I have recently found a couple of freight cars by Bowser that I am thinking of purchasing. Since I have not used this manufacturer before I was just wondering who they might be compared to with in the industry? Are the cars normally metal or plastic? Are they detailed well? Is the paint fairly good? etc... With some of the recent attacks on companies posted here please keep this thread as clean as possible and no attacks on any manufacturer. I just would really like to know about the cars before I make the purchase. Thank you, Mr X
Very happy with their coal hoppers. Clear lettering, nice detail, up to three different numbers for the cars. Their newer cars come with low profile wheels and knuckle couplers. Made in the USA.
That was precisely what I was looking at getting. Thank you for the feed back. Are the made of plastic or are they metal? I assume plastic but I can not tell for the picture and the description does not have it listed. Mr X
Lettering and logos are excellent. I was not thrilled with their bolster pins on the run of PRR old coal hoppers, but it seemed to have been an isolated experience. I posted about it many moons ago and I was the only one with a problem. Replacement pins were sent by Bowser immediately without charge for the pins or postage. I especially like that they will produce cars in runs with different car numbers for each run. If there is a car you particularly like or "need" sooner or later there will be another run and you will not have to mess around trying to alter or renumber yourself. I think you will be happy with the product. Plastic.
If you are talking GATX 50' airslides or ACF hoppers They are excellent looking models(molds formally Delaware Valley bought by Bowser) I have a few and I am very happy with them, remove the rapidos and strap on some MT trucks and couplers.
Do the standard trucks from MT fit? The ones out of the ten packs? Not that it overly matters though but are the bolster pins screws or just pins? Thank you for all the feed back. This is getting me even more excited to pick these cars up. I have found a couple possiblities that I am going to get now. Mr X
If you have (or want to have) the GLa hoppers, MTL trucks (ex #1000) fit. I converted two hoppers to MTL trucks now, more to follow. Using the MTL bolster pins is a real pain in the back, as the mounting holes are not very deep. I ended re-drilling the mounting holes with my big drill press. The cars are plastic with a metal underframe for weight, similar to the other hoppers on the market (Roundhouse/Athearn, MTL).
I used MT Andrews trucks on mine as they, out of all the MT trucks, bear the closest resemblance to the PRR trucks that the manufacturer puts onto them. The couplers tend to discombobulate more frequently on these than on either the AccuMate Bettendorf or Arch-bar trucks. Other than that, they are plastic with plastic wheels. They are good cars, nice lettering and detail and good choice of steam era road names. The coal load does not look the best but it is easily removable and you can replace it with a Hay Brothers or other similar load.
Please note Christoph's comment. You, as I, may not have the inclination to redrill the holes. I can't remember what I did with the couplers. The cars are packed away. Can someone here expand on this?
Concerning GLa hoppers: I have experienced frequent derailings with the original trucks which I assume were due to a too rigid mount of the original trucks in combination with truck-mounted couplers. Now my plan is to convert 6 of the 8 GLa I have to MTL Bettendorf trucks (which match the original ones), and two of them to Archbar trucks, just because these are available. Some days ago I checked PRR truck diagrams and found out that the Archbar trucks are also listed for the GLa. In terms of "good looks" the combination is fine. Mounting MTL trucks without redrilling the holes is almost impossible, you have to cut the MTL bolster pin severely to fit the original hole (I did this with the first two cars and had some great time cussing). My H21a hoppers kept their unique Crown trucks and received body mounted couplers MTL#1015. Same comment about rigid mounting applies, but no problems so far.
Christoph Is it a depth problem only or is it a width problem as well? What I am asking is where the existing holes just not deep enough, or were they not wide enough as well? Thank you for the feed back as I too use pretty much all MT couplers. Mr X
I like the cabeese and it's nice to have a specific prototype that operated on the Pennsy (for example). MTL coupler conversion is a snap-- 2004's (old number). I find the freight cars to not be "top shelf" but certainly a good value for the price point. I was not happy with the choice of a "generic" font on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh hopper dimensional data (it's correct on the HO version), but that's just my nitpickiness and most people won't care.
Mr. X, if I remember correctly it is mainly the depth. The original shape of the MTL bolster pins is somewhat conical, so when I cut them short to fit the original holes this affected also the form. Redrilling the holes with a 2mm drill fixed the problem, but the hole was only barely (if any) widened. When I change the remaining hopper trucks I could check what really happened. Probably it is possible to drill the holes with a Dremel or something similar, but I bought a drill press some years ago very cheaply, it must be manufactured somewhere in Asia. It is running rather slowly but powerful and works just right for this task.
I haven't seen any derailing issues with the few hoppers that I have but I just looked at them for a conversion. It appears that there is an easier fix if you would like to replace the trucks. MTL sells a bolster pin for MDC/Roundhouse cars which has a smaller pin diameter. I pulled one of the stock bolster pins from an old round house car and it is the same size as the Bowser pin so I would guess that the MTL conversion pin would work fine in the Bowser cars.
By the way, I have 7 of the Bowser coal hoppers, and I've not replaced the trucks/couplers, but simply replaced the wheelsets with IM type (made by Atlas) low profile steel wheels. There have been no "issues" with this setup.
Today I converted the remaining GLa hoppers to MTL. I must correct myself, redrilling the hole did in fact also widen the holes. My guess is that the original holes are about 1.6 mm wide (sorry but I always think metric :embarassed: ). Now all GLa are really free-running. Drilling the holes too deep is not good, the metal frame has a limited thickness and the hole would be visible (guess how I know this....).
