Search our collection

Clear all filters
Image
Category
Maker
Object type
Place
Material
Date

Copy of drawing of Trevithick's steam road carriage

Print showing Gurney's steam carriage on Highgate Hill

1828

Michaux-Perreaux steam motor cycle scale model

1868

Two small coloured prints of steam coaches/omnibus

Serpollet Steam Motor Car, 1903

1903

Model of an Aveling & Porter traction engine

1872

Steam Motor Cycle

1912

Road-rail steam carriage

1842
Burrell single crank compound steam traction engine c. 1900, model (scale 1:8)

Burrell single crank compound steam traction engine c. 1900

Fowler 10 h.p. Supreme showman's steam traction engine, 1933, model (scale 1:8)

Fowler 10 h.p. Supreme showman's steam traction engine

1933
Model of Fowler traction engine, 1910, on stand, in glazed shade case

Model of Fowler traction engine

Foden short chassis type open steam waggon c. 1912-1914, model (scale 1:6)

Foden short chassis type open steam waggon c. 1912-1914

1912-1914
Remains of a steam car, the 'Blue Belle', built by Col. R.E.B. Crompton C.B., F.R.S., between 1862 and 1868 in Rawal Pindi, Punjab, then in India but now in Pakistan. Crompton is quoted extensively in a pamphlet commemorating the presentation of the remains to the Motor Museum in 1912. In it he states that he commenced work “with the assistance of a blacksmith . . . the construction of the first portion of the engine which I, at a later date, christened the ‘Blue Belle’. By 1862, he had “put together and run experimentally a rough road car of which the wheels and frame still exist, and for which I cast and bored the cylinders and made the slide valves and most of the motion which is now on the engine in the Museum”. He continued with the project, but only slowly, because of the studies required to pass the examinations for the Army. In 1864 he went out to India, stationed in the Punjab (Rawal Pindi). When he discovered that he had a great deal of leisure time, he wrote home and asked for certain parts of the first engine to be sent out to India. This included a steam fire-engine boiler fitted with Field tubes, as this was the lightest form of boiler available. Once he had received the boiler, some angle irons for the frame a set of axles, a 6 in. screw-cutting lathe and a small planing machine, he set to work – primarily during the hot weather – during 1866 and 1867. He “completed the car . . . about the year 1868” and went on to perfect it further over the next four years. When he left India, he “brought parts of the ‘Blue Belle’ with him, giving all that was left of them to the Motor Museum in 1912.

Steam car

1862-1868
This Stanley steam car was built in 1899 in Massachusetts, US in 1899 by Francis and Freelan Stanley, the eventual founders of the Stanley Motor Company in 1902. The car is a four-wheel, two seat vehicle powered by a two-cylinder, double acting steam engine which has 2-½ inch bores and 3-½ inch strokes. This engine could produce around 6 horsepower, and achieve a maximum speed of approximately 15 mph. The engine was fed by a 5-gallon fuel tank and a 15-gallon water tank. Whilst the car could achieve 10 miles per gallon, it also consumed approximately 1 gallon of water per mile, which was very high-water consumption for a steam car. The car has elliptical spring suspension positioned above the front and back axles of the vehicle, and the wheels are covered by pneumatic rubber tires which are inflated by an internal airtube. The drum brakes for the wheels are controlled with a combination of a hand brake and a pedal. This car went through a significant restoration and rebuilding period between 1984 and 1985 to bring the vehicle to working order. Its original paintwork was red but has since been redone several times throughout the late 20th century. The car is currently painted black and has registration plates which read: FC 153,

Stanley steam car with early type pneumatic tyres.

1899
Sectional drawing of 6-ton Clayton undertype steam wagon

Drawing of a Clayton steam wagon

Sectional drawing of 5-ton Clayton overtype steam wagon

Drawing of a Clayton steam wagon

Coloured drawing of 10/15 ton rigid 6-wheeled Sentinel D.G.6. steam wagon of 1929

Drawing of a steam wagon

Reproduction of print of Sir Charles Dance steam carriage, 1831

Reproduction of a print of Charles Dance's steam carriage

1908
Reproduction of a print of Gurney's steam carriage, dated 1827

Reproduction of a print of Gurney's steam carriage

1908
Background painting of rural scene showing early traction engines

Painting showing early traction engine