t’s not often we get dozens of steam cars chugging peacefully around our little hamlet of Bennington, Vermont, so we took full advantage of the event by recording an interview with a steam car owner and shooting plenty of photographs. Unfortunately, we only used a handful of photographs in the coverage of the event in the September 2008 issue of Hemmings Motor News, but we had plenty others to share. For instance, in the above photograph, Sam and Linn Kirkpatrick zip through North Bennington in their family’s 1909 Stanley E2.

To prepare for each day’s jaunts around town, the steam car owners spend up to a couple hours every morning fixing leaky valves and adjusting their burners’ efficiency. Most of the steam cars don’t see regular use, for obvious reasons, so the first major tour of the year tends to reveal all the necessary repairs.

Beyond repairs, the steam cars simply take a while to reach operating temperatures. Patience is a virtue when dealing with steamers.

It’s an eerie experience to watch a steamer roll by, obviously under power, but making none of the expected sounds.

To combat the calmness of the steamer motoring experience, most of the participants had one of several types of whistles mounted to their cars, all of which combined for a strange week-long symphony and which, for a brief amount of time, brought smiles of childhood innocence to residents of a town otherwise preoccupied with the doldrums of modern life.