Parken - Hausegger

Steam Engine Production:  1945-1960's + 1970's 
Located: Clayton, VIC

The original steam engines were made by Arpad Hausegger starting in 1945. He made the engines from his shed until partnering with Ken Pizzey to form "Parken Engineering", at which time they moved to a commercial workshop.

Parken Engineering only made the one model of steam engine, but this was done over two production periods. The first production run was from 1945 till the 1960's. They then made a 2nd limited production run in the 1970's.

Parken Toy Steam Engine made in Australia

 

Parken Engineering was in business till 2024, though they had moved on from making toy steam engines, and were manufacturing workshop equipment, CNC machinery, as well as providing engineering services.

Parken Engineeering was acquired by Jack Thompson Engineering (JTE) in 2024.

Youtube video by: Erik S

Early production Parken model steam engine
Parken model steam engine with burner
Early production Parken steam engine round cylinder
Late production Parken steam engine square cylinder

Parken Engineering engines were painted blue and included a round decal in one corner, early engines made from 1945 to the 1960's had round cylinders, while the 1970's engines are easily identified by their square cylinders.

Early Hausegger engine showing red and black paint colour
Early Hausegger steam engine with differences to later Parken engines

Several engines have turned up that have a number of manufacturing differences to the regular Parken manufactured engines. Red painted base with a black fire box, a disk shaped crank, cylinder machined from a rectangular brass bar, a much longer steam pipe, no whistle (the one in the photo above is a Renown whistle so not original to this engine), it's also unclear if they had a safety valve or just a simple filler plug.

While we don't have any official detail on these, the most obvious explanation would be that these could be very early Arpad Hausegger made engines from before Parken Engineering was formed.

If anyone does know the actual story behind this engine version can you please contact the webmaster so I can update this page.

Home made replacement burner for a Parken steam engine
Dunlop Midget Cycle Repair tin can be re-purpoused as a burner for a model steam engine

Many of these engines are now missing their burners.

Several different tins were utilised for the burners over the years, most likely depending on what was readily available. One such tin which is a perfect match and can still be found reasonably easily are the "Dunlop Midget Cycle Repair Outfit" tins.

Need to make a replacement burner for your Parken Engine? You can find the details of how to do this on the "Model and Toy Steam Forum".