Locomobile Steam Runabout History

When John Brisben Walker and Amzi Lorenzo Barber incorporated the Locomobile Company of America in 1899, they did so by buying the Stanley brothers' steam-car business for $250,000. The product they inherited was a light, tiller-steered steam runabout with a vertical twin-cylinder engine under the seat — initially offered in a single inexpensive body style at around $600.

Built first in Watertown, Massachusetts and from 1900 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the little steamers sold strongly for the era: more than 4,000 were produced between 1899 and 1902, briefly making Locomobile one of the highest-volume American carmakers. By 1901 the catalog had expanded to several body styles priced from roughly $600 to $1,400.

The cars were charming but flawed — slow to raise steam, prone to kerosene-burner fires, and limited to about 20 miles per small water tank. The Stanley brothers bought their original designs back and returned to steam-car building themselves, while Locomobile concluded its future lay elsewhere and switched entirely to gasoline-powered cars by 1904.