Does Bowser manufacturing still make stuff in the USA?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Bought some GLA hoppers in their Executive line cause it seems they don’t sell kits anymore. The quality was fine, but was disappointed that it said “made in China” on the side. I always liked that their products were made in the US and of course I like to build kits, even if it is only gluing a few parts together. I will probably not buy any more from them and give my business to Accurail. I think they are still made in the USA? Unfortunate.[:(]. BTW, Anyone know of a good online hobby shop that has a good selection of Accurail cars that are actually in stock and not preorder? I am interested in Pennsy steam/transition era.

Chris

2

Well Chris, in our hobby, just what is actually USA made. I bet it’s not too much. Same with alot of stuff we consume. Some may come from Mexico, China, and Europe, maybe some is even assemble in the USA, but the parts are made world wide.

The construction co. I worked for did a lot of plant remodel, and machinery installations to what was once the J.I. Case company, from Racine, WI. They get castings and parts from all over the world, now they only do the finish milling, and some assembly in the USA. I’m sure it’s the same with many of the things that we, has hobbyist, buy and use.

It’s a world economy. As frustrating as it can sometimes seem, it’s the way it is.

Mike.

3

Chris:

This is probably a stupid question, but have you tried ordering direct from Accurail?

http://www.accurail.com/accurail/

Dave

4

Yep, like it or not, we are part of, and have been for a long time, part of the global economy. As pricy as quality new models are, I shudder to think what the cost would be if made in the USA.

Many years ago I was designing an industrial wastewater treatment plant for a large textile plant being built in eastern Tennessee. The client was moaning about how all the textile manufacturing was going to China. Yet nearly every piece of equipment going into his new plant was being imported from Germany!! At the time all of the Chinese textile plants were using equipment made in the USA. I found the whole thing rather ironic.

Ray

5

Dave,

I haven’t yet but may go that route. Even most of the large online hobby shops don’t seem to actually stock very much product. Lots of preorder “status”.

Chris

6

To add to my first post, the good news, I watch Railstream web cams, and yesterday, on the Chesterton, IN., cams, I caught an NS train with 52 flat cars, each had two Case combines, with wood crates of parts, and a some cars were just wheel and tire sets, going East. I’m sure they were headed for export, which is a good thing.

Mike

7

Don’t hold your breath Chris. The last few times I have looked at the Accurail site they didn’t have anything that I wanted in stock. Hopefully you will have better luck.

The one nice thing that they do offer which I don’t think you will get anywhere else is re-numbering decals. The decals are matched to each specific car. They are printed with the car colour (Canadian spelling eh!) as the background on the decal so you can go right over top of the existing car numbers.

Good luck!

Dave

8

If you want PRR equipment then Bowser is your only real source. Most of their cars and loco’s parts are made here in the U.S. then shipped to China to be assembled. The die work is all done here. Thats more than most of the other model railroad manufacturers. — Ken

9

I think their full line of detail parts is made in the USA.

10

MB Klein carries it. They also have a real time online inventory, so you know what’s in stock.

Good luck

Paul

11

Most of the latest Calscale Parts I got were made in China for double the old price, probably due to EPA regulations on brass casting ventilation etc.

By the way Intermountain also makes all their parts in the US and just ships them to China for painting and assembly, so the undecorated kits are all US.

Kadee cars are all made in the US entirely.

Rick Jesionowski

12

Chris, a number of others have covered the China made issue pretty well, I will address the “in stock” issue.

I feel your pain, I once ran a train department in a hobby shop and back in the day inventory was king - you cannot sell what you don’t have - or so it would seem.

A lot of factors have come together making it very hard for retailers or even manufacturers to keep big inventories.

Retailers once enjoyed larger markups, which allowed them to keep money tied up in inventory. Today, everybody wants a discount…

Manufacturers have provided us with increased detail, accuracy, and variety. This in combination with the simple fact about markups, makes it even harder for retailers, online or otherwise, to have big inventories.

So the manufacturers have cut the size of each production batch, and large percentages of each run are spoken for before they are even produced.

