Hello all. Out of curiosity, do the bowser kits build up into nice engines? I see they are metal, which cannot hurt steam locos. Specifically the Pennsy I1 kit, its not likely i will ever operate one, but would like to have one just the same. Anyone have any experience with these?
When built right, Bowser steam engines are very nice, and some newer ones rival BLI, Spectrum, P2K, and even brass in detail.[:D] The mechanisms are very smooth running when fully broken in, and don’t draw much more power than any other good quality steam engines. It does take some effort to make them look and run really good, but it’s all worth it.[:D]
The I-1 uses fairly new boiler castings based off the old lead Penn Line ones from the 50s or 60s, but the detail has been upgraded significantly, and the ones pictured on Bowser’s website look very nice.
I have been building and detailing an I1 for a while. The running chassis is great. Take your time and aquire all your detail parts before building and it will come out great. Mines not finnished because I keep changing things. Im makeing one from Baldwin with 2 compressors and 16 wheel tender. Find pictures of both sides of one loco taken about the same time for details. The PRR changed things on locos all the time so the little details dont match one from another.
Pete
That’s not the question…The question is can you build a good locomotive? After all that’s exactly what you will be doing and those locomotives isn’t a shake the box kit and as others pointed out it takes time.
Out of curiousity, is it significantly more difficult to build a Bowser than an MDC kit?
Things like cleaning flash and test fitting parts are similar, but Bowser kits have complete valve gear detail that can be time consuming. There is more drilling for details parts as well. And of course many of the Bowser prototypes are larger and more complex locomotives than the MDC prototypes. So all in all I would say the Bowser kits are, yes, more complex. You need more than a file and a screwdriver.
I would say that if a supplemental detailing kit exists for the Bowser engine you seek to build, include it.
Dave Nelson
My first locomotive kit was the Bowser K4 Pacific (without the super detailing kit). The instructions were pretty good and I had no trouble assembling it. Although as I remember you need to take your time and make sure you have the pieces laid out correctly when you do the valve gear. I recommend it for anyone in HO who likes to build kits.
Enjoy
Paul
Part of the appeal is that this isnt a shake the box kit. General consensus is that they are good kits, so i will try one. Thanks all!
Hello I have a 2 kits one 4-6-2 and 2-10-2 and like them very much. If you are unsure of you skills look for a old loco from a show or eBay and rebuild it . This way you can see it done and it will give some working time. And if you like it then you can get a new kit. If you go for a new kit from the start go small and work up. The valve gear on the 4-6-2 was a pain in the but the first time I did it . And was a lot easy er the second time. The 2-10-2 valve gear is not hard at all . Hope this helps Frank.
You bet’chum, Red Ryder!
Although the majority of my steam locomotive fleet consisted of Cary/Mantuas - which were nice runners, by the way - I did have a couple of K11s and my largest steamer was a Bowser USRA Mountain; they did require some patience - I tried to rush my first K11 and had to replace some of the side rods - but after I got everything together and got a couple of bugs out of the drive train it performed beautifully. I don’t know about some of these new metal boilered lokes currently on the market but I do know that were I perchance to return to HO Scale and wanted to model steam I would give serious consideration to assembling a few Bowser kits.