Stanley field trip

This Stanley is Darryl's, National winner.
Jay Leno has flown Darryl out a few times to take the bugs out of his Stanley.

My good friend Randy owns a machine shop where 50% of his work is dedicated to Stanley Steamer construction and restoration.
Bill Drayer and Rocky were at my shop this weekend, we did some work on my speedster project and a short field trip to down the road to a shop that does Stanley builds and restoration.
What makes this trip unique is the Stanley Racer that is almost complete. There were only three ever built and after one crashed on Daytona Beach at 120 mph, the other two had since disappeared.
Enter my friends Randy and Darryl (a well known Stanley Builder)who decided to duplicate the Racer from photographs and were able to scale components from the few standard Stanley parts that were used on the Racer. I've watched this build slowly take shape over the last three years. Most parts are "hand machined" inclusive of the suspension, steering rack etc. 30 hp boiler doesn't sound like much but this Racer will do an easy 150 mph.....if the driver has the gonads.... This is being completed for a guy that hosts Cruise nights in Pittsburgh and just wants to be able to blow off any muscle car there as 30 HP Stanley Racer can do 0 to 60 in 4 seconds !
Awaiting my promised ride in warmer weather !

The front cowl cover had just been painted and buffed awaiting the brass hardware from England to reassemble it.

Shop project day, Bill guarding the windshield with his life ...this will be done in time for Carlisle. ~Alan

See, them w/shields ain't that fragile!
Can I wail it harder, Al? Can I? Can I?

Sure......................... :)

Somehow Rocky doesn't look convinced.

Those steamers are incredible. Like I said elsewhere, that'd be a great sidetrip. Can you imagine doing 120+ in such a vehicle? You're totally exposed, unrestrained, and sitting waaaay up high on cart springs.

By the way, I believe the one that wrecked killed one of the Stanley brothers.

Stay tuned, my ride is somewhere in the near future!

History or Disovery channel had a recent "Rides" episode on Jay Leno's cars and half the program was dedicatted to Jay prepping and driving his steamers. Very informative show. Jay really does know his steamers, how they work and how to drive them. Very impressive.

Alan,

Steamers: to cool for words. Would love to go there and gawk. Sometime soon, maybe.

Damn near have to have a boiler engineering degree to run these, I am learning more and more about them. The Stanley brothers were way ahead of their time ...
Kelly I am to get a ride in the Racer version come Spring will advise ~Alan

I remember reading a series of articles in Hemmings back in the 70's about the work that Ransom E. Olds (Later, of REO fame and founder of Oldsmobile) was doing with steam generation. He had developed a boiler unit with 300 feet of steel tubing coiled around a burner unit and enclosed in a vessel the size of a beer keg. The most amazing fact about it was that it would go from cold to steam in a mere 15 or 20 seconds! That was the apex of steam development, as the industry was shifting to the more driver-friendly (but far less efficient) internal combustion engine.

Just imagine: A steam engine develops full horsepower at zero RPM's and can develop even more horsepower (within reason) with more heat. And yes, a 30 HP Stanley could easily dust a rompin' V8 (and the Stanley drivers know it, too!)

Slightly off topic, but not so much: In the Port of Baltimore is a WWII Victory ship, the USS something-something-Brown, I think. This is a lovingly restored and maintained vessle open to the public and well worth the time and effort to visit. Manned by volunteers, many of whom served in WWII; has a cool museum on board. It is kept in operating condition, and actully is driven around a few times a year. Anyway, the engine room is a most interesting place, where one can see the three stage recupeartive steam engine in all its glory. Basically three pistons in cylinders, one a bit larger than the next -- can anyone tell me why that is? And while a rather big thing on an absolute scale, in consideration of the bulk it moves (the ship) it seems rather small. Runs on bunker oil, which must be something like tar, as it has to be heated before it can be pumped into the boiler. The Victory ships were noted for their simplicity and how fast they could be made. I belive they once gave an all-out effort to see how little time from keel laying to launch it would take. The result is measured in hours. FWIW.

Kelley:

Those three-cylinder Steamers were a very popular engine. There is a lake steamer, the Ticondaroga, at the Shelburn Museum in Burlington, Vermont, which you can tour all through (it is now land-locked) and there is a nifty explanation of the workings of the engine:

Each cylinder is progressively smaller because the exhaust of the first is used to "feed" the next one and so forth. I seem to remember the "main" cylinder on the Ticondaroga to be close to three feet in diameter, with each subsequent cylinder a bit smaller, as there was a bit less power (heat) in the exhaust steam from each as it fed the next.

There is also an auxiliary heater for the tar-like fuel to get it thin enough to flow to the burner. Once under way (which was a process that would seem to challenge the patience of "Job") some heat was routed from the boiler to keep the fuel heated.

