Bowser brass

I'm just wondering if they made it in BRASS

I am not 100% positive but after Bowser took over the 4-8-2 (from Knapp?) I think it had cast bronze boiler.

But the old Bowser mountain appears to have been patterned after a USRA light design, and not a NYC L-1 or L-2 Mohawk. Also, to my knowledge, the Bowser brass mountain was not offered built-up and painted by the factory for any road name. The old Bowser Pacific kit was patterned after the NYC K-11 class, but I believe it was always a zamac kit, and never offered in brass. GQ

Was it not cast brass, rather than hand made from brass parts and sheet? I seem to recall something like that.

Bob Boudreau Canada

another,

Yes - the boiler/cab and frame are both heavy brass castings. GQ

Ok, thanks for the info. I saw a couple of these on EBay (asking $140.00 when they expired w/zero bids) and wondered about the "BRASS" claim.

Paul

I don't know about the NYC part, but yes, Bowser (the original, not the current) did make a strange undersized (1/96) USRA mountain 4-8-2. It has a brass casting for a shell. It is OLD in origin (1940's at least), released before HO was fully standardized at 1/87 scale. It did run on the standard HO track. Oddly, it was one of the better HO steamers for a time, undersized and all.

The current Bowser, IIRC, still (or did) offers a variant of this loco.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Paul Newhouse wrote:

Yes, it was origianlly brass! A casting. Massive, but rather crude.

Varney also sold HO loco kits with brass shell castings. So too did Schrader. Mantua used brass sheet metal for a number of their loco shells. Construction was similar to modern 'brass' locos, but you had to do it yourself! All these date back into the 1940's and early 1950's.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Paul Newhouse wrote:

Could be! Both bronze (copper-tin), or brass (copper-zinc) are possible. I've SEEN the old Bowser locos, but not analyzed the metal. It's yellow in color, and BOTH alloys come in a wide variety of subtypes of varying (usually) yellow or red colors. Bronze is often harder than brass, but it can be an absolute BITCH to machine (drilling, tapping). Some of the brasses can be difficult also, but not so bad as the bronzes. Most common types of both are solderable.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Charles Seyferlich wrote:

That's how I recall also. The mountain, however, was undersized, dating back to the 1/96 scale days.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Geezer wrote:

Yes, a massive casting for the shell. Probably a sand casting. Very crude. You had to do a LOT of skilled work on one to get a good model. Could be done, though.

And, as I've pointed out, it was undersized for a USRA loco, but could make a believable freelanced model.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Railfan wrote:

Ok, thanks to all for the historical insight(s). The EBay descriptions tickled my curiosity.

Paul

Following an article in RMC in the late 50-s, I kit-bashed a somewhat generic 4-4-0 by mixing parts from Mantua's brass "Belle of the 80s" and its brass Mogul loco plus some detail parts. For a pix see page 33, May 1971 RMC. Kinda crude by today's standards.

Ray Hobin NMRA Life # 1735; TCA # HR-78-12540; ARHS # 2421 Durham, NC [Where tobacco was king; now The City of Medicine]

How apt - specializing in Oncology no doubt.

It's a growth industry.