I will try to make a relatively long story short. My LHS is closing and the owner is going into retirement. I have been depressed for weeks,any way they are selling everything at discounts. There has been a big boy (used) that I have been eyeing for some time. They had a special one day sale this week that resulted in about 30% off the listed price. I had already told my wife that if they had a great sale and that engine was not already sold I was going to buy it. Well I did,now I have to build a lay out that has a raduis bigger than 18". The price I paid minus the discount was $360. I have seen some of the newer engines (other brands) for much more but they are also equipped or dcc ready.This engine I purchased also has the super detail kit and according to the owner, in a local pulling contest there was nothing "they could throw at it that could even come close " I am not familiar with Bowser and realize this is an older unit but wanted to know if this was a fair price,good price or a great price ?Your feed back is appreciated thans in advance. If I can locate my camera I will take some pictures.
The hard part about Bowser engines was / is building the kits. If this engine is built up and runs well and has the superdetailing installed, is painted, etc. that’s not too bad a price.
Some folks prefer to replace the open-frame motor with a can motor, others swear by the old Bowser motors for their power. The Bowser kits are fairly old designs, so the detailing (even with superdetail kit installed) probably isn’t up the more recent offerings by other manufacturers, but it should still look OK.
That older Bowser you purchased, I am sorry to say, is NOT worth the coin you payed for it. Older Bowser kits (from which this was made) were very difficult to make run properly and those open pitman motors drew so much power you could only have 1 or 2 running on your layout at once.
Unless you repower it, dont bother with DCC. The pitmans stall current is well above any HO decoder on the shelves today. All it takes is one derailment then…poof… Helix humpers and Accurate lighting make repowering kits for the BigBoy.
The real pleasure of the Bowser units was building the kits. I couldnt imagine purchasing a used pre-built Bowser engine that was pawned off to a LHS.
Sorry to post like this, but I think you should have asked before you bought. You would have been better off purchasing an Athearn BB and replacing the Decoder.
David B
I’m with Dave on this one. The kits only $155. (I think that’s minus tender) The fun part is building those things. Hope your thinking at least 24" curves. (or bigger)
Darn I was sad to see the reviews so far. I have never had a Bowser but have heard they pulled like heck. At this point I would have rather bought your Bowser than the 2 retuned Athearn Big Boys I bought.
Does the rear drive wheels pivot? If not I am not sure who big of a turn you will need. PCM Brass Big Boy rear drivers don’t move and needs a 72" radius turn.
By the way what number is it and like some PIC. If you want to trade for a driffrent engine let me know.
Good luck and hope it works out for you. I love the Big Boys.
Cuda Ken
If the model looks good to you, the price was fair.
Does it have a 14 wheel tender? If so, is it plastic (Monogram/Revel/ConCor with a conversion kit) or Rivarossi. Or it might be the brass Kemtron/PSC kit
If it does not have the new Bowser motor, with the skewed armature, it is worth trading the motor. See: http://www.bowser-trains.com/hoother/dcc/dcc.htm
Regarding DCC decoders; not a problem, just go with a 3amp version, like the Digitrax DG383: http://www.digitrax.com/prd_mobdec_dg383ar.php or the Lenz Gold Maxi http://www.lenz.com/products/decoders/index.htm . There is plenty of room in the tender.
The Bowser model is like the real thing, the rear drivers do NOT swing out like a diesel (and the other non-brass Big Boy models). Think 30" minimum radius.
Your model will out pull any of the other HO scale BigBoys.
Enjoy your model.
I don’t have the Big Boy, but I do have the Challenger. It really looks very nice with all the brass detail parts installed, and the only major detail problem is the wide boiler. It runs very smoothly, and with all that weight from being all metal, I bet it could pull 150 or more cars!
The Challenger and Big Boy both have prototypical articulation, with the rear frame mounted to the boiler, so only the front frame swings. I don’t know about the Big Boy, but the Challenger makes it around an 18" radius fine (but it looks pretty silly with that 1" overhang).
nfmisso is right about the new Bowser motors. I have three Bowsers with the new motor, and all are great runners. The new motors are almost as quiet as a can motor, and they draw just as little current while running free, and are also reliable enough that they’ll probably outlast you.
davidmbedard, the Challenger and Big Boy are actually the only Bowser engines that there aren’t any remotoring kits for. You’d have to make up something special if you wanted a can motor in one of them.
loather, the Big Boy alone is $155, since they recently cut around 25% off of all their steam engine kits, but it’s still around $260 or more once you add the detail kit and tender. I remember before they brought the prices down that the total cost with a Rivarossi tender was something like $390.
I was just going off what their site said. I figured that didn’t include tender or detail kit.
Uh…ok…3 Amp decoder. Personally, for HO scale, I wouldnt use any unit that required a 3 Amp decoder…can you say lone-runner?
David B
I sense some negativity here, with some possibly misleading conclusions.
I certainly haven’t found any of the die cast locomotive kits very difficult to make run properly, and I’m no master modeler or mechanic. Personally, I find assembling a kit to make it run correctly a whole lot easier than trying to troubleshoot and repair a modern RTR engine that doesn’t run correctly out of the box. Of course, if you just ship the RTR back to the manufacturer to fix the defect, than a kit might seem a rather daunting project. Since Bowser is still in production, they do provide a lot of support to puchasers of their kits and products.
As others have said, there are no repowering kits for the Challenger and Big Boy. And Bowser has significantly improved the Pittman motor since they bought the production facilities for the Pittman models used in model trains. Whether this model has the improved motor is a good question, but if not, they are available as a drop-in replacement from Bowser.
Using stall current for sizing decoders came from when decoders were fragile and expensive. Very few can motors will survive a true stalled condition - current flowing, but shaft prevented from turning - for more than a few seconds. In today’s world of plug and play decoders, I would rather replace a fried decoder than a fried
Thanks for all the comments . I still have not found that stinking camera. I will look harder this week end and snap some pictures. This is an older unit,does have a tender. I will look when I get home to find out the other info and report back in Monday.