RMNP Blog & Estes Park Blog

When Philip bumped into Dennis Hedley last week, he mentioned that he was going to take some people out on the Stanley Steamer for a ride on Saturday. He asked if we would like to come. Wow! That would be fun! We met everyone at the Stanley Museum where we learned a great deal about the Stanley Steamer in the museum. Dennis Hedley and Byron Hall, who are both Trustees of the Stanley Museum and Hugh Beckham and Dennis Humphrey filled us with facts about the early cars and how they worked! It was just fascinating!

We then all met at the garage on Wonderview Avenue where 3 of the Stanley Steamers are kept. We were going to take a ride in the 1909 Model R, which was donated to the Stanley Museum after its owner, Al Martin, passed away in the late 1990s. This particular car has 20 horsepower, unlike the one in the museum which has only 10 horsepower. We learned so much…I ‘m glad I took my notebook! It was just amazing to watch them start the car which takes about 30-40 minutes to start. Can you imagine doing this in the dead of winter? First they had to fill up the gas tank which is located under the front seat which holds 14 gallons of gasoline. Then they filled the water tank under the back seat which holds 25 gallons of water. Because the Stanley “Steamer” runs on steam, it takes an incredible amount of water. This particular steam car, which is a non-condensing steamer, can only go about 1 mile per gallon of water. But, there is a little red hose on board that is used as a “siphon or straw” to get water from lakes or streams along the way. I guess they’d better plan their trip well ahead of time to make sure there are enough water sources for their trip! There is another steam car in the garage which is a beautiful 1919 Model 735, owned by C. Frank Hix, Jr., that is a condensing one. This circulates the steam back into the engine and it can get 7-8 miles to the gallon of water which is about 200 miles to a tank of water. That’s a bit easier for travel. The 1919 Model 735 weighs twice what the 1909 weighs at 3,600 pounds. Unlike the 1909 which has a wooden frame, it has a steel frame. All four of the “experts” who we were with attribute much of their knowledge to Frank Hix who they consider the “guru” of Stanley Steam Cars.

The kerosene was checked to make sure they had enough to keep the engine going. Next on the long list was checking all of the pressure…there were lots of those places to check. It’s a lot easier today with the help of an electric air hose instead of a hand pump. Before they could light the pilot light to get the steam moving, they had to warm up the area around it with a blow torch. The Stanley Steamer runs on about 500 pounds of steam, so we had to wait until the steam gauge read 500…Byron helped this along by pumping it from inside by the steering wheel. It took quite a while to get to that pressure! While waiting we noticed that one of the other steam cars in the garage was missing a wheel. Apparently the spokes of the wheel were broken in June and they are still waiting for the new one to arrive. There is only one man, Bill, who lives in the Amish country in Pennsylvania who can make these wooden wheels by hand. They said that everyone who has a steam car knows Bill! These 36” wheels hold 65-70 pounds of pressure. (Our cars today run on about 25-28 lbs. of pressure!) It was also interesting to learn that they used 600 weight oil…today we use 10-30 weight oil. It was really pretty thick.
These cars which sold for about $1,100 cars in their day are worth $200,000 – $300,000 today. F.O. Stanley made each car ordered by hand and each one is a bit different. It is said that Henry Ford built more Model Ts in one day than F.O Stanley built in a year! Amazing! His business started in 1897 and he sold it to the American Steam Association in 1922. In these 25 years, F.O. Stanley only built 10,000 steam cars.

Dennis Hedley. Dennis Humphrey and Byron took 3 other couples for a ride. Then it was out turn! What a thrill! These cars can get up to 70 mph, although we didn’t try that out! We felt like 2 kids in a candy shop…it was just so exciting to be sitting in a car that was almost 100 years old! Little did we know that when we got back to the garage they would drain it for the winter and get it ready to bring it up to the Stanley Museum for the winter months. We were the last to ride in this vintage 1909 Stanley Steamer before it turns 100 next year! It was so much fun and so exciting. Thank you Dennis Hedley, Dennis Humphrey, Bryon and Hugh for taking the time to educate people about these antique cars and taking us for the ride of a lifetime! Next year don’t forget to stop by the Stanley Museum, say hello to Linda, and take a memorable ride on a Stanley Steamer!