The Baby REO Story

[Stude Light]

By popular request, I will start a new topic on the 1905 Baby REO.

 

I have to start this story with a plug for the RE Olds Transportation Museum, which is where this car currently resides with it's full size 1906 REO Model A "Mama". It's a great moderately sized museum in the heart of Lansing Michigan that I had the privilege of guiding as Executive Director until just recently (retired).

 

I also need to recognize Debbie Stevens, who is the Great Granddaughter of Ransom Eli Olds and owns the two cars, together with her husband, Peter Stevens.

 

Setting the Stage

In the early part of the 20th century, the American automotive industry was off to a hot start. From just a few craftsmen working in garages, their efforts soon caught the attention of entrepreneurs, capitalists, scientific journals and journalists alike. It is hard for us to imagine today, but between 1896 and 1930 there were over 1800 automobile manufacturers just in the United States! Rival manufacturers were constantly trying to one-up each other in capability and showmanship.
 

The Baby REO story starts with Ransom Eli Olds, RE to friends and family. The Olds family moved to Lansing from Geneva, OH in 1880 where RE's father, Pliny and older brother, Wallace set up shop (PF Olds and Son) to repair equipment and begin building stationary steam engines. RE was 16 at the time but worked for his father and quickly learned engine design and manufacturing from the elder Olds. Always the tinkerer, RE installed a gasoline fired, flash boiler stationary steam engine in a boat and would give rides up and down the Grand River that ran through town. Growing up on a farm, RE had a distain for horses which were all over in Michigan's Capitol City, stinking up the streets, dropping "pucky" everywhere and causing plenty of accidents. His hating of horses was the inspiration for adapting a stationary steam engine into a three wheeled cart he built in 1887 and drove around the streets of Lansing. He later built a larger steam powered vehicle that was shipped overseas.

 

By age 21, RE bought his brother Wallace's share of the family company and applied what he learned the last 5 years to improve engine designs and the marketing of their products. By the early 1890's gasoline stationary engines were the new technology and PF Olds and Son began to offer gasoline engines in 1896. That same year RE integrated one in a carriage made by Frank Clark, a local horse-drawn carriage company in Lansing. He was now on to something and created the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in 1897. Focusing on the very profitable stationary engines and not having enough room to build vehicles, only a few horseless carriages were made. With new investors and reorganizing the family business to gain capital, Olds Motor Works was created in 1899 and RE became VP and General Manager but lost controlling interest. Several new designs were created including an electric vehicle and by 1900 a factory was built in Detroit with about 15 different vehicles planned and many orders procured. Then the factory burned to the ground early in 1901. To recover, Olds selected the lowest priced and most cost effective vehicle to build and a make-shift factory was built from the powerhouse which was not involved in the fire.

 

By 1903, Olds Motor Works was the worlds largest vehicle manufacturer turning out thousands of the new Curved Dash "Oldsmobiles" (CDO) on the worlds first progressive assembly line at two factories, one in Detroit, and one in Lansing. Mr. Olds took several variants of the CDO to the 1903 New York Auto Show and was the talk of the show. This success did not come by accident as, besides being a great designer, Olds was also a great marketer having staged the Curved Dash Olds on a teeter totter to show its ease of control, to demonstrating its power by driving up the steps of the State Capitol Building, to showing its endurance by having an employee drive from Detroit to New York in record time on the unimproved roads at the time.

 

By 1904, RE left Olds Motor Works due to the constant and incompetent meddling by his investors, Samuel Smith and his son, Frederick (the primary instigator). With the encouragement of a group of Lansing investors, he created a new car company which was to be named the RE Olds Company, but the Smiths threatened to sue him over the Olds name so he settled on the REO Motor Car Company (using his initials).

 

In 1905, he was again at the New York Auto show with his new company, REO but he was relegated to the restaurant section of the show. How that must have irritated him given his singular accomplishments up to this point. The Olds family archives contains a terse letter to potential customers directing them to the restaurant section for the 1905 REO models. Olds was NOT going to have a repeat of this treatment in 1906 and the idea for a Baby REO born.

 

I'm going to interrupt the story here because Ransom Olds does not get enough credit. He wasn't just an early automotive pioneer, he was THE pioneer. He built Steam, Gasoline and Electric vehicles all before 1900 and, later in life, added diesel powered vehicles to that list. Ransom E Olds began building cars when the Duryea brothers were still making bicycles, Henry Ford was working on the family farm, David Buick was busy making bathtubs, Billy Durant was building horse-drawn carriages, Charles Nash was stuffing upholstery for Durant’s carriages, the Dodge brothers were working as boilermakers (later supplied transmissions for the CDO), Henry LeLand was working as a machinist (later supplied  engines for Olds Motor Works), Walter Chrysler was a railroad mechanic. Many famous names were prior employees of Olds Motor Works before RE left the company: Roy Chapin, Oliver Barthel, Charles B King, Barney Everitt, Robert Hupp, James Brady, Roscoe Jackson, Howard Coffin, Frederick Bezner, William Metzger, Walter Marr, Henry LeLand, Charles Wilson. He started two very successful car companies that had a combined 175 years of manufacturing.

 

Next post we'll get into the heart of the story on the Baby.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[Stude Light]

After his treatment at the 1905 NY Auto Show, Ransom Olds went home and considered how to create a new marketing campaign for the 1906 show. Most salesmen at the time would have miniatures of the items they were peddling. These would allow the salesmen to easily transport items representing the larger thing they were selling so people were accustomed to seeing scale models. Why not do it with a car?

