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

Marklin and Stuart, you may be hard pressed to find much within your price range, and with the Stuart, you will almost certainly be short a boiler, unless you have a fair-sized stand-alone boiler already on hand. Of course, you can always use one of your Jensen boilers as a steam source for any orphan engines you may pick up, such that then you'd only need an adaptor fitting to replace your whistle.

Steam plants with everything you need included are quite common in the toy steam world, and many are easily found within that range.

Mamod, Fleischmann, Wilesco, Bing, Falk, Weeden and many others are out there and available to varying degrees.

Here is the link to the Toy Steam Bible, which is a website that lists very many of the known makers, past and present, and shows some of their products. Always a good reference in most cases, even though far from complete, it at least may help you get a handle on something you find that you don't already know about:

http://www.toysteambible.org.uk/default.htm

Good luck and have fun with your hunt!!!    ;c)

Jeepers!  Just what I need - a new steamer looking for engines
in my price range.

Good Luck,
Wayne

What do you mean?

Marklin and Stuart, you may be hard pressed to find much within your price range, and with the Stuart, you will almost certainly be short a boiler, unless you have a fair-sized stand-alone boiler already on hand. Of course, you can always use one of your Jensen boilers as a steam source for any orphan engines you may pick up, such that then you'd only need an adaptor fitting to replace your whistle.

Steam plants with everything you need included are quite common in the toy steam world, and many are easily found within that range.

Mamod, Fleischmann, Wilesco, Bing, Falk, Weeden and many others are out there and available to varying degrees.

Here is the link to the Toy Steam Bible, which is a website that lists very many of the known makers, past and present, and shows some of their products. Always a good reference in most cases, even though far from complete, it at least may help you get a handle on something you find that you don't already know about:

http://www.toysteambible.org.uk/default.htm

Good luck and have fun with your hunt!!!    ;c)

I opened my budget range a bit.

An engine that always brings a smile to my face is a twin cylinder Mamod SE-3. They are fairly common and also tend to be quite reasonable in price. I think there are a few on evilbay currently at $150 or less, and a couple of them look pretty good.

You might want to check some out .... here's one that caught my eye:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195970877698?

It is listed as a BIN without a make offer button. But I find that if you contact the seller with a reasonable offer of maybe only 10-15% off, it is sometimes accepted!

Also, for real cheap entertainment, it is hard to go wrong with the Mamod Minor overtypes. Some of the best little table top dancers money can by, and it isn't unusual to score one well under $100.

See here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285644792838?

No no no not a mamod .
 
You could try David Auld  or maybe even Cranko

Quote from: Stoker on February 20, 2024, 05:12:08 pm

An engine that always brings a smile to my face is a twin cylinder Mamod SE-3. They are fairly common and also tend to be quite reasonable in price. I think there are a few on evilbay currently at $150 or less, and a couple of them look pretty good.

You might want to check some out .... here's one that caught my eye:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195970877698?

Yeah I’ve been burnt badly on eBay myself on other things.. and not the biggest Mamod fan.  They seem junky to me, but that’s my opinion.

I wouldn't say Mamod are my favorites. Most are pretty simple engines, not very sexy but I wouldn't say they are junk.  Granted the two I have (MM2 & SR1a) dropped into my lap but I had fun getting them going again.  Luckily they were for free, so buying parts wasn't to big of a deal.

From time to time you can get a deal on a Empire - it would need a little help and likely paint (if bad paint bothers you).  I been pretty lucky, I guess, buying off eBay.  Only one time did a engine get to me damaged.  Now I always ask the seller to remove parts (throttle, whistle topper, smoke stack) and either they do or they package the engine extra good.

I think you can get deals on Jenson and Wilesco too, just have to keep looking.  Setup a eBay search to have new listings emailed to you.  The good thing about Jenson, Mamod, & Wilesco you can still get new parts.  Though it also depends on the age of the engine (the older the less engine likely the right part is still made).

Quote from: Scorpion2nz on February 20, 2024, 07:49:32 pm

No no no not a mamod .
 
You could try David Auld  or maybe even Cranko

Are you kidding?

Look them up and let me know what you think
 David Aulds are built tough
Silver solder boilers etc .
 Cranko are a bit more rare and soft soldered .
 Yes they may be New Zealand made but they are available if you are serious
 Roller is restored Cranko
 Small verticals are David Auld