Locomobile Steam Car

American brothers Francis and Freelan Stanley – who made a fortune with the mass production of dry photographic plates – built their first ‘Stanley Steamer’ in 1898. With 200 orders on the books the pair sold their design and factory to Cosmopolitan magazine publisher John Brisben Walker and Azmi Lorenzo Barber (the latter amassing a fortune in the supply of asphalt for roads) to form the Locomobile Company of America.

The partnership between Walker and Barber lasted less than a year, Walker departing to build the rival and short-lived Mobile steam car. More than 4,600 Locomobiles were produced before, in 1902, the company changed direction and started to manufacture cars with internal combustion engines. Financial problems followed, the company was taken over by Durant Motors until production of the marque ended completely in 1929.

The steam car, however, carried on after 1902, the Stanley brothers founding the (new) Stanley Motor Carriage Company; in 1906 a streamlined Stanley set a world speed record for the mile at 127mph. The company ended production in 1924, defeated by the progress of the internal combustion engine including, crucially, the electric starter.

Most of the Locomobile production was sold in the USA, only a small number being exported to the UK and the rest of Europe. 

About this vehicle

Richard Shuttleworth set about re-building this 1900 Locomobile from parts he purchased from various sources, including a complete 1899/1900 model. 

In 1936 Richard was contacted by steam car specialist, Brian Stack, who offered to help, and the following year the pair took the re-built model on the London to Brighton Run. Running flat out most of the way (‘singing like a kettle’, according to a press report) Richard and Brian arrived in Brighton too early and so were disqualified.

The Locomobile was also driven by Richard – who was so taken with steam power he also bought a 1904 Stanley – on the 1938 London to Brighton. It finished in time, but the boiler was damaged and thereafter he set about repairing it until war intervened. Idle for many years before it was stripped down and new parts – including the boiler – were manufactured to put it into working condition in its original black and red colours. 

The part-restored car made its debut at the Bedfordshire Steam Fair held at Shuttleworth House in 2011, but by 2019 the boiler was no longer serviceable and it was decided to undertake a full restoration of the complete vehicle, due for completion in 2023.

Like other early Locomobiles, the car in the Collection follows the original Stanley design, with a vertical boiler fired by heavy oil, and a horizontal twin-cylinder, side-valve, engine driving the rear wheels by chain. There is no clutch or gearbox.

Specification