 

The car in question was the 1906 REO. There were two models offered for sale, the one-cylinder Model B Runabout and the two-cylinder Model A. He chose the Model A and commissioned to have miniature vehicle built. Every detail of the new 1906 Model A was reproduced at ½ scale and the Baby REO was born at a cost of $3600 which was roughly twice the retail cost of the full-sized Model A and over $100,000 in today’s dollars. The blueprints for the Model A were followed precisely but reduced to ½ scale. The engine, planetary transmission, drive chain, axle, wheels, tires, frame, body, lights and even the speedometer were all replicated in ½ scale. Although not 100% complete, the car was rushed to the 1906 Auto Show. In addition to the marketing impact, this miniature car would tweak his former colleagues at Olds Motor Works, who continued to try and undermine Olds’ new automotive venture. 

And tweak it did, in fact, it completely upstaged Olds Motor Works and became the hit of the show. The Baby was typically paired with the full-sized Model A. Besides taking orders for the Model A, the REO Company began receiving orders for Baby REOs but had to turn them down.

 

After a fantastic debut, the Baby REO embarked on a nationwide tour. Starting with the January and February Madison Square Garden Auto shows, the Baby was on display for the entirety of show week. The Cole County Democrat covered the event, lavishing much praise on Mr. Olds for the duo. “Much credit is due to Mr. Olds for this pleasing innovation, which is another chapter proving why he has endeared himself to every lover of this ideal modern sport.” The New York Herald also covered the lead up to the Madison Square Garden auto show. Predicting it to be a main feature, the Herald valued the Baby at five thousand dollars should it be available for sale. 

 

It was around the end of January 1906 that the Baby began to attract attention nationwide. The Daytona Daily News reported that, as a result of the Baby, REO’s production for 1906 was raised to 3300 cars, making them the most well-known automaker in America. Shortly thereafter, the Los Angeles Herald reported that Leon Shettler, the REO agent for Los Angeles, would be hosting the Baby for 2 months. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Leader was showering praise on REO for the Baby’s continued success at the Cleveland, New York, and Chicago auto shows. At the Cleveland Auto Show, the Baby even attracted the attention of prominent French auto engineer Count De La Valette, who was said to be extremely interested in purchasing it.
    
Around mid-March, the Baby was in such high demand that newspapers across the country were publishing conflicting reports as to its whereabouts. The Los Angeles Herald reported that the Baby was on its way to Leon Shettler’s showroom. However, the Baby was confirmed to be in Boston, and its stay was even extended due to popular demand. 

 

On the 25th of March, the Omaha Daily Bee reported that the ‘perfect car that was made for children’ would be the feature exhibit at the upcoming Omaha Auto Show beginning on April 4th. On March 30th, the Omaha World Herald echoed this, saying that the DeRight Auto Company had delivered it yesterday. They also added that Barnum and Bailey had rented it to carry 4 Lilliputians about Madison Square Garden, proving the Baby REO’s superior versatility over other cars of that time.

The Omaha Auto Show had only finished one day before the press began running stories on the Baby REO. According to the Omaha World Herald, the “smallest machine in the world, express shipped from New York, was a smash hit with children. It raises the bar for a company that won more first place prizes in 1905 than any other American car.” 

 

As the Baby REO dominated the attention of the crowds at every auto show, its legend grew as well. The Automobile, a magazine dedicated to the car show circuit, published a standalone photo of the Baby REO, carrying 4 Lilliputians, parked next to an elephant and “Jumbo,” the Welsh giant, for scale. It is assumed that this is a promotional photo for Barnum and Bailey.

As April came to a close, Goodwin’s Weekly ran a brief article on the Baby REO. After being the center of attention at every auto show over the winter, she arrived at Salt Lake City as a promotional tool for Siegel Clothing Company where she sat in the front window of the store. A week later. Goodwin’s reported that the Baby REO was attracting a great deal of attention for Siegel’s and sales were up. 

 

The beginning of May saw the Baby REO move further west. On May 2nd, the Los Angeles Herald reported that the Baby REO was on its way to Los Angeles and would arrive on May 10th. Leon Shettler, Los Angeles’ REO agent, would be hosting the Baby at his garage on Grand Avenue & Sixth St. Later that week, The Los Angeles Times said the arrival date had been pushed back due to being exhibited in every major city on its trek westward.

 

Both papers reported that the Baby has proven to be in very high demand; numerous offers exceeding $2500 were made. One man from Coney Island offered $5000 for it! However, REO decided that the Baby made too good a promotional tool and announced that the Baby would not be sold, nor would any reproductions be made.

 

Another week passed and with it came another story from the Los Angeles Times that the Baby REO’s arrival would be delayed another week. Evidently, as a result of being the most talked about car of 1906, the Baby stopped at every REO agency on its way to Los Angeles.

 

On the 19th of May, the Baby REO made its much-anticipated arrival to Leon Shettler’s garage. However, not much is known about the actual duration of the Baby’s stay. The next week, Goodwin’s Weekly published a photo of the Baby in front of Sharman-Ottinger Automobile Company, a REO dealer in Salt Lake City. 

