light little Stanley EX, but a big fire will make any Stanley peppy.  A nice fresh Baker burner from Bill Barnes, and all the stored energy capacity in the 26" boiler, should make this car a nice ride.

 

And sedans don't have to be slugs, if they are in fine working order.  Tom Marshall once told me that 1923 Stanley #23627, a large limousine, was one of the best-performing Stanleys he'd ever driven.

 

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The existing burner looks like a stock 20hp that was built out to fit under the bigger boiler.    If it ends up being me (lets pray otherwise)  I'll get a new burner and boiler built together instead of goofing around with the old stuff.

 

Could you comment on the piston valve block vs sliding valve block?    Dave Nergaard lives 20 minutes away from me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that the piston valve is supposed to be a little more efficient with steam.  It also doesn't have the heavy sliding metal contact that the slide valves have, which is supposed to rob a little less power.

 

In the Marshall Collection, we have a 735 with a piston valve block, a different design that Nergaard's.  It's hard to say whether or not there's any performance difference.  There is at least one drawback, though, in the way that car drives.  Since piston valves can't lift to let any condensate pass, there have to be spring-loaded relief valves for that purpose.  In this car, that calls for a fairly light touch on the throttle when starting off, or the relief valves will make impolite sounds and dump steam.

 

I'd guess that there aren't more than a half-dozen or so Stanleys running today with piston valve blocks.  Certainly all the highest-performing cars - Model K & Vanderbilt replicas, etc. - run the standard, obsolete-even-in-1900, well-understood, slide valves.

 

Interestingly, toward the end of the Stanley brothers' involvement with the company, FE was experimenting with piston valves.  The car in which he died had a piston valve engine, which survives today and is now powering a later condensing car.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/19/2020 at 10:05 AM, alsancle said:

Quite peeing all over my thread.  We need to find a buyer for this Steam Car.   I was going over in my head last night where I was going to ship it and that is really really bad.

This car would be great for you!  For the right offer, shipping could be part of the deal!  :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, jschoenly said:

This car would be great for you!  For the right offer, shipping could be part of the deal!  :)

 

Look at you lurking around!    Can you explain the cool water gauge to all the eager buyers in this thread?    Also, did I do an adequate job of explaining the burner/boiler?   I think for me I would replace them,  but a good tinker could probably make the existing ones work, at least for awhile?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

jschoenly is the man with the real answers, but here are my opinions.

 

The boiler doesn't look abused.  I'm not sure it has been hydro'd, but I wouldn't replace it on general principles - I'd get some pressure in it, cold or hot, and check for leaks.  If there are some but they aren't bad, they will probably respond well to some swedging.  Papers with the car indicate that it was running in 1993, and not fired since then.  There'd probably be a lot of junk come out of the blowdowns when it's fired up, but just sitting doesn't necessarily ruin a boiler.

 

If the small burner was up before, and the pan and grate haven't been damaged too badly, there'd be no reason the car wouldn't run on the small burner until you wanted to invest in the larger one.  Since the burner is already off, I'd be inclined to get it working on the ground, so you know it's ok and don't end up having to put it up and down a lot.  (This will also make you put the fuel supply systems into working order - which are actually some of the simplest ones on the car.)  I'll tell you, it makes a fearsome fire when you can look at it out from under the boiler.

 

Slotted burners tend to make more heat than drilled ones, so this might be a sort of middle ground between a standard 23" Stanley setup and the full power 27" setup.  It would actually be pretty interesting to experience the transition from small burner to large one.

 

I'm a big fan of making things go, at minimum expense, then deciding what to improve.

 

The water level gauge is generally referred to as the "Bristol-Derr" gauge.  There's a water column that echoes the level in the boiler, some thermocouples along its length, and some reference thermocouples at the top where there's always steam.  It's slightly magical, but the more (relatively) cool water and less steam there is in the column, the more electrical power is created to move the needle.  There's a nice discussion of it here - http://stanleysteamers.com/phorum-5.1/read.php?1,9430 .  Very early electronics!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finally got around to reading the newspaper articles on Robert D. Stayton.  The propagation of myths around steam cars was alive and well 80 years ago.   100mph?

 

Looks like Mr. Stayton might have moved back to Casey Creek in the 1970s?   He was still alive as of Dec 1972.  He would have been around 80 years old judging by his sister's age.  

The_Jacksonville_Daily_Journal_Sun__Dec_10__1972_.jpg

The_Dispatch_Mon__Oct_31__1949_.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thhe Lloyd Partridge car in the 1949 list is #5195, still in Illinois as far as I know.  The Marquardt car is #24652, also still in Illinois.  The rest I haven't yet been able to link to present-day cars.

 

Casey Creek is a long way from where the car was in Iowa in 1993.  Stayton could still have owned it in '72 - unfortunately it's still unkown how it made its way to Iowa.  It would be nice to at least find a newpaper ad for an estate sale.  🙂

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...