It is my understanding that Bowser and Intermountain still do their injecton molding here, and package kits here, but RTR items are assembled overseas.

EPA regulations on painting and indirect labor costs (taxes, health insurance, unemployment coverage) are the primary reasons RTR model trains are not made in the USA.

When Athearn first got back into RTR, they too did the injection molding here and shipped parts to China for assembly. They have since discontinued all USA manufacturing. There is a long standing rumor that Athearn kept much of their original tooling here in case things go south in China, allowing the Chinnese to duplicate the tooling to produce the exact same items. Not sure how true that is, but given how easy it is today to make some of this tooling, it is quite possible.

Fact is, the US economy will simply not allow workers to work at pay levels that would be market effective for these products. Now if we had a different type of tax structure, and did not demand 1/4 of the productivity of even low paid workers in tax payments, maybe more t

13

Hey, Chinese/Mexican/European people gotta eat too :slight_smile:

Rix’(s?) Pikestuff line is all made in the US. It’s an injection molding shop that also does model railroad molds.

Does anyone know if Accurail’s kits are done here?

14

Yes, Accurail is made here in the US and I’m grateful that they still offer kits. One of the very few left, as far as rolling stock.

Tom

15

Yes, as noted above in this thread, Accurail is still USA made.

16

No. Tangent Scale Models offers PRR rolling stock as well; some very nice freight cars not to be ignored, even by a western modeler like me:

PRR G43 corrugated side gondola:

https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/prr-pc-shops-g43-class-corrugated-side-gondola/

Iconic PRR X58 box car:

https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/prr-x58-box-car/

Don’t forget Tangent also does the ACF 70 ton welded drop end gondola in several PRR schemes:

https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/acf-70-ton-welded-drop-end-gondola/

Not to mention the General American Dri-Flo covered hopper in PRR (expected to re-run this year.

17

Yes, Tangent makes a few PRR/PC/CR cars, as has Exactrail.

But most people have to use Bowser to get the vast majority of the PRR freight fleet.

Look, I once worked in that Bowser American factory. In order to remain even reasonably competitive with the others, they were forced to outsource the actual assembly of rtr freight cars. They may still do some painting here, too–I cannot say with absolute certainty.

At one point they were either making their own can motors here in the U.S., or were considering making their own, but they were able to import an identical motor from China (in minimum lots of 10,000 motors), delivered to the Bowser doorstep, for approximately 1/5 the cost of making the SAME motor here with American labor. In order to keep prices in line with the other “manufacturers”, they had no choice but to outsource what they could.

I thought they still were offering some freight car kits, I’ll have to ask the next Saturday that I will be up there? (We go regularly for pro baseball lessons for my son and might get there this Saturday).

Several years ago most (but not all) of the factory employees were let go, and some product lines that were not making any money were ended. This included the all metal kits, whose yearly sales had fallen to virtually zero. Also, some lines of detail parts were determined, upon financial audit by Lew English, Jr., to be costing them money and not making any money at all, with no hope of ever making money again. Partly this is because it costs way too much time and money for American employees to find, pick, and fill parts orders, and there is just no money to be made in old detail parts. Those detail parts have been discontinued.

They have tried to retain as much work, including design, etc. in the U.S. as is absolutely possible. If they mold their own plastic, then they don’t have to worry about issues with some other factory doing the injection mol

18

Thanks for that bit of inside scoop on Bowser, John.

AFAIK, Bowser is no longer making kits and has gravitated to RTR. The only places I see Bowser kits anymore are at train shows. Even my favorite LHS no longer carries any Bowser kits; only RTR. Otherwise, they would carry them.

Tom

19

The Bowser web site suggests that kits are still “on the product list”.

Not much in the way of kits or RTR seems to be in stock a Bowser.

Given the limited batch production of all of this stuff these days, I would not write off Bowser kit production completely until they announce that fact.

Since Bowser still does the injection molding here, it would make sense to make a short run of kits as each batch of RTR parts are sent to China for assembly.

Sheldon

20

Thanks, Sheldon. I’m pleased to hear that Bowser is still providing a few kits for modelers - however long that lasts.

Tom