 

Note: I'll eventually get to new pictures of the car and the work being done on it but the back story is too good to pass up...Scott

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

Fun story……very well written!  I recall this magazine cover from just over a year ago.
Thank You!

[chistech]

My own research that I did for the restoration of my 32, quickly showed me the lack of love for Ransom, and even the Olds brand in the GM family. That battle with Ransom seemed to spread to the GM brass who really thought the Olds was a lesser vehicle than all the rest. While Olds ended up having many firsts and new innovations, GM continually took those innovations and put them on other GM brands and then put way more advertising into those features once on another car. To this day, many believe many firsts in automobile history were by other brands but in fact, were olds or Ransom. 
    When I was at the museum this past August, I realized even more how little love Olds and ransom got. They tore down his mansion when it, or part of it could have been moved for the new highway and saved virtually nothing from it. The museum was started by car owners and locals with no real help from GM or Lansing originally. I believe Lansing only cares about it now as the city is basically derelict and they need some sort of draw and the museum is the only thing they have. (I could be wrong here and feel free to educate me any of us on your thread please),  Olds was the first big brand dismissed by GM, and many more things. Even today, in the collector car hobby, Olds tend to bring less for comparable models and even the muscle cars do when in fact, many olds models out performed the other brands. My own 32 olds DCR, is twice the car a 32 Ford is. Yes, no V-8, but looks wise, chassis construction/length, tire size, options, and drivability,are way above the ford, not to mention the rarity, yet my olds will never bring as much as a comparable Ford and it doesn’t make sense. As I said, Olds has never gotten, or never gets the love it deserves!

[Stude Light]

13 hours ago, chistech said:

My own research that I did for the restoration of my 32, quickly showed me the lack of love for Ransom, and even the Olds brand in the GM family. That battle with Ransom seemed to spread to the GM brass who really thought the Olds was a lesser vehicle than all the rest. While Olds ended up having many firsts and new innovations, GM continually took those innovations and put them on other GM brands and then put way more advertising into those features once on another car. To this day, many believe many firsts in automobile history were by other brands but in fact, were olds or Ransom. 
    When I was at the museum this past August, I realized even more how little love Olds and ransom got. They tore down his mansion when it, or part of it could have been moved for the new highway and saved virtually nothing from it. The museum was started by car owners and locals with no real help from GM or Lansing originally. I believe Lansing only cares about it now as the city is basically derelict and they need some sort of draw and the museum is the only thing they have. (I could be wrong here and feel free to educate me any of us on your thread please),  Olds was the first big brand dismissed by GM, and many more things. Even today, in the collector car hobby, Olds tend to bring less for comparable models and even the muscle cars do when in fact, many olds models out performed the other brands. My own 32 olds DCR, is twice the car a 32 Ford is. Yes, no V-8, but looks wise, chassis construction/length, tire size, options, and drivability,are way above the ford, not to mention the rarity, yet my olds will never bring as much as a comparable Ford and it doesn’t make sense. As I said, Olds has never gotten, or never gets the love it deserves!

Those are the facts

[jdome]

Interesting story. As I recall William "Bill" Haines of Canton, Ohio owned one of these half scale display cars from this vintage back in the 70's-90's period.

I don't know if it was this exact car or a similar one. I think he had another brass era half scale car of different year & model.  Bill Sr. & Jr. , both gone now, had some unusual brass & Classic cars, including several American Underslungs. 

[Stude Light]

Picking up on the story of the World's First Miniature Car....

 

Mr. Olds always enjoyed photographing the younger members of the family and friends in the Baby REO. Here is one of those photos. The boy driving looks a bit scared and the girls do not look impressed!

 

With good name recognition, quality cars and all the marketing help from the Baby REO, the REO Motor Car Company had thousands of production orders.  By 1907, REO was the third largest car company in the United States by production volume.  Meanwhile, following their new business model of large expensive cars, Olds Motor Works had steadily lost market share and, in 1907, produced less than a thousand cars.  By the end of the year they were close to insolvency and, in 1908, with close to a million of their own dollars now invested in Olds Motor Works, the Smith's were eager to sell to Billy Durant who saved the company by bringing it into the newly formed General Motors Corporation.

 

In 1907 REO changed up their styling and, by 1908, a completely new front end was designed. A new front was also made for the Baby REO as the company continued to use the miniature car for advertising. This front was saved and is with the car at the RE Olds Transportation Museum.

 

The Baby REO was eventually retired from touring dealerships and was displayed at the company headquarters. It was later sold or leased to Barnum and Bailey Circus and the engine was converted to run on air pressure as they didn't want to risk an internal combustion engine causing a fire.  A small air tank was added which would allow the car to drive around the big top a couple of times before refilling.  There are a few reports of the Baby occasionally appearing at REO events and Mr. Olds continued to use it to photograph the new kids in the family.

 

In the early 1930s the Baby is returned to the REO Motor Company. After being returned to REO, the Baby continued to make occasional appearances at dealerships and auto shows. At one such event, the Milwaukee Auto Show, Mr. Olds hired a midget to drive the Baby REO around. Unfortunately for Mr. Olds, the midget became intoxicated and drove the car into, among other things, a brick wall. It took a while for the authorities to apprehend him and it is unknown if Mr. Olds hired him again. In 1936, REO ceased production of cars to focus on truck sales. A REO sales office in Pittsburgh loaned the Baby REO to a distributor for display purposes. As the car division shuts down, the Baby REO is forgotten, and becomes lost for 18 years.
 

