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The best-known commercial vehicle made by the celebrated steam car
builders was the Mountain Wagon, a 12passenger open-sided hotel bus
originally developed to serve the Stanley Hotel at Estes Park, Colorado,
built by the Stanley brothers. Later, many other hotels and organizations
used Mountain Wagons, and one is still in regular service today, at the
Magic Age of Steam Museum at Yorklyn, Delaware. They were powered by a 30 hp
2cylinder engine which was in fact a detuned and lower geared version of
that used in the larger of the 'Gentleman's Speedy Roadsters'. The Mountain
Wagon was made from 1909 to 1916, and was supplemented by delivery vans and
trucks for 1,500 lbs., 1 ton and 1 ¼ ton capacity.
Commercial vehicles were not listed after 1916, but two attempts to
revive the firm both involved trucks and buses. The first was in 1924 when
an organization called the Steam Vehicle Corp. of America was formed to make
cars at Newton and commercial vehicles in the former Watson truck plant at
Canastota, N.Y. Nothing came of this, nor of announcements in 1935 and 1936
that Stanley steam buses would be made by the Stanley Steam Motors Corp. of
Chicago.
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