We used to have steam-powered cars. What happened to them — and will they come back?

FreeThink ^ | April 9, 2023 | By Matt Benoit

[DUMBGRUNT]

Plus water turns to ice and expands about 10% while destroying most pressure vessels used on steam engines...

Contained ice expands with 25,000 PSI and more...

So the vehicle stays heated all winter or drained after each use.

OH CRAP!!!
I FORGOT TO DRAIN THE STANLEY!

[bigbob]

MUST WATCH!
https://youtu.be/c_05tcpmyUU

[DesertRhino]

A tank of gasoline is infinitely safer than having every teenage girl and housewife running live steam. And then of course, it’s really fun to have to wait for the water to boil, and also to have to find water.

Oh, and by the way sport, you’ll need that tank of flammable fuel to heat the water up to operating temperatures. Unless you are planning to burn coal or wood.

[NorthMountain]

One day, little boy, you will learn that the snarky question “what could possibly go wrong?” indicates a feeble mind.

Steam cars were in use for a few decades, kiddo. Did they have a serious problem with the boilers exploding? If you wanted to engage in useful discussion, you might have looked into that.

But you didn’t.

You just resorted to mindless snark.

Then you got your panties in a twist when I called you on it.

I pity you.

I won’t bother reading whatever lame and brainless response you post in reply.

Have a nice day.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I actually believe it was a massive change affecting everything. Day to day life, much more than just thinking. Changed production, productivity, mobility, marketing, even genetics. People were able to buy more and rely more on specialists rather than having to do everything for themselves. And they moved more so people started mixing it up in the breeding department.

[SunkenCiv]

“These cars, though inconvenient by modern standards, produced less pollution than their gas-driven counterparts” — they were inconconvient by the standards of 100 years ago too, they didn’t have range, and due to the extra weight of water, used *more* energy than the high-compression long-stroke small-bore ICE vehicles that supplanted them. Also, steam vehicle maintenance is higher, because high-wear spots have to be non-ferrous, hence, they’re soft (copper and copper alloys, typically). These are the same reasons locomotives are now diesel-electric.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Don’t confuse the heating with the actual propulsive source.

Nuclear is for heating. The steam is created and drives the engine. As with other heat sources such as oil. But the water is the driver.

[SunkenCiv]

Howard Hughes modified this 1925 Doble steam car to reach a 133 MPH top speed
What it’s like to operate and drive a 100-year-old steamer
Hemmings Contributor
11/15/2022
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/steaming-sensation-1925-doble

[shotgun]

This is an easy fix. Create a miniature nuclear reactor that requires only a couple of Uranium fuel pellets and a closed loop pressurized steam boiler system.

Ford Nucleon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ford Nucleon concept car.
The Ford Nucleon is a concept car developed by Ford in 1957, designed as a future nuclear-powered car—one of a handful of such designs during the 1950s and 1960s. The concept was only demonstrated as a scale model. The design did not include an internal-combustion engine; rather, the vehicle was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle, based on the assumption that this would one day be possible by reducing sizes. The car was to use a steam engine powered by uranium fission, similar to those found in nuclear submarines.[1]

The mock-up of the car can be viewed at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.[2]

[NorthMountain]

OK.

THAT was cool. Not terribly practical, but definitely cool. Especially the grilled chorizo.

Reminds me of old steam-powered farm equipment.

[SunkenCiv]

Speaking of oddball transportation:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=compressed+air+vehicle

[algore]

Yes. I have played with this idea.

I always have wanted to build a miny steam wankel

[the OlLine Rebel]

Nuclear already makes steam work. As does coal and oil.

The small scale mobile stuff is where steam becomes rather untenable. If someone can find an easy and quick way to create steam that would be a huge leap forward.

[GaltAdonis]

"...used to have horse-drawn wagons - will they come back? "

.

Naw - but mule-drawn wagons will - but only in California to
haul food and other necessities no longer hauled by the
soon to be illegal evil 18 wheeled diesel trucks.

/Sarc

[NorthMountain]

“Daddy, what did we use to haul freight before ox-carts?”

“Diesel trucks ...”

[PIF]

Won’t they need 20 mule teams to haul Borax like in the olden days?

California don’t need no stink’n trucks.

[PIF]

The leftists will kill all of the horses because they make methane.

—
Then there will be nothing left for Germans to eat!

[Navy Patriot]

Changed production, productivity, mobility, marketing, even genetics.

Good points, Agree.

Also allowed specialization in fields of endeavor, as you mention.

[GaltAdonis]

Steam locomotives reached extremely good efficiencies - or so I've read.

The 'Big Boy' and 'Challenger' steam locomotives were the most
efficient, and also the largest (in the US anyway).

---

From Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Big_Boy

"The Union Pacific Big Boy is a type of simple articulated
4-8-8-4 steam locomotive manufactured by the American
Locomotive Company (ALCO) between 1941 and 1944 and
operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in revenue
service until 1962.

The 25 Big Boy locomotives were built to haul freight over
the Wasatch Range between Ogden, Utah, and Green River,
Wyoming. In the late 1940s, they were reassigned to
Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they hauled freight over
Sherman Hill to Laramie, Wyoming. They were the only
locomotives to use a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement: four-
wheel leading truck for stability entering curves,
two sets of eight driving wheels and a four-wheel
trailing truck to support the large firebox.

Today, eight Big Boys survive, with most on static display
at museums across the USA. One of them, No. 4014, was
re-acquired by Union Pacific, and between 2014 and 2019
it was rebuilt to operating condition for the 150th
anniversary of the first transcontinental railroad. It
thus regained the title as the largest and most powerful
operating steam locomotive in the world."

[wyokostur]

I got to see Big Boy when it came through Rawlins Wyoming a few years back. It was incredible!

You can check the schedule for the Big Boy out of Cheyenne. They take across the U.S. on tours.