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

They sold under the Montgomery Ward name also I believe.

Nice images Charlie .... where'd ya get those anyway?  ;c)

Fact is I have yet to see any definitive information as to just who or what the Cooper Bros. are/were, but certainly they did get job lots of #70's from Jensen several times over a span of many years. An Educational materials supply house for the East Coast region perhaps, or ?

Whatever the actual history behind these engines, I would rate them as rather "Rare", but not exceedingly so, as they do show up from time to time, typically a few a year, on ebay. It is not uncommon to see them in well used and even rather abused condition, though nearly pristine examples also show up occasionally, but less often.

Another rebranded Jensen engine that has surfaced in a very small lot of #85G's out of Israel, that were tagged in Hebrew, though they also had the Jensen tag unconventionally mounted on the firebox. I think there were only 15 or so that were found, though there may well have been quite a few more made in that batch.

They sold under the Montgomery Ward name also I believe.

Quite correct Bruce!

Though the only model that I am aware of is the metal base #65 which had a tape/decal type label that read: M/W Signature Junior, but even so, came in a regular Jensen box.

These seem quite rare and are not often seen at all, so probably Montgomery Ward didn't contract very many, nor for very long. With the title "Signature Junior", one must wonder if there was ever offered a "M/W Signature Senior", and if so, what it may have been? Perhaps a Jensen #25, or even a 20 or 10 mayhaps, but if so, I've never seen one. As a caveat to the "rarity" of any possible Montgomery Ward re-branded engines I would note that the tape style label that they used to mark these engines was not difficult to peal off, so there may have been many more than there is currently any evidence for still extant!

Quote from: St Paul Steam on April 15, 2021, 08:46:31 pm

They sold under the Montgomery Ward name also I believe.

Quite correct Bruce!

Though the only model that I am aware of is the metal base #65 which had a tape/decal type label that read: M/W Signature Junior, but even so, came in a regular Jensen box.

These seem quite rare and are not often seen at all, so probably Montgomery Ward didn't contract very many, nor for very long. With the title "Signature Junior", one must wonder if there was ever offered a "M/W Signature Senior", and if so, what it may have been? Perhaps a Jensen #25, or even a 20 or 10 mayhaps, but if so, I've never seen one. As a caveat to the "rarity" of any possible Montgomery Ward re-branded engines I would note that the tape style label that they used to mark these engines was not difficult to peal off, so there may have been many more than there is currently any evidence for still extant!

Looks like the 75 was also labeled “Signature Junior”

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Just to add about the 15 Israeli 85G's
There are only 15 that were made.
When I first discovered them I reached out to Dorita at Jensen.
She actually wired the #15's on each board.
It was a special order. She also pulled the original invoice and confirmed only 15 were made and only 15 shipped.
They were found in the back of a warehouse and the seller had all of them still together.
I can't remember exactly now but I bought either 8 or 10 of them. Two went to Howard and Tom. And a couple other collectors. I think I still have 5 or 6 of them. The ones I got were all in the original Jensen packaging.
I did a couple YouTube video on all of the one I received.
I sold 2 for around $400 each but to be only 15 ever made and so rare I felt they were worth more than that so I just kept the rest of them.
They have been in storage now for a few years.
But that is the rest of the story.
Check out the YouTube videos for more details. 

ALSO: they were all on different wooden boards. Some were plywood and beveled and others on the common square corner boards Dorita said she just used what they had at the times. So you will find about 3 variants of the 15 engines.

Randy Tucker got one on the plywood beveled base. Howard and Tom too. I kept two like that. And the rest were not beveled.

Someone else here on the forum got a beveled plywood base as well. Can't remember who.


      Cheers!      Jack Boyles
www.SteamEnginesUSA.com

"Another rebranded Jensen engine that has surfaced in a very small lot of #85G's out of Israel, that were tagged in Hebrew, though they also had the Jensen tag unconventionally mounted on the firebox. I think there were only 15 or so that were found, though there may well have been quite a few more made in that batch."

I never really discussed this before. But I actually started to buy them all before anyone knew about them. I had the opportunity to buy all 15.
Instead I only bought a few at first. Then after I spoke to Dorita and she verified they were actual Jensen's I bought a second group.
Once they arrived I made some YouTube videos.
The funny thing is just about everyone thought they were fake but I had already verified them legit.
It was a great find.