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Weekly News May 4, 2009Description
A Major Restoration, our 1914 Stanley Model 607: At the end of October, 1946, I arranged to purchase our Model 607 from Donald H. Randall of Randolph, MA, for $500, and to pick it up in early December. It was the first Stanley I ever owned. It was an excellent original car, with everything good except the burner that had been cracked and discarded. My father said he would build up a burner for me, and not having a 20” grate, correct for this model, he used a 23”, and pulled in the sides to fit the boiler. Although slightly modified in 1949, this oversized burner worked very well, and I often averaged 14 or 15 m.p.g, on kerosene, the best mileage I have witnessed on any Stanley.
Years ago, the late Paul Bourdon told me he had owned this car, presumably in the 1930’s. Through the kindness of Tim Martin I have learned that the original owner was George Shorey of Lyndonville, VT, probably followed by Scott Farnum, also of Lyndonville, who had it registered in 1921. I don’t know whether Bourdon used it during his ownership, but Mrs. Randall, mother of D. Howard Randall (of the Stanley Museum Board of Trustees), drove it for daily transportation during World War II. In any event, in 1946 only 12,000 miles showed on the odometer, the original leather looked perfect, the nickel plating was deteriorating, and the 5 original lamps were in fair condition. In those years, tires were a problem, as no new tires were available. Raymond Noznesky of Kennett Square bought a 1912 (or ’13) Model 25 Buick from Mr. Randall at the same time, and Eddie Malin was hired by Raymond to go with us in my father’s ‘37 Packard Twelve, still in the Friends of Auburn Heights Preserve collection, to Randolph to drive it home, as I was driving my newly-acquired Stanley. My father would follow “back-up” in the big Packard.
In the first week of December, we stayed for two or three days in an old hotel in Brockton, MA, and an early winter cold spell where the temperature remained well below freezing made it difficult readying the cars for the 400-mile trip to Kennett Square and Yorklyn. They were stored in a carriage barn with dirt floor in the back yard of the Randalls’ large home. It was late one afternoon when we were finally ready to leave, so we drove only to Wellesley, probably 25 miles, as the thermometer reached the low 30’s. The cold snap was moderating! The next night, we stopped at the Outpost Inn at Ridgefield, CT, a favorite lodging place of my father, and the third day we crossed the Bear Mountain Bridge and followed Route 202 to West Chester, PA, and then on home. The trip seemed uneventful, and I remember less of it than that made with our Mountain Wagon about six weeks before, when tire trouble caused us to stop for a few days in North Jersey as we came home and prepared new wheels and tires for the big “Wagon”. Having driven a Stanley less than 100 miles prior to these two one-way trips, I got experience on the road with 800 miles behind the wheels of two steamers.
For those who have owned a 10-horsepower Model 607, they have experienced a wonderful little car. Easy to steer and handle, these cars will do almost anything a larger 20-H.P. car can do with seemingly little effort. I drove mine about 9,000 miles between 1946 and 1954, and coming east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on the ’48 Glidden Tour, it was possible to hold 50 m.p.h. The Stanleys knew, however, that the small engine was built too light to carry four large passengers in the touring cars, so they geared them very low, 30 teeth on the engine gear to 56 teeth on the differential. Wanting more speed, I, like many owners, changed the engine making it 40 to 56, which allowed for the higher speeds. But the extra stress of the high gear on these light engines soon caused problems, and I broke two wrist pins in 1949, one in May and one in late September on the Virginia Glidden Tour. Both times, it caused a cylinder head to blow out. With new wrist pins and more conservative driving habits, I had no more engine trouble, but 60 years later, Howard D. Johnson of Lemont, IL, can furnish a “beefing up” kit for these engines, which makes the 607 model and a few others very practical for modern driving. Having undergone a limited cosmetic restoration in 1949 and new leather and top more recently, our car is now completely apart for a complete restoration by F.A.H.P. volunteers.
A wet weekend on May 2 and 3 rained us out for both Old Dover Days and Point-to-Point at Winterthur. None of our cars left Auburn Heights. Thanks go to all who prepared them, however, and we hope you can arrange to use them soon. This Sunday, Mothers’ Day, the Willowdale Steeplechase, 2 miles north of Kennett Square, invites antique cars to participate, and Lou Mandich is in charge of the car display. If any of you want to go, it is not a long day- they want us there by 11 A.M., and we can leave by mid-afternoon- please advise Lou a.s.a.p., (610) 347-2394, E-mail: lastchancegarage13@verizon.net. Following May 10, our schedule includes an Events and Scheduling Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 12, at 7:00 in the FAHP office, a Collections Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 13, also at 7:00 P.M. at the same place, and an Auburn Valley R.R. lecture and familiarization review on Thursday, May 14, also at 7:00 P.M. starting in the office. All Auburn Valley railroaders are urged to attend. On Saturday, May 16, we have promised at least two cars, one to give rides, at the Spring Festival at Bellevue State Park, and on Sunday, the 17th, the annual Spring Meet of the Historical Car Club of Pennsylvania is held at Linvilla Orchards, south of Media, PA. Steve Jensen corrected me in that the 100th birthday celebration for Locomotive 98 on the Wilmington & Western R.R., is on Sunday, the 17th, not the 16th, as incorrectly stated in the “News” last week. Festivities begin at Greenbank Station about 11:30 A.M.
Great changes have been made in the interior of the Museum. The object is to upgrade the displays, with re-arrangement of the cars themselves, in an exhibit that will be used for perhaps two years, before a professional plan can be developed and implemented for modernizing the whole building. Walter Higgins and Steve Bryce are nearing completion of a Stanley display engine, eventually to be coupled to functioning pumps and a burner/boiler unit. The engine can be hand-turned with a crank, and will provide a “hands-on” display for educational purposes, showing how a Stanley engine moves a car. Clarence Marshall’s dealership “office” has been moved and changed, and a new series of photos depicting family and mill history 100 years ago will grace the Reception Room. Our goal is to have most of this in place for our first “Steamin’ Sunday” on June 7.
We are happy to report that Art Hart has been doing well and is scheduled for his next liver chemo treatment tomorrow in Morristown, NJ. Also, we were happy to see Emil Christofano at two of our recent work sessions. Congratulations to both! Tom
