Has anyone grafted smoke lifters you can buy from bowsers parts list in their online catalog onto an athearn challenger? The reason im asking this is because the roadnumber of the challenger im after comes without them.
My other question is on bowser steam loco kits in general. Are they difficult to put together? do most think they are worth the trouble for their price? Most kits in the catalog run for over $120.
For example their USRA light mikado runs for around $135 and i paid around $230 for my trix mikado with dcc and sound, thats around $100 difference. Talking price, and not satisfaction of putting a kit like this together, is it worth my trouble by the time i add dcc?
How do most that have completed one feel about the final product; reliability, looks, functionalty ex: smoothness, how well it handles curves, ease of dcc or sound installation?
Regarding Bowser kits in general, here are some points to consider:
They are not terribly difficult to put together, but require a little elbow grease with some files and other tools. They are not very well detailed, so you have to either get their superdetail kit, or get all the misc parts from other sources.
They are not painted (obviously), so you’ll have to paint and decal them yourself.
The motor they come with is powerful, but it’s an open frame, so it’s noisy and it draws a lot of current. I wouldn’t recommend putting a Tsunami in one.
There is no “plug and play” DCC for these things, so you have to break out the soldering iron and the heat shrink tubing.
All that being said, they are heavy, solid, and pull a heck of a lot of cars.
In the end, you get the satisfaction of knowing you “built” your own loco. But by the time you upgrade the details, replace the motor with a can motor, possibly replace the drivetrain with NWSL parts, and count up the hours of labor you spent, it ends up costing more than the Trix Mikado. Is it worth it? It depends on your personal preference. Some people prefer building their own locos, and some would just rather pay the same amount for a well-detailed, smooth-running plastic model right out of the box. Personally, I’m leaning toward the latter right now. Although I’d like to build my own, it takes a little more time and effort to do that than I can really afford at this point in my life.
To do a Bowser kit right takes quite a bit of time and effort. You will need some more details or the superdetail kit to approach what is available detail wise now days in RTR. They can be made up into excellent finished locomotives, that look and run extremely well (I do not know how well the new motors perform, or at what amps, but if I remember right they got good reviews). Since you are starting from scratch, installing sound and/or DCC should be a snap
I have assembled a few Bowser Kits including a couple of 4-6-6-4 Challengers. They are a challenge to beginners. If you follow the instructions and take your time building a Bowser kit, you should have a fine running, powerful, and nice looking locomotive. However Bowsers tend to be very noisy with the open frame motors. I have found most of the noice comes from a area between the motor and brushes. I still haven’t figured out how to reduce this noise other then making the brush tension spring a little shorter. Personnally I perfer the kits over the ready to run because of the feeling of satisfaction that I get from completing one of the these. If you decide to go with a kit instead of RTR and you have success with your first assembly project. You may want to look for another at some train shows. I have found a few at reasonable prices. Most often these are kits that need extra work because the first owner tried and failed to put them together properly.
I do believe if you if you exchange motors, add superdetail, and add dcc the cost will be about the same or a little more expensive. This is unless you can find some good deals on the orginal kit or parts.
At this time I have no plans to convert my DC Bowsers to DCC, just have too many of them, to be able to afford it.
One other thing the Bowser Challengers do not come with a tender. You will have to purchase that seperately. It is also really hard to find a cenetipede tender to go with this engine. Bowser does not make one. Kemtron use to make these, but they are brass and must soldered together. If you are looking for this type of tender you can use either Monagram Tender(static Kit) with a bowser power mechanism kit or a Rivarossi tender maybe used.
I have never put a Bowser smoke lifing detail kit on an Athearn 4-6-6-4 Challenger.
I’ve built three of the Bowser locomotive kits, the Pennsy K4 Pacific and M1a Mountain, and most recently, the Challenger (didn’t get the smoke lifters for it though). As stated above, these take some time and care to assemble, plus with the super detail kit available from Bowser, they are equal to the newest releases in detail. The big difference is the pulling power. I’m not sure how the new ones are made, but the Bowsers have all metal boilers, giving them great weight on the drivers. Plus my latest has an open frame motor that has been modified (from the factory) to have it electrically isolated from the frame, making DCC conversion easier. The main design of these goes back to the days of cars with metal trucks that didn’t roll easily, so the power was necessary. With the more modern model trucks, these things will pull a good size train.
Another advantage to consider: since you assembled it, you know how it works and know how to fix it, when needed.
My experience with the Bowser kits is basically the same as everyone else’s. I built 2 of the 4-8-4 mechanisms kits. One was for the Bachmann J and the other the Bachmann GS Daylight. I tired of repairing the Bachmann drive’s so I picked both up on a ½ off table at a LHS.
I thought they were easy to build. Take your time and you will be okay. The Bachmann tender and shell is reused.
They will pull just about anything and take a bit to break in due to the axle bearing design. They run great. The motor is a little noisy and I am wondering about the Bowser trade in program. You send in your old motor and get an updated one.
As long as you take your time with a Bowser kit, they’re not too difficult to build. So far, I’ve built their A-5 0-4-0 and 4-6-6-4 Challenger, and am in the progress of building a K-11 4-6-2. So far, they’ve all turned out very well.[:D] Since Bowser lowered their prices on steam engine kits (around 25% decrease), I’d say they’re worth the price even more than before.[:D] The “deluxe kits” come with all the brass super detail parts, an assembled valve gear, and sometimes a headlight, and also have the boiler pre-drilled for the detail parts, so they’re easier to build than if you buy everything separately, and some of the kits rival brass engines in detail once they’re finished.[:D]
The new open-frame motors included in most of the kits run very smoothly, have low current draw (my K-11 draws 0.2 amps on average), and are isolated for DCC. The only drawback is that they’re not as quiet as can motors. But they are reliable, and will probably even outlast you. The A-5 0-4-0, B-6 0-6-0 and 0-4-0 Dockside have can motor and gearbox drives that run as well or better than most ready to run steam engines, and are nearly silent.[:D]
To answer your last question, they’re some of the most reliable steam engines you’ll ever have, most look great once they’re detailed, they run smoothly, all but the 4-4-4-4 will handle 18" curves (the Big Boy and Challenger struggle a little and look silly, but they can make it), and with the new motors, DCC should be pretty easy. As long as they never stall (and they won’t), a 1-amp decoder should do fine, but a 2-amp would probably be safest with the open-frame motors.
And once it’s all done, it will most likely be worth all the trouble. I know mine were.[:D]
Thanks for all the info on the kits. It sounds like everyone that has tackled one sounds very pleased with the end result. I may have to consider it in the future.