Pretty neat.....

BTW: Most, if not all, of the Victory ships were very cheaply made, with the expectation that if they made just one crossing of the Atlantic with their load, that was all that was expected of them. Many of them made multiple trips (I guess nobody ever told the crews that earlier fact) and some of them are still seen plying the Western Pacific (we abandoned them after WWII). Like Timex watches, I guess......

Now back to our regularly scheduled programme........(It's time for the Penguin on the top of your Telly to explode.)

gn

One other thing to consider (and then, really!....back to the Stanley thread)

Since the power of a steam engine is in the incoming rush of super-heated steam and not in some sort of fuel compression/explosion as in a gasoline engine, a steam engine often applies pressure from both sides of the piston (alternately) so you have full power on BOTH the "up" and "down" stroke. This means that the steam charge loses only a fraction of it's heat potential during the expansion stroke, so exhausting it into another cylinder makes a lot of sense. It can be recycled several times before it becomes "Sleepy Stim" (water) again, as Steve McQueen noted in "The Sandpebbles".

They're remarkably efficient at achieving power. In fact, that Stanley Racer held the Daytona Beach (out on the beach sand, not on the track - 127.659 mph) speed record for ANY car for 3 years into the time of "domination" by gasoline engines, and has held the land speed record for a steam-powered vehicle ever since (the longest-standing land speed record recognized by the FIA), although the Brits are building a steam-powered car right now to challenge it (I have not heard if they have yet been successful)!!

Read more about it, here: http://www.speedace.info/stanley_steamer.htm

Gordon,
Good history lessons here. Like anybody under 50 really cares. Anyway, I think the cylinders in the engine get bigger as the steam runs through the engine. As all the pistons are connected to the same shaft, it would be nice if they all produced the same force during their stroke. So, the highest quality steam acts on the smallest piston, and the lowest quality steam acts on the largest piston. Get it all working like it is supposed to, and each piston strokes the shaft about the same -- force is pressure times area, right? You may be right about the pistons being double acting, but if so, I don't see how the presure seal is made around the crank shaft. I'd swear the engine I saw had the con-rods and bearings (monstrous things these) standing right out there in the room. It's been a few years since I was aboard that ship. I will have to look into that.

http://hnsa.org/ships/jbrown.htm

Hey! I care, and I'm under... Oh wait... Crap!

Alan, those are breathtaking shots. Everybody who gives a crap about where cars came from should see at least one of those Steamers. Very impressive.
For you ship technologists, even the "nuclear" navy still uses steam. Nimitz has two nuclear reactors -- the sole purpose of which are to generate steam. That's a huge chunk of Americana (somewhere around 96,000 tons' displacement) to move around at "greater than 30 knots."
And we've got almost a dozen of those bad riders out there. I think they're rated at ... yeah. Thirty horsepower.
Thanks, Stanley Brothers!

I've always chuckled at the top speed of the Nuke carriers being "classified". What, they can do, like, sixty or sumthin?

Same thing with the B52 - top speed is classified. I talked with an ex-B52 Captain once, and he mentioned that a fighter, approaching from the side, got one chance to shoot at a '52. Once the bomber bugged out evasively at full throttles and thrusters and the fighter completed the turn and tried to catch up with the bomber, he would have run out of fuel.

Veeeeery Interesting.....and fast, too.....

Hey guys, interesting to find out that the reactor produces steam only. Do they use this to drive a turbine or good old pistons?

Greg, the primary loop causes the superheated steam to pass by a secondary loop. Secondary loop water gets hot and passes through a series of turbines, starting with main propulsion and working its way to the catapults (launch and recovery systems) and ships' service turbine generators for electircity.
Secondary power comes from four diesel-electric generators that could double as locomotive engines. Something like sixteen pistons each, and only tripped by a loss of plant energy.
The reduction gears in the reactor's main machinery rooms are really magical, if you're into that stuff. The steam used for everything other than catapult launches is recycled in giant tanks at the beginning of the secondary loop, and primary loop water never leaves the reactor plant.
Good stuff.

thanks Cory, As you say good stuff!

If you want torque steam is the answer.... A small steam generator can produce a couple million BTU's and that is a bunch of torque... I bet there are a few guys out there that remember checking for steam leaks with a broom stick on ships......

Broomsticks no, Bamboo yes.....

Stanley Steamer "The Rocket" 1906, Daytona Beach, 127 MPH, world land speed record. All done with water!

Think about vehicle technology (tires!) in 1906! Amazing!

No promises but, when I do get to ride in the Stanley Racer I'll try to video tape it if I dare to hold on for my life with one hand.

I hope I wasn't the only one to watch the Speed Channel tonight showing the Stanleys running on the beach.

I watched it too Bill !