 

[31nash880]

Just leave us hanging

[Stude Light]

Ransom Olds last worked at the REO Motor Company in 1934. Two years later the company stopped producing cars to focus 100% on truck production. Mr. Olds passed away in 1950 at the age of 86.

 

REO trucks were highly regarded for their superior service during WWII but, by 1954, the company was struggling financially. A new marketing plan was developed to promote their new Gold Comet V8 engine and to celebrate their 50th year in business. What better to help with this campaign than the Baby REO, but the little car could not be found.

 

The next mention of the Baby came on April 23rd, 1954, courtesy of the Charleroi (Pa) Mail, as the REO Motor Co was conducting a nationwide search for the Baby. Stories about the Baby continued to be run as August came around and finally, in later in August, the Baby REO was found under a tarp in a barn in Altoona, Pa belonging to a REO truck dealer. As it turns out, he had kept it since 1936. The car was quickly recovered and restored. A month later, the Baby and Jack Alongi, the man hired to drive her, would appear on the cover of Automotive Service Digest.

Towards the end of the year, REO began their 50th anniversary tour, with the new V-8 and refurbished Baby as the showcase exhibits. They went on a nationwide tour, stopping at nearly every REO event around the country. There were lots of advertising events and photos taken.

Of course, the car needed occasional maintenance to keep up it's busy schedule

With the car back at the REO factory, the Olds family again had access to it and continued the tradition of taking photos of their children with it. The photo shows Debbie Stephens at the steering wheel and her parents and sister in the background. Debbie is the great-granddaughter of RE Olds and the present owner of the car.

By 1957, The Baby REO fell out of the public eye again and she was presumed either lost or in storage during this time (again).

 

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[Stude Light]

The final part of the Baby's history before I got involved....

 

In the mid-1950s, REO Motors sold its vehicle manufacturing operations to the Bohn Aluminum and Brass Corporation of Detroit and three years later, REO became a subsidiary of the White Motor Company. White also owned the Diamond T Truck Company and, in 1967, merged REO with Diamond T Trucks to form Diamond REO Trucks.

 

Sometime in mid-1971, the Baby indirectly appeared in the public eye again as F.L. Cappaert bought Diamond REO for $1.3 million in cash and $3.2 million in notes, thus gaining control of all Diamond REO’s assets (including the Baby). Just a few years later, in April of 1975, Cappaert shut down Diamond REO and the Baby moved down to Vicksburg, MS, presumably with Cappaert, where she stayed until 1979.

 

In 1979, Dick Teague, V.P. of Design at American Motors Corporation (AMC), went to Vicksburg to discuss AMC acquiring Diamond REO’s assets. Mr. Teague was also an automotive historian and collector and had knowledge of the Baby REO. In addition to representing AMC's interests, Teague also planned to personally buy the Baby REO. He paid Cappaert $3,000 for it, plus an additional $50 to buy dinner for a family in Jackson that wanted the car. Despite the Baby’s small stature, the doors to Cappaert’s office building had to be removed to get the Baby out!

 

In the early 1980’s, the Baby spent her time getting restored by Teague. Mr. Teague commissioned a friend, automotive collector and restorer, Jeff Beaumont, to get the Baby running using its original gasoline motor. The car had been running on compressed air since being used by Barnum and Bailey some 70+ years earlier, so Teague removed the compressed air tank and associated plumbing and sent the car to Beaumont. Mr. Beaumont had to make a number of parts including the fuel and coolant tanks and a coil box as these had all been lost. What is remarkable though is there were two brass carburetor castings under the back seat and Beaumont was able to use his own REO Model A and carburetor as a pattern to machine these up. Beaumont got the engine running on his bench, although there is no indication it was ever run after being returned to Teague. 

 

The restoration of Baby was a rather lengthy process that included making new miniature tires. The car was restored with the original 1906 style front end. The most impressive part of the process, however, was reuniting the Baby with her "Mama". Teague is the one that first coined the term "Mama" and located a 1906 Model A at auction, purchased her, and restored her too.  In 1984, the Mama and Baby made their first public appearance at the Meadow Brook Concours in Rochester, Michigan. The next year, Teague loaned the Mama and Baby to the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum. They stayed there for an undetermined amount of time. In 1988, the Mama and Baby were the lead feature in the first quarter issue of Automobile Quarterly. The two did not make any more public appearances in the 1980s.

 

At this time Debbie Stephens, the great-granddaughter of Ransom Eli Olds, is keenly aware that the Baby REO has survived all these years and she, along with her husband, Peter, are extremely interested in owning the two cars and bringing them back into the Olds' family. This starts  a race to purchase the cars in which they are always one step behind the new owners.

 

1991 started out on a somber note, as Mr. Teague passed away after a lengthy illness. The next year, William Haines, owner of Haines Old Car Barn in North Canton, OH, purchased the Mama and Baby and took the Baby to the National REO meet, where it is a smash hit. The Mama and Baby were also shown at the Pebble Beach Concours. It is unknown if the Mama and Baby made any more public appearances during the 1990s.

 

The Mama and Baby kept a low profile for the first half of the 2000s, as they did not appear at any auto shows. However, in 2006, Charlie LeMatre purchased the Mama and Baby from Mr. Haines. There is no record of the cars appearing in any auto shows or magazines while LeMatre owned them.

