Many parts of this car were on the car owned T. Clarence Marshall in 1910.
The restored version, mostly completed by Hyde Ballard in the early 1970’s,
was purchased from him in 1986.
Clarence Marshall bought a used Model K from D. Walter Harper, the Philadelphia
agent, in July, 1910, and soon thereafter it was photographed alongside
Auburn Heights. He also drove it 5 miles in 4 minutes on a
good road near Quarryville, PA. that summer. His father, Israel
W. Marshall, often rode in the car. The next June when Israel
died, Clarence went to Hockessin in the Model K to bring his grandmother,
Mary Way Marshall, age 90, to Auburn Heights.
In 1913, the car was sold to the Foote Brothers, bachelor machinists
of Avondale, PA. Intending to “improve” upon the car, they
took it apart, and the parts ended up in the corner of their less-than-tidy
shop, and 30 years of junk got piled on top. In 1945, Clarence
Marshall and Hyde Ballard, both interested in Stanleys at the time, discovered
the parts of the Model K, and Hyde gathered up everything he could find,
hoping to some day restore these parts into a complete car.
This project was undertaken in earnest in the 1970’s, and the
parts collected and the 1910 photograph were used to build up a Model
K. It is believed that the wheels, frame, springs, axles,
front seat, engine, some of the body, and many valves and controls are
from the original car. Mr. Ballard painted the car with a
brush, as had been the original method, and used a shade of red that he
admitted was not good. But again, it was a complete car, and
he tried faithfully to make it look as it did in that 1910 photo next
to Auburn Heights.
Since 1986 when Tom Marshall purchased it, the engine has been completely
rebuilt by Bruce Green and Wallace D. Barnes, the boiler has been replaced
with a steel-tube boiler that was new in 1960 and was used for 15 years
in the Model 87, including on the long 8,328 mile trip of 1972, some repiping
and alignment work have been done, the car has been repainted and striped,
and the front seat recovered. Barrett hydraulic brakes were
installed about 1994.
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Model K is a fast stock for two people with an extra rumble seat.
It is intended primarily as a car for the fastest kind of road work, and
is geared to a very high speed. It is entirely practical for everyday
use, except that it is unnecessarily powerful and fast for any such purpose.
It can, of course, like all Stanley Cars, be throttled down to a snail's
pace; and there are no cylinders to get overheated and no disagreeable
odor or vibration while running slowly, or standing still in city streets.
It is equipped with 26-inch boiler, and 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch engine. The
boiler capacity, on account of the greater diameter, and greater depth,
is fifty per cent more than that of the 23-inch boiler.
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