The White Steamer's Turn is Near

by Willy Vinton

We rolled the 1907 White steamer into the shop last week for some minor work. We are anxious to fire up this big automobile and get it back in operation! Ryan Thurber and his son kristian will be coming up from California in May to make sure that all is well with the old gal, and that the automatics are all working as they should.


Unlike our Stanley, this car uses a condensor that recycles the steam. As a result, it can run up to 100 miles on a tank of water, versus the 20+ miles the Stanley can travel on the same amount of water.


The White's boiler operates at an impressive pressure of 550 to 600 psi at a peak temperature of 750º F. As its original temperature gauge has only three hash marks on it, it's hard to know just what the temperature really is. So, we are installing a modern temperature gauge for safety purposes and so we can have accurate readings for adjusting the automatics on the car. This requires some modification of the floor boards. As you can see, there is a lot happening under there.

This is the protective ring we're making that will go around the gauge in the floor, to keep feet off of the face of it.


We are really looking forward to the Thurbers' visit and will keep you posted when the big White is up and running.

Addendum 5/11/12: Here is a photo of the finished floor plate & gauges.