1901 Lane Model 0 Runabout

This article submitted by

Arthur S. Eldredge, Jr.

The Lane Motor Vehicle Company began production of automobiles in 1900 and continued until 1910. The early cars were tiller steered until 1904 and came in two and four seat body styles (runabouts, surreys, etc.) Later cars were roadsters and five and seven passenger touring cars. The focus of this article is my Model 0 (Zero) Runabout.

My Lane is one of two known to exist, the other being a 1910 touring car formerly owned by the Ford Museum. My father acquired the car in 1951. My father restored it over a twenty-four year period, finishing it in 1975. During the restoration, my father found that the car had many interesting features, which I will detail shortly.

There are some similarities between my Lane and other steamers of the period. The boiler is a fire tube type. The original boiler had a drawn shell with the top tube sheet riveted in. The present boiler has a welded shell with the tube sheets welded to the shell. The tubes are copper and most of the tubes in the present boiler were recycled from the original one. Normal working steam pressure is 200-250 psi.

The burner is a vaporizing affair fueled with gasoline. Unlike a Stanley burner, it is an atmospheric burner meaning that it takes most of its combustion air through the grate. The grate is made of rows of 1/8" pipe screwed into a central large tube. The outer ends of the 1/8" pipes are capped. The mixing tube resides within the large central tube. The vaporizer is a straight pipe that goes across the burner and back. Under the vaporizer there is a perforated pipe wrapped with asbestos wicking into which is introduced alcohol for preheating the vaporizer. The steam automatic is at the hot end of the vaporizer and is controlling the fuel in a gaseous rather than liquid state. The pilot is lit once the main fire is going and then will take care of reigniting the main fire when the steam pressure drops. Fuel pressure is typically 50 psi.

The engine is a two-cylinder slide valve type with Stephenson link valve gear. It is of a bar frame design with bronze stiffening webs between the bars. The crankshaft is made from a single piece of steel. Making the crankshaft must have been quite a machining project as the chain sprocket is in the middle of it. The engine hangs at a 45-degree angle under the floor rather than in front of the boiler like a Locomobile. The crankcase is fully enclosed in a copper case and the engine runs in an oil bath. A manually operated lubricator using 600W cylinder oil handles cylinder lubrication. As there is no superheat one does not have to worry so much about cylinder lubrication.

The fuel tank is pressurized and, when on the road, air pressure is maintained by a pump on one of the engine crossheads. There is a separate air tank that can be isolated from the fuel tank for refueling. After refueling, the fuel tank can be pressurized with the air charge in the air tank.

Feed water can be pumped to the boiler with a hand pump when the car is stationary. When the car is under way a pump on the engine takes care of this chore. The boiler water level is controlled with a manual bypass valve. The boiler sight glass is a Klinger type glass and is viewed via a mirror. Should the glass fail one merely leaves the bypass valve closed. The car is plumbed in such a way that when the boiler gets full, excess water is piped into the main steam line to the engine just upstream of the throttle. The engine will run very wet with poor power output, but it will get you home. All sight glasses on the car can be isolated from the vessel to which they are connected.

The car is fitted with a feed water heater, siphon, and a steam draft (to aid firing). The brake is a contracting band affair on the differential and is marginal at best. Originally the car was fitted with single tube tires. As they are no longer available, I have installed clincher rims and tires.

Driving the car is easy once steamed has been raised. The fire takes care of itself very reliably thus all I have to watch is the boiler water level. I can only remember the burner going out once in all the years I've driven the car.

As the car had no warning device (like a horn), my father fitted both a Bermuda carriage bell and a whistle. If the bell doesn't get someone out of the way a sharp blast on the whistle will.

The Lane has proven itself to be remarkably reliable and now that I have it well sorted out it is a great pleasure to drive and I can rest assured that it will get me where I am going albeit at a leisurely pace.

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