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

Thanks for the history of the "blind boiler" D5 Jan, I enjoyed Very much!
  Also of note: as a young lad of 12 yrs age and also from the "North Woods"...our family would drive to Grand Rapids near Christmas time for shopping. Back then with no internet one would go to bricks and mortar stores just to see what was available, we enjoyed no less than 5 hobby shops back then!...today we are down to 1 hobby shop
  I can not say steam engines where really on my Radar back then as I would go straight to the flying model airplane kits, however, after making my selection I would walk the rest of the store as trips to the "big city" where not all that common, and 2 or 3 of the shops had Wilesco in glass cases...I don't remember seeing a single Jensen, but could have missed them as aircraft was my mission. It makes me wonder if Jensen steam is more a regional thing or if it is more prestige to have imported engines on display?
  I originally joined this forum with an interest in hit and miss, so before that Jensen Steam was largely unknown to me. My brother and I where gifted an Olde Smokey steam roller so as a young lad I just thought Germany was the goto place for tiny steam engines...lol
    I am sure others had a Very different introduction to model Steam than I did.