 

In August of 2008, two years after purchasing the Mama and Baby, LeMatre puts them up for auction through Gooding and Company. The Stephens' were unaware that the Mama and Baby were being offered at the auction and were going to be one step behind once again until one of the folks with Gooding and Company called them a couple of days before the auction started. Apparently he knew the Stephens had been wanting to purchase the Baby REO and wanted to ensure they were aware. Talk about emotions running high. After years of not knowing the cars existed, followed by years of trying to bring them back into the family, the opportunity was at hand but.....it was too late to catch a flight to get out to the auction but the good folks at Gooding helped them quickly get set up for online bidding. Bidding started swiftly, then slowed. The Stephens put in their bid and finally the gavel fell. Peter and Debbie Stephens purchased both cars! They placed them back at the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum.

Photo of the two cars at the Gooding Auction

 

As Debbie Stephens is the great-granddaughter of R.E. Olds, The New York Times ran a feature story about the Mama and Baby titled "At 102, the Baby Car Goes Home Again".

 

Next.....is their time at the Museum and when a new Executive Director (me) shows up and takes interest.
 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[PFindlay]

Great story!  Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.  Question ...  is the Mama car the same car as the baby was shown with at the 1906 auto show?

[Stude Light]

18 hours ago, PFindlay said:

Great story!  Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.  Question ...  is the Mama car the same car as the baby was shown with at the 1906 auto show?

Great question and I had to reach out to Peter Stephens for that answer.

 

In the years 1906-1908, the Baby was paired with any available Model A REO. So, the Model A at the 1906 NY Auto Show did not follow the Baby on the nationwide tour, instead they just shipped the Baby REO to the various dealerships and paired it up with the Model A that was available. After 1908, when the Model A was radically changed, the Baby was usually shown by itself. There are no early references to "Baby and Mama" but only to "the Baby REO and the Model A REO". The term "Mama" was the brainchild of Dick Teague who found a 1906 Model A REO at auction and restored both that car and the Baby to match the original look from 1906. It is unknown if Mr. Teague found one of the Model A cars from an early pairing - none of his documentation is available. Regardless, after Teague paired the Mama and Baby together in the early 1980's the two cars have always stayed together.

 

Thanks for the question. I had to go back and take out a couple of references to the term "Mama" in the early part of the story to help clarify that point.

Scott

[jdome]

I'm glad to know that I'm not totally nutz and that I did see the Baby at Haines' warehouse/car barn when he owned it back in the 90's. My timing may be out of sink a bit because I thought he had it in the 80's as well. I live in the Canton area and I toured his collection several times over the past decades. I am enjoying your article and plan to visit the Olds Museum if I get in the Lansing area.

[Fordy]

Awesome read and great to know that it has survived and is in a very suitable place befitting its heritage status.

[Stude Light]

Mama and Baby REOs arrive at the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum!

 

Debbie and Peter Stephens decide that the two cars should be back home in Lansing, MI where Ransom Olds spent most of his life and where both Olds Motor Works and the REO Motor Car Company existed. It is the home of REO and a part of the city is designated as "REO Town". The photo below shows when Baby first arrives and is unloaded from the trailer and brought inside.

The first priority was to set up a display for the two cars

The second priority was to throw a party.....actually, it was a Baby Shower!!! Below are pictured Peter and Debbie Stephens, along with Debbie's mother, Doris. Unfortunately, Debbie's father, RE Olds Anderson, had previously passed away but his memory was alive as his photo as a child in the car survives, just like many other past family members. It was an emotional time for the family to finally bring this heirloom home.

The party was well attended and had all the appropriate gifts for a Baby including diapers for under the car and special formula.

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[Stude Light]

With the parties over and after spending some time on display, the Museum volunteers wanted to get the Baby running. By all accounts, the engine last ran in the early 1980s when Jeff Beaumont had it at his shop. All that was needed was fuel, coolant, oil and a battery, right? After ensuring fuel supply and spark at the plugs, the little crank handle was applied and turned and ......

Nothing!

More tinkering required. Adjust the carbs, adjust the spark.

It would pop once in a while but they just couldn't get it to run. Cranking with that small crank handle is a pain so a special end was fashioned for a drill motor and ......

Broken wrist!!!

Apparently the Baby still had some kick but was not going to come quietly. It was decided a safer starter should be made so an electric motor was fitted under the car and a drive a belt around the flywheel was used. Still no luck. It was decided that the little 1/2 scale brass carbs were just not capable of creating the correct air/fuel mixture.

So adapter plates were made and modern lawn mower carbs were fitted to the car. New linkages were made and the vintage 10mm Wingfoot spark plugs were abandoned and replaced with modern NGK chain saw spark plugs. 

They got the engine to run! The problem was it took one person at each carb, one on the throttle and one at the spark control to keep it running for any length of time. The cause was abandoned and the car was put back on semi-static display....a turntable was added.

By the way, the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum has a great bunch of volunteers with a lot of talent. They do everything from work on cars to build displays (like the one in the picture above) to cleaning to building maintenance to putting on car shows, etc. What the Museum doesn't have is a repair facility so it's difficult to get into detailed vehicle maintenance.

