I agree. I enjoy the building aspect of the hobby and I miss the locomotive kits that used to be available. I still have some old Bowser and MDC kits from at least 25 years ago that I’m looking forward to building.
The men who have replied to this thread are a fascinating subset of our hobby. I’m currently struggeling to assemble and fine tune a Bowser 2-10-2 kit that was given to me some time ago. As I do the filing, fitting, and detailing I catch myself wondering why, in this day-and-age I’m bothering with a crude, clunky, balky white metal kit loco which is taking up lots of time and energy for not much of a gain, motive powerwise. The latest generation of plastic locos look better, run better and do the sound/DCC thing into the bargain. OK it’s plastic. If you like metal why not pick up an older brass piece, even one needing repairs and/or replacement parts? If you have the skill set necessary to assemble an old Arbor or Bowser kit, you certainly can cope with a neglected brass piece and you’d have a much better product to show for it, wouldn’t you? Even the folks at Bowser have seen the handwriting on the wall and stopped production of their white metal kits. Still. I guess there’s something to be said for “doing weird and challenging projects for the fun of it”. My old staggering Bowser soaked up a lot of hours when it was too hot and humid to go out in the noonday sun.
Yeah, I love the old metal kits too. Many years ago I built a Bowser K4 Pacific. Even though I’m in S now I will eventually build my E6 Atlantic as well. I also have a Rex (S scale) mogul to finish building and some B.T.S. kits as well.
Enjoy
Paul
The Bowser 2-10-2 used an odd generic boiler that wasn’t fully prototypical for anything, especially the cab. Many of the kits developed and redeveloped in the last 20 years, once the super detail kits are added, rival brass in terms of detail. As an example, here’s my L-1 Mikado:
And more here: http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/144350.aspx?PageIndex=3 (scroll down for a whole photo gallery)
And it has the STRANGEST valve gear I’ve ever encountered to boot! Still, as it takes shape it’s not a bad looking engine. If I ever get all the details stuck on it and get the valve gear functioning I’m going to weather the living you-know-what out of it and make it a really grimy workhorse of a drag freight hog. After that, no more white metal engines! Right now I do have it running and it tracked so badly I had to add an extra pair of flanged drivers ( three sets are blind ) . That solved the problem - sort of. I guess the attraction of this engine is that it poses one challenge after another. As soon as you solve one, another crops up. By the way, your Mike looks great. I built two of them and had some trouble getting them to run because there didn’t seem to be enough clearance between the boiler and the drivers. I suppose they put the K4 boiler on the L1 frame without adapting it properly. You can tell it’s the K4 boiler because the sand dome is in the wrong place.
I got an e-mail from Arbour a couple days ago, and the steam engine kits won’t be brought back out. Oh well.
I’m tempted to get one of the old kits and see what I can do with it. I bet I’ll be able to get one going if I try![:D]
Darth,
You de man! Lookin’ forward to the results. And the commentary.
Ed
I’ll be sure to get to it as soon as I have one.[:D] Currently, I don’t have the money, and the next thing I’m saving for is a Lionel 2343 A-A set to replace the one my grandpa used to have. It’ll be a while, but I will get an Arbour kit eventually!
This is a Baldwin 4-4-0 from Arbour Models posted on a Japanese message board. Yuji Kawaguchi, who built the kit, says that the hardness of the castings made it difficult to fit together, and that the basswood cab required cutting out the windows.
In the meantime, Darth Santa Fe did an extensive (and somewhat excruciating!) build of a 2-8-4; he should re-post the links to the eppysodes. They were highly instructive regarding the theory and practice of the Arbour Models ‘experience’.
Here’s a link to the playlist: Building an Arbour Models 2-8-4 kit: Mechanism - Part 1
And I’m also working on an 0-4-0 that’s coming along well: How to Build a Terrible HO Scale Steam Engine Kit: Part 1 - Main Chassis Assembly
I also helped to complete a couple of the old-time kits for someone else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz8SwvJnHik
They’re certainly interesting to work on!
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I was following along with this series, I hope you get back to it eventually. It was very interesting and informative watching you manage to make something acceptable out of the poor quality castings and parts supplied with the kit.
-El
The rest will be coming up soon enough! I’ve made it a point to not upload anything else until I’ve pushed forward and made some actual progress on the 0-4-0 and the Bowser 4-8-2.
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