Steam & Preservation

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Last post 10-13-2009 6:33 AM by Eightpot. 15 replies.
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08-28-2009 4:02 PM
Offline wallyworld
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on 07-09-2002
A State of Humidity
Posts 1,560

OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

 

 

Video of trial on the page...this is most definitely not a Stanley Steamer....extremely most cool..it looks like a Titan booster in operation


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090825/tuk-british-team-smashes-steam-car-recor-dba1618.html

08-28-2009 4:58 PM In reply to
Offline wjstix
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on 02-14-2002
Mpls/St.Paul
Posts 6,172

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

It's interesting that my Dad (b.1918) could remember both steam and electric-powered automobiles from his boyhood. I wonder what we might have now if that technology had continued to develop and not sat dormant for so many years??

08-28-2009 5:13 PM In reply to
Offline Paul Milenkovic
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on 07-09-2004
Posts 969

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

Yeah, like what are they using for their boiler draft?  Steam ejector as in 99.9% of the steam locomotives or a fan draft?  Inquiring minds want to know this.

08-29-2009 9:15 PM In reply to
Offline carnej1
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on 11-28-2003
Rhode Island
Posts 957

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

wjstix:

It's interesting that my Dad (b.1918) could remember both steam and electric-powered automobiles from his boyhood. I wonder what we might have now if that technology had continued to develop and not sat dormant for so many years??

Something that doesn't get anywhere near the fuel mileage of a good modern IC engine? With Automobiles it's all about the power-to-weight ratio....

 Having said that there are some R&D projects underway which are attempting to utilize a compact steam engine as a bottoming cycle on a gas/diesel engine i.e to recover the heat from the cooling and exhaust systems of the ICE and use it to generate additional power.

Who knows, that could even have RR applications...

08-29-2009 10:46 PM In reply to
Offline wallyworld
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on 07-09-2002
A State of Humidity
Posts 1,560

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

wjstix:

It's interesting that my Dad (b.1918) could remember both steam and electric-powered automobiles from his boyhood. I wonder what we might have now if that technology had continued to develop and not sat dormant for so many years??

 

I was frankly astonished to find this vehicle existed and then astonished at it's form..using what is considered an obsolete technology yet looking so fearsomely futuristic. An odd juxtaposition  like an inversion of the Jules Verne machines of the 19th Century in the Wild Wild West series. I would really enjoy seeing the actual speed run.

BTW I had never heard a Stanley Steamer car..check out the steam whistle on this automobile and the chuffing...going upgrade...gadzooks...sounds like a Porter, I have to have one!  LOL

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OwRX4HOc0E&feature=related

09-17-2009 1:22 PM In reply to
Offline mersenne6
Not Ranked
Joined on 03-10-2004
Posts 605

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

 

  There were lots of steam powered cars back before WWI and a number that were made during the interwar period.  Stanley was one of the better known ones.  Others included Locomobile, White, Grout, and Doble.  When I was a kid I had the privilege of riding in a Stanely Steamer Gentleman's Speedster back in the late 1950's.  Our neighbor on the street where I lived collected old cars and had restored his to running condition. We took it out on a then brand new piece of 4 lane highway and he opened her up.  We were tooling along around 60mph and all we had for protection were head goggles and wrap around scarves - it was quite a ride.  The Stanley was a 1908 model so it didn't have a condenser.  Since that morning was very cool you could watch the steam exhaust as it blew out from the back of the car.

  An aside - the first car to do a mile in a minute was an electric and the first car to do 2 miles in a minute was a steam car.  As for exhaust whistles - prior to WWII there were exhaust whistles that could be purchased for any kind of automobile exhaust - one can imagine the sound they made.

09-17-2009 4:05 PM In reply to
Offline Deggesty
Top 200 Contributor
Joined on 08-22-2005
Near the Crossroads of the West
Posts 1,945

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

mersenne6:
As for exhaust whistles - prior to WWII there were exhaust whistles that could be purchased for any kind of automobile exhaust - one can imagine the sound they made.

I heard one that was on a Model T--mellow. I read that the sound of one was almost an invitation to step in front of car so you could hear the whistle.

Johnny

09-17-2009 6:05 PM In reply to
Offline DSO17
Not Ranked
Joined on 12-16-2007
Posts 138

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

     Anyone interested in steam cars might want to check out this site

          www.auburnheights.org

09-30-2009 8:17 PM In reply to
Offline dknelson
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on 03-20-2002
Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
Posts 4,817

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

A steam car hit over 125 mph in 1906.  Someone of a mechanical bent explained to me how steam power in theory has almost unlimited speed. 

Dave Nelson

10-02-2009 2:04 AM In reply to
Offline daveklepper
Top 75 Contributor
Joined on 06-18-2002
Posts 4,115

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

Didn't tje New Haven have a steam doodlebug?  Rebuild from an American Flyer coach and possibly returned to that condition?

10-03-2009 9:12 AM In reply to
Offline wallyworld
Top 500 Contributor
Joined on 07-09-2002
A State of Humidity
Posts 1,560

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

daveklepper:

Didn't tje New Haven have a steam doodlebug?  Rebuild from an American Flyer coach and possibly returned to that condition?

 

 

I can't answer for the New Haven but the Milwaukee Road had two. I recall an interior photograph from the engineer's cab and it was very cramped..I cant imagine what it was like to swelter in that "sauna" in the summer heat...even in Wisconsin...quite an exotic beast!

10-03-2009 4:52 PM In reply to
Offline martin.knoepfel
Not Ranked
Joined on 12-27-2003
Posts 381

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

 

Steam doodelbugs were anything but exotic on European railroads. A possibility to efficiently serve branch-lines with little patronage in the era before DMUs took over. You needed only 1 or 2 railroaders to operate the "train", insted of 3 to 4 on a conventional train.
10-03-2009 5:08 PM In reply to
Offline tomikawaTT
Top 25 Contributor
Joined on 02-13-2005
Southwest US
Posts 7,713

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

carnej1:

--- snip --- there are some R&D projects underway which are attempting to utilize a compact steam engine as a bottoming cycle on a gas/diesel engine i.e to recover the heat from the cooling and exhaust systems of the ICE and use it to generate additional power.

Who knows, that could even have RR applications...

Been there, done that.  Google Kitson-Still Locomotive to see the result, using 1920s technology.

Kitson-Still marine steasels were moderately successful, but maximum horsepower was limited - and limiting.  A modern seagoing vessel has more power in its auxiliary generator sets than the biggest Kitson-Still engine ever built.

Chuck

10-04-2009 6:25 AM In reply to
Offline DSO17
Not Ranked
Joined on 12-16-2007
Posts 138

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

     Google Besler steam train for some information on the NH car. Check out the next item on the Google page - the Besler steam airplane.

 

10-05-2009 10:23 AM In reply to
Offline CSSHEGEWISCH
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on 12-21-2001
Burbank IL (near Clearing)
Posts 5,397

Re: OT: Steam Car Blows Away Previous Speed Record

Rock Island also had a handful of steam motorcars with Ganz engines.

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