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The hunt for engines was equally challenging. Today, Jerry has a collection of nearly 40 Ottawa's, all different. One of his favorites is a single cylinder dating to about 1913. He found the engine at an auction in southeast Kansas.
"I called to make sure what it was," he said. "It had been in the man's family since he was a kid, and he was in his 80s when he had the sale."
The engine had been stored in a barn, and later in a chicken house. It wasn't stuck, but a small piece was missing.
"The piece was just the size of a quarter, but it wasn't a real big chicken house," he says. "I found it in about 10 or 15 minutes."
Restoration of the engine was not complicated.
"It didn't require any machine work," Jerry says. A sign craftsman by trade, he did the pin-striping and painting himself. But he was careful to preserve original paint on the front of the hopper.
"I just clear-coated the original lettering," he says, "and painted the rest. If an engine has the original paint, I'm not going to repaint it. It'll eventually be worth more, if you don't cover up the original paint."
He was able to salvage the original gas tank: all it required was a bit of straightening, sand-blasting, and an automotive acrylic enamel.
Once complete, the 1-cylinder engine has become one of Jerry's favorites.