Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

That's a nice thread!
I like the snapshots with steam engines sitting calmly among other antiques/junk to be spotted and liberated!

I have found only few steam engines in antique shops so far (a very small Doll overtype plus dredge, a very nice Doll 364/1, e.g.) but I was always far too nervous to take any photos of them sitting on the shelves before starting the negotiations...

Perhaps this (pretty rare) Doll 404/5 from 1937 is worth showing.
I had been trying my luck with many antique shops, "Trödelläden" (bric-a-brac shops), antique toy dealers and flea markets in Berlin that 15th November 2003 and was now roaming the area around Savignyplatz, Kantstraße, Pestalozzistraße. I was really exhausted from walking for hours (no exaggeration) and diving in and out of shops - and I had seen not a single steam item that day, not even the obligatory burnt and battered WILESCO D16, not to speak of any accessory. Not a single one, only shrugs and head shakes...!
Then I came across a small shop in Pestalozzistraße, full of custom made bicycles of the strangest designs, one of them made of wood, showing a great deal of craftsmanship. You could take a peek into the cluttered shop cum workshop - and there she stood, together with a Doll bench-saw and a Doll fret-saw on a workbench.

Actually, and I don't make this up, I turned and started to walk on, smiling about the funny bikes, because I had become so used to being disappointed that I had already gone a few paces before I realized "STEAM ENGINE!!!". Well, here she is:

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