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

  Thanks Bruce, that must be what it is, as the heater is ceramic and round (about 3/4 inch diameter), and clearly original to the engine. But, wouldn’t all of the riveted boiler “transition” 35 engines (and the “forgotten” 35) have had the same boiler and heating element? If not, then maybe it is more special than I assumed. The person I bought it from said that it belonged to his grandfather, and he last remembered playing with it in the early 1960s. So, no way that I would trust it to still be in safe working order by now (I could be wrong). Otherwise, overall the engine appears to be in decent condition, piston and flywheel move freely, no damage or solder repairs on the boiler, etc.

    Will post photos soon

The "chromalox" heater is like a cartridge heater that is all encased, there is a type of heater they used (in Jensen #50's) that is a ceramic style post that has heating nichrome wire (similar to a toaster) wrapped around notches in the post & inserted into a sealed pipe in the boiler , that sealed pipe is what is usually the problem as it was a thin walled pipe & subject to premature failure. that doesn't mean it's still not sound; it could very well be. most of these engines had a round heating disk that just sat under the boiler, not very efficient but it worked.