Beautiful steam-powered mechanical models on auction block

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Almost OT, but I saw a real Stanley Steamer at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park last weekend, and the thing was so freakin cool.

I wish I had money to burn… (in miniature steam engines)

@AcerPlatanoides Every once in a while Jay Leno would be driving his Stanley Steamer around Burbank

It’s beautiful but does it actually work? I mean, can I light a fire in the little boiler and make the thing actually work as a steam engine? Some of the text sort of implies that maybe it does, but I can’t see anything definative either way.

I have a little Wilesco steam engine at home that I play with from time to time. My medium-ish term plan is to mount it on a nice piece of wood, and connect a generator to the flywheel, and power a lightbulb off the generator, so I can use the whole thing as a torch, and keep it beside the bed for when I need to get up in the middle of the night to go pee, or sumfink. Some people say “Impractical!” to which I naturally respond “Pfft. Steam power!”

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It reminds me of the small working model steam engines found (i think) in one of the stairwells at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago.

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