 

[Walt G]

Thank you for taking the time to give us all a wonderful report of such historic machinery! The whole family connection/history as well just makes this so very special. The objects are important but the people who were there and are there now is what makes the connection. This is the kind of story that should be in the AACA magazine - but of course in several issues so as to not take up to much space.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Walt G (see edit history)

[Stude Light]

In August of 2020, I was working at GM and decided to visit the RE Olds Museum with a friend and was looking online to see if they were open with COVID and all. I had been to the Museum a couple of times before. I noticed that on their web page, they were advertising that their Executive Director was retiring and they had a search committee for a new one.  I thought to myself "That would be a fun retirement job". Fast forward a couple of months and I was in my boss's office telling him I was retiring at the end of the year. Before I even was employed by the Museum, one of the first things I did was to find the contact information for the Stephens and I sent them an email.

 

I had seen the Baby REO before and enjoyed what little of the story I knew. Now that I was to become the new Executive Director, I gained more access to the car and learned of the back story. I peaked under the floorboards and saw that little motor then looked in the storage compartment under the back seat and picked up one of the cute little brass carburetors - I was hooked. This is one super cool piece of history!!!

 

So, in that email I sent to the car's owners, Debbie and Peter, I asked if I could take the car out of the Museum, take it to my shop at home and make it right. At this point, the Stephens knew me only from a Zoom call I had with them, and the other members of the Museum's Board of Trustees, as part of the job interview for Director. They were in Florida, I was in Michigan and it was just before Christmas. I had a follow up phone call with them and they said YES!  I am not sure what I said that would allow them to place so much trust in me to take one of their prized possessions home and work on it.

 

It seemed to fit in the car trailer and with plenty of extra room.

Then into the shop. 

 

"Where am I? THAT AIN'T MY MAMA!"

 

Anyone that knows me eventually figures out that when it comes to vintage stuff, I'm a purest and perfectionist. The first order of business was to methodically go through the car from end to end (yeah, I'm an engineer). Just a few screws and the body comes off to reveal the entire engine, transmission and drivetrain. Under the hood are the radiator, fuel tank and water tank.

As you can see, it still had the lawn mower carbs on it at the time. If this car was going to run, it was going to have the right equipment so those came off, along with the adapters, rubber hoses, modern spark plugs and all the plastic wiring and crimp connectors. And I wasn't going to be bent over for the next several weeks so an appropriate hoist was in order.

Or in this case, a workbench. 

 

[r1lark]

As one famous newscaster always said........."and now, the rest of the story!"  Looking forward so much to the rest of your story Stude Light.

[Stude Light]

Hmm, where to start? The cylinders are exact 1/2 scale duplicates of the Model A, even the casting markings. They are quite cute. The nickel gives scale.

Considering the efforts of the Museum volunteers finding that carburation seemed to be a problem. I started there. The 1906 Model A (and the Baby) have one carb for the front cylinder and another carb for the rear cylinder. In essence, it is similar to two stationary engines joined at the crankshaft with a single flywheel. I took the small brass carbs apart and compared them to the Model A cross-section.

The Baby carbs are identical in 1/2 scale, except for the lack of a float flushing spindle (aka a "tickler"). In these early carbs there is no choke so the tickler was used to depress the float and flood the carburetor so it could be cranked over-rich for starting. These REO carbs have two critical adjustments:

1) Float Level

2) Main Jet Setting

 

I started with trying to set the float levels so that the fuel comes just to the top of the main jet. I made a bench setup and, rather than using gasoline and coming in the house smelling, I looked for something with a similar specific gravity. I found that naphtha is pretty close, doesn't leave you stinking like gasoline and is a lot less flammable. So, I took the fuel tank off my REO lawn mower engine (I thought it fitting) and set up a bench to verify the float level setting.

I was trying to get the fuel to just get to the top of the jet as can be viewed in this photo looking down the hole in the top where the needle usually sits.

The setup worked great but the results weren't so good. I could not keep the little carb from flooding.

 

As mentioned, the Baby carburetor is exactly the same as a Model A except 1/2 scale.  The problem is that 1/2 scale doesn’t always work well with physics. A 1/2 scale float has 1/(2)³ buoyancy rather than 1/2 the buoyancy.  This is because the volume of the float is measured as 𝜋𝑟²  x height so you end up with 1/8 the volume. That is why the car looks so small when parked next to the full-sized Model A - it is half the length, width and height but 1/8 the size in volume.  

 

The buoyancy of the float is what closes the needle valve and the rear carb on the Baby was just barely capable of functioning.  However, the front carb didn't function at all.  To change the float level you move the shaft up/down the float itself and re-solder the little washers on each side. What I found was that the floats on the Baby have to be almost fully submerged to create enough buoyancy force to close the needle against the seat vs a half submerged float on the full-sized Model A. In order to get the correct fuel level at the jet, the float on the Baby has to be mounted lower on the shaft and rest on the bottom of the float bowl (with no fuel). It then has very little travel before closing the needle valve. After some experimenting and doing a bit of math I figured out the issue and decided I had to machine down the area in red on the carbs and maximize the size of the floats.

I really didn't like the idea of machining one of a kind parts for a very valuable piece of history, but.....

[modela28]

Thank you Stude Light for sharing the Baby REO story! 

[29 Chandler]

You've got my vote for Thread of the year. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story. Indeed it seems you were the right person at the right time. We are all so fortunate that you also have the time and attention to detail to provide us "the rest of the story".

[Stude Light]

To make the carburetors work correctly, I would have a bit of machine work to do. My first problem was my vintage 1920s Dalton belt driven lathe only had a 3 jaw chuck.

