I've been interested in steam engines ever since I met this old guy in Seattle while driving cab. He was an 89 year old widower, born around 1890, no kids, cool as could be and we became buds. He told of his uncle who had had polio and couldn't crank the old gas cars, so he'd had a couple of steamers -- a Stanley and a White.

Jim told me they would get out of mud way quicker than a gas car -- very smooth torque -- and were almost silent.

Bill Lear, of Leer Jet fame, tried to revive auto steamers in the 60s or 70s but he tried to go with turbines. Someone asked him if he was interested in the work done all these years with piston steam by backyard tinkerers and he said "we have a word for those guys: cranks."

Well, he might have had the right idea with jets and 8 track tape players but his turbine steam project never did take off, in spite of $$millions of wasted funds. Maybe if he'd shown a little more respect to the piston "cranks," he might have had some success.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K