You have all had to put up with my continual grousing about the this hobby going to the dogs because the manufacturers are moving away from kits to RTR! One of you kind soals took pitty on me and suggested I try a Bowser kit.
Well, I did and I am very happy with the kit and will be building more Bowser freight car kits! Super nice molding, very nice detail and over all very high quality. Not as difficult as Branchline Blueprint, LLP2K, Intermountain or Red Caboose, but still enough detail that you end up with a model much better than shake the box type kits and when completed, you feel like you have built something! Thank you Bowser and please don’t go RTR on me!
All this is fine and dandy, but are you willing to spend upwards of $200 for a Bowser kit of the USRA Light 2-8-2 when Broadway Limited will sell you a RTR Sound and DCC equipped model of the same engine for only $100 more?
How about a Pennsy M1a? The Bowser kit lists for $203.95, plus an additional $87.95 if you want the superdetail kit to go with it. For $299.95 MSRP, BLI will sell you an M1a or b that makes authentic noises (well, I don’t think they’ve got a crown sheet failure on the sound card or the results of the fireman eating beans for lunch, but aside from that…).
As for ready to run, here’s what one modeler did with a ready to run Bachmann Spectrum USRA Light 4-8-2; http://www.alaskarails.org/creations/PD-801/index.html:
Andre
I don’t know about you but their roadrailer kits are a little tricky and often spawn impatience. I had to hire someone to put them together because I was ready to throw them across the room.
While a superdetailed Bowser locomotive can look very very good indeed I do not doubt but that more modern castings and technology produce a superior looking and sounding model. Perhaps not superior running, however, if the Bowser mechanism is tuned and carefully constructed.
One point to remember. Some of us have Bowser locomotives, or old Penn Line which is the same thing, that are 40+ years old. I really wonder how many of the models being sold today RTR will still be running in four plus decades?
Dave Nelson
It depends on how well they’re taken care of. I’ve got a couple of old engines myself (Bowser K-11 and Mantua 4-6-2 - the one from the mid 50’s with DC-71 motor and metal gearbox) and they do hold up, although the Mantua could use a completely new set of valve gear, a complete set of rods and all the crankpin screws replaced.
The latest engine I have is a BLI Santa Fe 3751 class 4-8-4. Will it be functional in 40 years? Beats me, because I doubt I’ll be functional in 40 years even if I’m still breathing. I wanted to buy a Bowser 4-8-4 kit when they first came out. Then I caught sight of the atrocious boiler/cab casting they had. I’m not about to buy a kit so I can scratchbuild a boiler and a cab for an engine. The same comment applies to Bowser’s “USRA” 4-8-2 and 2-10-2. I would have bought the kits, but they screwed up the most visible part of the locomotive. I’m not a Pennsy fan, so the Pennsy engines don’t enter into the equation.
The problem with a Bowser is, by the time you’ve built it, superdetailed it, replaced the drive with a “Helix Humper” and then added DCC and sound to it, you’ve exceeded the cost of a BLI equivalent by quite a bit.
I may overhaul the K-11. In fact, since the engine has long since been “amortized” from a financial point of view (I built it in 1968 when I was in Vietnam), I may use it to try my hand at kitbashing a Maine Central C-3
I bought 3 Bowser covered hoppers on eBay recently, I was surprised at the level of detail in them, especially the roofwalks. I havn’t built them yet, but some preliminary test fitting shows that they should go together just fine. These aren’t shake-the-box kits, but they aren’t major undertakings either. Just nice kits for actual building. Dan
The problem with a Bowser is, by the time you’ve built it, superdetailed it, replaced the drive with a “Helix Humper” and then added DCC and sound to it, you’ve exceeded the cost of a BLI equivalent by quite a bit.
I may overhaul the K-11. In fact, since the engine has long since been “amortized” from a financial point of view (I built it in 1968 when I was in Vietnam), I may use it to try my hand at kitbashing a Maine Central C-3 Pacific since the K-11 and the C-3 are of similar size.
Andre
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Good Evening Andre:
I’ve got some Bowser locos and like you I didn’t like the belpair fireboxes so I deceided to file one of them down - DON’T - I filed right through the boiler. The rest of them have the “helix humpers” and a soundtraxx decoder. The best thing about them is the enjoyment they gave me putting them together.
Have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
I bought one of their modern, open-top hopper kits. I liked it except that the end reporting marks are too large and only had the number.
Good Evening Andre:
I’ve got some Bowser locos and like you I didn’t like the belpair fireboxes so I deceided to file one of them down - DON’T - I filed right through the boiler. The rest of them have the “helix humpers” and a soundtraxx decoder. The best thing about them is the enjoyment they gave me putting them together.
Have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
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I’ve seen Penn Line/Bowser engines modified to eliminate the Belpaire firebox, so it is possible. There was an article in MR by a fellow named Malcolm Vordenbaum sometime in 1957 or so on how he altered Penn Line engines to get rid of the Pennsy characteristics. Did a nice job too.
As for my K-11, since it’s an NYC prototype, there’ll be no problem with filing it down since I won’t have to.