I did have a spare faceplate so I found a decent 4 jaw chuck on eBay, mounted it and started machining the float bowls. Just to be clear, I'm an engineer and not a machinist by trade....more of a self-taught machinist. The carbs are not necessarily replaceable so I was pretty careful and probably spun that lathe by hand as much as it was spun by the electric motor during some of the work 😁

I also increased the diameter of the float bowls a bit. I found a little porosity in the brass castings but nothing that caused any issues. I then made up some new floats that were a bit larger outside diameter and a bit taller (new one on the right) to get all the buoyancy I could, to firmly close the needle.

I found that a sharp edge on the needle seat worked better than a tapered edge, so I machined up a new seat.

The other thing I found that was missing was a float bowl vent so I added a small hole to the top of the cover which also serves as a float "tickler" which would allow the carburetor to be flooded over-rich for starting. I made an "official" float depressor out of a paperclip.

Lastly, there was a small boss on the bottom of the carb float bowl which is a drain on the full-size Model A carb so I added one on the Baby carbs.

These are all the parts to the carb....time to assemble and test.

Post test results were very successful with the floats now working properly and the float levels properly set. Time to move on to the next issues.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[r1lark]

Very nice work!

 

I'm glad to see someone else still uses the lantern style lathe tool posts. I have an old Logan lathe that I use a lantern tool post on. Will have to look for a tool holder to hold a small boring bar, like shown in your pictures. 

[Stude Light]

Now that both of the carbs were both working properly, I found a few other issues to take care of. At this point I wasn't on a timeline but then I noticed that the HCCA was going to have their inaugural "Celebration of Brass" at the Gilmore Car Museum. I thought " What better place to showcase the Mama and Baby REOs - both being driven using their gasoline engines." Now I had a deadline. Next, was making a new bushing for the left rear wheel.

I couldn't take having NGK spark plugs and snap connectors so those got updated along with all the plastic wiring that was replaced with cloth covered wire.

The coolant lines had been rerouted to get around the lawn mower carbs (left photo). That needed put back correctly. My friend, Aaron Rogahn, came out and did a great job bending up a new one (right photo). We also fixed a few other items and made an oil splash shield to keep things a bit cleaner. It was designed to be bolted on to existing holes so as not to alter any of the original design.

I went through the entire car and tried to make things right without actually doing a restoration. For instance, the spark advance lever was loose where the lever meets the shaft. It was just pressed on so, I looked at the full-size Model A and saw that an 1/8" pin held that one on, so Baby got a new brass 1/16" pin to solve the problem.

Last thing needed was spark. Another good friend, Rusty Berg, stopped by and helped get the spark functioning as best we could. The coil box was very sensitive and difficult to adjust. I'll talk more about that later.

For now, we got spark and fuel and I added the ability to set the idle speed. I filled up the oilers, tickled the carbs, cranked a few times with the coil off, pull the spark back, turned on the coil and.....

Then I block up the front seats to create more of a bench seat and Aaron's son, Cole (who was 9 at the time), became the first person to ever drive the Baby REO using its gasoline engine while Aaron recorded.

The engine ran pretty well and the car drove fine. Cole just modulated the low speed clutch to manage the speed. The brake pedal and reverse pedal worked fine. In high gear you have to run to stay up with the car.

 

Below is a comparison of the full-size Model A cutaway from an Owner's Manual with the Baby REO

 

Next, was getting Mama to run. From what I heard, the car ran in the past but they had to tow the car to start it...sorry, that didn't cut the mustard for me.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[Larry Schramm]

Nice work.

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

Awesome!  Great job!  Mike

[modela28]

Great work and great story!

[Stude Light]

As mentioned before, there is no good spot in the RE Olds Museum to work on cars so I traded Baby REO for Mama and worked on that car. I never worked on a REO before taking on the Baby and I'll have to tell you that working on the full-size Model A was really no different than the Baby other than the parts are bigger and easier to handle. I can honestly say "Everything I learned about wrenching on REO cars I learned from a Baby".

 

One difference is the car took up a lot more room in my shop

I pulled the carbs and put them in the ultrasonic tank to get them spotless then ended up making a couple of new floats.

I used the same bench setup as with Baby to get the float levels correct, again using Naphtha to keep from stinking and blowing myself up.

It was another "work from one end to the other and make everything right". Interesting that is uses Timken tapered front bearings and Hyatt bearings in the rear.

I won't get into all the details as this story is about the Baby but I did fix lots of water leaks (radiator, water tank, compression fittings), replaced all the plastic wire with cloth, set the oiler up correctly, setup the coil boxes and timing, adjusted the transmission bands and clutch, got the brakes adjusted, shimmed one of the rear wheel axle tapers....again, all stuff I learned from working on the Baby.

That car started right up and runs amazingly well.

 

Now it was time to get the two cars together and out the the HCCA event at the Gilmore Car Museum. I used the one of the Museum volunteer's Ford Excursion and car trailer. The Baby fit nicely in the back of the truck and Mama went in the trailer. It was rather nice to be able to keep an eye on the car I was transporting 😉

 

And a very short video of the event....Cole Rogahn driving the Baby and his dad, Aaron, chasing him with Mama (and I believe Tracy Lesher as a passenger)

 

The story isn't quite over yet. While Baby was running pretty well, it wasn't top notch so I had to bring in another friend to help diagnose the hard to tune coil issue.

