Years ago, the Weeden was usually sold as a toy for kids, Dave says.
"It was fired by electricity or an alcohol burner or a dry-fuel tablet," he recalls. "They had a few toys you could hook up to them and run, trip hammers, a little saw, drill press, lathe. I think these toys had to be bought separately."
On the other hand, one of his other model steam engines, a Wilesco kit (still being manufactured today) comes with a drill press and saw and a couple of little men that work with it - a complete little machine shop.
The Stover and The Famous
"One day I had the money, so I bought it," he says. "After I got it home and was sitting there thinking about it, I realized the size of the engines I like was with pistons of 1-inch bore or smaller. This one had a 2 1/8 inch bore, so I was thinking, 'maybe I'll sell it, maybe I won't'"
That weekend at a show another collector admired it, and tucked in amongst the talking, asked Dave what those engines were worth.
"So I told him, and about an hour later, he had the money there for me, so I just said, 'Easy come, easy go.' I had it for a whole week," he laughs. "Plus, I got more than I'd paid for it."
The next weekend, Dave ran onto a model of an International Harvester Company "Famous" gas engine.
"It's not really an unusual engine, but it just caught my eye because it's got a lot of detail and features on it that I like," he says. "I had the money from selling that Stover, so I bought it."
Though he didn't completely scratch-build the Famous, he did a lot of work on it.