I do have to admit that I’ve been tempted to put together a Bowser PRR K4 kit and modify it slightly (i.e. Pyle headlight centered on smokebax front, bell mounted at top of smokebox front, BoxPok main drivers. etc.)
Andre
Guys,I have my Dad’s collection of locomotives.Some are Penn-Lines…These locomotives is at least 40-45 years old or older and still run like the day my Dad built them…Over looking todays standards these locomotives are still a
great locomotive and should last for a life time and still worth owning.[:D]
Dave Nelson asks:I really wonder how many of the models being sold today RTR will still be running in four plus decades?
Good question…One I often thought of myself every time I look at my Dad’s old models from Penn-Line and Hobbytown of Boston…Not to mention his collection of brass PRR steam and diesel locomotives…Some of these I know as to be at least 50 years old and they still run…[:D]
I appologize for not being specific! I have only been talking about freight car kits. However, I have built a Bowser old Lady and owned a Bowser Nothern. If Bowser offered a locomotive I wanted and they were the only producer offering that locomotive, I would buy one in a minute! I like Bowser’s robustness. However, the majority of their loco line is Pennsy stuff and I model Northern Pacific. The only USRA loco N.P. used was 0-8-0s.
I really like Bowser as a manufacturer. Back before the modern plastic steam era, they were the last game in town for good running, non-brass superpower steam. I really like their plastic freight cars too (although the purists point out more of their flaws than their strong points).
That said, I agree with the comparisons being made between their steam kits and new plastic. In general, there’s no comparison: Bachmann Spectrum, P2K and BLI blow them away in all categories but pulling power. Before Bachmann came out with their Spectrum 2-8-0, I was slowly building up a fleet of Bowser kits, for the day I would have a house and would start a permanent layout. Then about five years ago, everyone started cranking out steam like it was cool. Modern plastic steam runs better than anything Bowere ever dreamed of, is easier to superdetail, and is cheaper. They’re also DCC-friendly. Now, I’m selling off every one of my Bowser kits, except for the oddball stuff no one’s come out with (H-10s and K-11s). I’d rather spend my time superdetailing steam quickly, than spend 100+ hours superdetailing and tweaking the drive train of a Bowser kit, and have more money left over to show for it. And yeah, Bowser hasn’t gotten a SINGLE USRA steamer right yet!
And as for Bowsers being able to pull the chrome off a Chevy; that’s true. But so what? I’ve got a 3-level layout with a four scale mile long mainline, which can realistically only handle 15-20 car freights. While a Bowser or Mantua can lug 60 cars up my hills, my plastic steamers can pull the more realistic train lengths well enough. How many of us really have the layouts to support 50+ car long freights?
Thanks for the link to Pat Durand’s 801. His painting/weathering inspires me to some further work on my Spectrum 2-8-0 Elesco feedwaterheater retrofit, which has been an intensive learning experience to this rather amateurish modeller returned from the wilderness. However the results look pretty good.
Isambard
I found last week at the famous 100-mile yard sale in alabama, while visiting my relatives, a Varney old lady kit. It did not have wheels or tender or motor, but I changed my attitude from Carolina Souther, to a fictional tourist rairoad. I was going to restore it with parts from the Bowser kit, but I decided it would be in a pile near the shops(this notion was inspired with a vist two days later to the Tennessee Valley railroad and watching engine 610 turn on the turntable and shops near that.) as an engine to be restored.
Sincvearly,
Nicholas Parker
I very much like Bowser’s covered hopper car kits! They’d look sharp in a unit train. Smart move what Bowser did in showing those nice photos in the Walther’s HO catalog.
Affordable (in the $teens$ at local hobby shops) comparable to Athearn RTR kits but superior in detailing. I wish Bowser would make Centerflow hoppers.
High Greens!
Ok, guys,
What’s a “helix humper?”
There is something about kits that RTR cannot provide to me. If I have assembled it, I have an idea of how it works, how to trouble shoot it and lubricate it. Adding details , painting and weathering don’t quite give me the same sense of “ownership” in the model. I haven’t even tackled a Bowser kit (Pennsy is not my fancy) but I did look long and hard at their NYC Mike. At one point I contemplated scratch building my own steamer except for the lack of maching skills. Perhaps some day!
Will
I love the Bowser caboose kits - luckily one of my modeling interests is PRR. Looking forward to some Bowser hopper and box car kits next.
I am interested in hearing from anyone that has assembled/ran the Bowser PCC trolley - especially with the new insides. How do they run? I assume they are more difficult to assemble than an Athearn BB, but are they really difficult? They are a little pricier, but appear to be better proportioned than the Bachmann PCC.
A HH is a motor upgrade “kit” that a company came out with a bunch of years ago (and are now sold through Bowser and manufactured by a NEW company). Essentially, for $40, you get a decent flat can motor, idler gear, and white metal frame as a single unit, which screws onto the frame of Bowser, Varney or Mantua steamers (they also make Athearn BB remotor kits). These things are great, and REALLY improve the low end speed of old pot-metal steamers.
If I can scoop one up for a cheapish price (Under 100) I’d like to try my hand at one of the 0-4-0 kits, Just to test and maybe extend my modeling abilitys.