[Lahti35]

I thought that baby REO looked familiar... I was there that weekend at the Gilmore to photograph a chassis in storage for a guy in Washington state. I didn't know there was going to be a brass car show going on, after we took care of business and walked through the museum we got the bonus HCCA show also.

 

I've enjoyed you sharing the details of getting them back into shape, a great read!

[Stude Light]

The little car was a huge hit at the HCCA Celebration of Brass in 2021 and made it on the front cover of the September-October edition of Horseless Carriage Gazette that Jeff Perkins posted above.

 

The car drove great and ran pretty well but it would occasionally start missing, necessitating fiddling with one of the coils. Enter David Woods. I was first introduced to David when he stopped by during the HCCA event and mentioned that he had a lot of experience working on coils. He looked at the setup up, helped tune things in, took note of the setup and offered to do a deep dive on the coil box at some point in the future. Once we got the car back to the Museum, I talked to the Stephens (owners of Baby) and they gave the go ahead to pull the coil box and take a look. I had no idea what was going to come next.

 

David owns Williamston Model T Works and specializes in Coils, Starters, Generators and Magnets for vintage cars. Small shop, great work!

 

The next thing I know, the coil box is back on my desk along with a six page report on the findings. I thought I was back in engineering at GM. Rather than describe what was found, I'll just post most of the report.

Talk about impressive. I mean who x-rays parts to look inside to see how they are made? David is quite good at what he does and I would highly recommend him if you need something electrical tested, tuned up or repaired.

 

This coil box was made back in the 1980s when Mr. Teague had the car restored. While not perfect, it did its job at the time but had some design and assembly flaws. One of coils worked pretty well but the other one had the core misalignment issue and was inconsistent in operation. We surmised that when the cores were potted in the box, this one unknowingly shifted during the process. Both coils drew excessive power and the capacitors needed replaced. Was it time to upgrade the entire box?

[Akstraw]

I, too, saw the car at the 2021 Gilmore Celebration of Brass.  I knew I was seeing something special, but had no appreciation for how special.  Thank you so much for sharing the fascinating backstory!

[Stude Light]

I left off on the coil box issue.....

 

Half scale does have some limitations, especially when it comes to physics. For the engine to run, you need a decent spark at the spark plug. To generate a decent spark using a six volt power supply you need to collapse a magnetic field over a large enough surface area of copper windings. If you recall from above, 1/2 scale equates to 1/8 volume. It is difficult to create a 1/2 scale coil box and still get the spark required.

 

David Woods first suggested that we cut apart K-W coils and make a box to fit their internals. One benefit of this design is everything is off the shelf and allows for serviceability of the point set.  I liked the ability to service and adjust the point set but the height of the new coil box would grow significantly, so I challenged David on a better solution. He came through, of course.

 

The new Baby REO coil is a custom made dual coil in original Brazilian mahogany wood. The primary iron cores are from a KW coil but cut down an inch to fit in a smaller scale box. The primary coils were hand wrapped and have approximately 190 turns. The secondary windings and points are a standard replacement for KW coils. The points are tuned to draw 1.3-1.5 amp. Dwell time is set the same on both coils to ensure even running using an ETTC coil tester.

 

New custom made coils were installed in the new box

Coils were then potted with tar

The box was then completed

The new box is the same height and width as the one removed (from the 1980s) and only 1/4" deeper to allow for a full set of points. It also used the correct finger joints vs dove tail joints. Using the Mama REO coil as a standard, it was stained to match.

 

The bench tests resulted in perfect spark from the new coils with minimal amperage draw. It was time to mount the box on Baby’s tiny dashboard and see if she would fire. With the engine primed, switch closed, and a few spins of the crank, the mighty little twin cylinder once again roared to life. I tweaked the carb setting a bit to smooth her out as we listened to the little Baby REO engine echo throughout the museum. 

The team consisted of myself (left), Aaron Rogahn (not pictured) who supplied the planed down Brazilian mahogany, Jeff Lautzenheiser (center) who built the new wood coil box and David Woods (right on photo) who diagnosed the original coil box and designed and built the new coils.

After the successful run, David Woods put together another comprehensive document on the coil, how to troubleshoot, and all the details needed to keep her in service for the next group of curators. 

 

The little car is preserved at the RE Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing, MI. Keep a look out on the Museum's website (https://www.reoldsmuseum.org/) and Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/REOldsTransportationMuseum/) on the next events the two cars will be participating in. 

 

This concludes the post. I hope you enjoyed the story.

Scott

Edited January 6, 2023 by Stude Light (see edit history)

[r1lark]

Thank you Scott for the effort you have put forth to preserve this 'little' piece of history! In addition, thank you for posting this informative thread with all the great pictures, it has been very enjoyable to read and to learn from.

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

Thank You for posting this thread and preserving the baby! This tops my list of the best AACA Forum threads posted (started) in 2022. Bravo!

[Stude Light]

On 1/6/2023 at 1:13 PM, Jeff Perkins / Mn said:

Thank You for posting this thread and preserving the baby! This tops my list of the best AACA Forum threads posted (started) in 2022. Bravo!

Wow! I’m glad you liked it. Thank you for the kind words.

[modela28]

This has been a really enjoyable thread.  Thank you for your work and detailed info on getting the Baby REO running well again!