Received aBowser k-4 Pacific (Pennsylvania) as a gift. Looks like quite a Project. Does anyone know if this can be adapted for DCC? Also what would be a good type of passenger cars for this. Thanks in advance.
Hey Congratulations there Jim! Someone sure thinks a LOT of you to give you a BOWSER kit! Welcome to our family here on the TrainBoard, come back often and chat. Photos are welcome too! Those Bowsers are top of the line in metal kits, and about the only ones left now days, of the "old school" really "good" (meaning ALL METAL), engines short of the so-called BRASS stuff. When finished, it will perform better than almost all BRASS engines , and will look just as good too! It is an advanced skill craftsman's kit, so you will really be proud of it and how it performs! Prototypically it would be proper to pull fifteen or twenty some Pennsylvania passenger cars of all kinds up untill the steam era ended. Mostly the old heavy weights with and without the round roofs including private parlor cars of the day. But, like I always say, sometimes, it's you're railroad, run what you like to see! You are the boss, so no one that counts can order you to do anything you don't want to do! You do NOT have to conform to some detail hound's opinion because he is not paying the bills afterall! Have FUN, enjoy you're layout to the fullest! [ 05 May 2002, 06:43: Message edited by: watash ]
Looks like you may have the old DC-71 motor in it. For DCC, you have to isolate the brushes from the frame. Looking is my Bowser Manual you have to buy a brush insulator part #22193. You are lucky in that Bowser is very nice to deal with and are very fast. While you have the motor apart shim up the end play on it if it has a bunch. Shims are part #901260. Have fun putting it together. BTW. Buy a rivit tool from them, part #36. Will save you hours of pulling hair .
That Bowser kit should have came from the factory with the tools for assembly! If not and you call them and let them know theirs tools or even parts missing (if any) they should send them to you free of charge or if not free all you may have to pay is the shipping costs! Every Boswer kit I put together or done as a job in my shop had all the assembly tools in the kit! Unless it was bought used from a personal owner and not new. Forgot to mention, that their are other tools needed with the kit such as a good drill bit set, the small ones, from a #61 to a #81, plus the regular drill bits, that are normal for any type work, 1/16th, 1/8th etc... and a good Basterd file and a small tapping hammer, and riffler files of different sizes and shapes for removing burrs in any given location and also the moulding lines from the casting process on the boiler! [ 07 May 2002, 02:48: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
