Not
surprisingly, the Marlboro Steam Stanhope looks a lot like a Stanley or
Locomobile of the period. Built in the more remote suburbs of Boston,
Orrin Walker could not have been unaware of the Stanley brothers or
their successful steam cars. He turned to William B. Mason in Dorchester
(a less-remote Boston suburb) -- who had built his own steam car in 1898
to demonstrate the superior performance of his pressure regulating
valve, successful enough that the company he founded is still in the
pressure-regulating business today, quite possibly on the heating system
in your house -- to supply the Marlboro's engine as Mason also did for
Stanley and Locomobile. The chassis employed full elliptical springs
located by perch rods in common with the other buggy-based steam cars
chugging around New England at the time. Lightweight and endowed with
impressive torque, steam was a realistic challenger to gasoline and
electrics in the fading days of the nineteenth century but eventually
lost out.
This 1899 Marlboro
Steam Stanhope was restored to AACA National First Prize condition in
1975. Fitted with white rubber tires on wire spoke bicycle-style wheels,
it seats two, up high and proudly in its early Stanhope coachwork. Its
information file includes a copy of the original instruction manual.
Prior owners in California are known back nearly two decades and it has
a recent service in 2009. Steam is one of the fastest growing collecting
categories and few steam cars offer the quality, rarity and history of
this 1899 Marlboro which is ready to be used and enjoyed.
Please contact Mark Hyman at
314-524-6000, mark@hymanltd.com
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