N scale Bowser GLa hoppers

[brokemoto]

I just received four lettered for the Old and Weary from a certain large East Coast e-Tailer that also has a brick and mortar establishment.   Four were all that they had. I am guessing that this is a phantasy scheme, although as the NYO&W was always broke, it might have bought some used hoppers from the Penn.  I have added the Bowsers to my Blueford Westmoreland patchouts and caboose from Atlas.  At some point, I might actually have  a real train for my O&W FTs (I must buy some of those Wadell hoppers, since they ran on the Old and Weary).

The point of this topic is to learn if anyone else has noticed this with Bowser hoppers:

Out of the four, two would not freewheel.  I flipped them over and found one wheelset on each that would not spin freely.  There was no misalignment (the usual culprit).  I popped out the wheelsets and noticed some excess flashing around the holes that the manufacturer made to accommodate the pointed ends of the axles.  I trimmed it with an eXacto knife, put the wheelsets back and everything was fine.

Has anyone else noticed this on the trucks of the Bowser GLa hoppers?

[mrp]

I bought 6 of these, and none were free rolling cars. They all were making a rubbing sound, but I couldn’t really tell from where. I added a thin Kapton washer (available from SBS4DCC) between the truck and body, which solved the problem. The cars all run fine now. My guess is the flanges were rubbing against the hoppers, or axles rubbing against coupler screws. The Kapton washer is thin enough that is didn’t create a coupler height problem.
Not sure we had the same problem.
Michael Pennie

[joelm]

Gents: I bought 6 of these, but haven't run them yet. Glad to get the heads up and insight into ways to resolve the issues.  AND I'm thrilled to see that I'm not the lone N Scale NYOW modeler out there! Joel

[brokemoto]

Gents: I bought 6 of these, but haven't run them yet.  AND I'm thrilled to see that I'm not the lone N Scale NYOW modeler out there! Joel

I did not know that there were six of these available.  A certain large East Coast e-Tailer known for good prices that also has a brick and mortar establishment advertised four of them, so I bought one of each.  I see that I must now look for the other two.  They advertised three of the Blueford Westmoreland patch outs.  I do not know if Blueford actually sold any more.  I have the one MT Waddell, although another manufacturer has announced more Waddells.

Are those GLa phantasy, or did the Old and Wobbly buy some used Penn hoppers?

That is a nice Old and Wobbly roster shot.  I am assuming that those are IM FTs on the left.  I got mine from the Old and Weary Car Shop at Timonium, Maryland.  He has mostly HO, but he did have these, so I bought a pair.  He has not been back since Snowmaggeddon.  I suspect that he is one of the people who had a dispute with the previous management of that show and decided not to return-ever.  The show is under different management, now.  Several have returned since then, but I have not seen this guy.

Are the F-3s Kato or IM?  Did you do them yourself?  I am aware that MicroScale does sell the decals for the locomotives as well as the cabooses.  In fact, shortly after I bought the IM FTs, I lettered a Kato caboose for the Old and Weary.  Did you do the 44 tonner and NW-2 yourself, or did you send them out to be done?

I assume that you are aware that B-mann offered the USRA light 4-8-2 lettered for NYO&W.  I did buy one.  If someone will offer NYO&W passenger decals, the MT baggage/mail is close enough to the NYCS cars that NYO&W bought used.  When MT issues its single window coach, that would work, as long as someone will offer decals.

Aside from the Atlas caboose (which I did buy), the only other Old and Weary rolling stock of which I am aware is the Athearn thirty six foot boxcar.  That one is more suited to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but, as broke as Old and Wobbly always was, it may have run freight cars that old, on archbar trucks and all (although kept in on line service, since the ban on interchange service for archbars was finally enforced in 1945) right up to 1957.

After stating all of that, I am not really an NYO&W modeller.  For some reason, I just like the railroad, so when I saw the FTs, I grabbed a pair; same for the 4-8-2.  If I see anything else, I will buy it.

[joelm]

Hi Brokemoto: The FT's are IM, and would have been factory painted. The F-3 could be IM or Kato, I have some of both, 44Tonner and NW-2 and caboose is custom painted by Lakeside Models (no longer taking work). One of my operating crew just painted 7 NW's for me (ran them during today's operating session).  A real treat. I have the Bachmann Light and Heavy Mountains, which look and run pretty well, but don't have operating front couplers, which make them borderline useless, without surgery, for operations oriented modelers like me.

The Old and Weary offered NYOW passenger decals a number of years ago, I have some, waiting for the project. 

I'm not sure whether the GLa's are prototypical or not, but they look right to me, and I think they are, but did not check before buying.  In addition, Athearn did offer wood sided 36' reefers in NYOW, probably fantasy, because the O&W owned very few of their own cars, except coal hoppers. There are factory painted 55 ton, 2 bay coal hoppers from MT, and I painted and lettered some as well.

 I have custom painted and decaled boxcars and reefers, but not locomotives - except solid black DL&W RS-3's (easy )   Joel

[Mark5]

I'm not sure whether the GLa's are prototypical or not, but they look right to me, and I think they are,

Looks like they did:  "If you've read my article on Gla's, you already know that the O&W had over 700 of these venerable, all-steel, twin-hoppers in its coal car fleet during the 1930's and 40's."

http://nyow.org/oversized_gla.html

[brokemoto]

Hi Brokemoto: The FT's are IM, and would have been factory painted. The F-3 could be IM or Kato, I have some of both, 44Tonner and NW-2 and caboose is custom painted by Lakeside Models (no longer taking work). One

I have the Bachmann Light and Heavy Mountains, which look and run pretty well, but don't have operating front couplers, which make them borderline useless, without surgery, for operations oriented modelers like me.

The Old and Weary offered NYOW passenger decals a number of years ago, I have some, waiting for the project.

I am aware that Kato never did Old and Weary F-3s.  I do not recall seeing an announcement from IM about them, although considering that it did do the FTs, I would think that it would eventually do both the freight and passenger F-3s.  In fact, I never saw an announcement about the FTs from IM, either, though.  I just saw them on the Old and Weary Car Shop table at the show and grabbed them.

Did NYO&W ever have anything that looked anything like a USRA heavy 4-8-2?  It did have copies of the USRA light 4-8-2, hence the Bachpersonn issue of it.  I suppose that you would have to have working front couplers on even the larger steam power.  As the Old Woman was perpetually broke, maintenance was spotty.  I am sure that more than one Old and Weary locomotive had to be pressed into service for purposes other than that for which it was intended.

The MT baggage car looks close enough to some NYO&W baggage cars as does the baggage/mail.  The full RPO might also be passable.  You would not need to do anything to the MT NYC single window coach when it does appear, as in the last years of passenger service, NYO&W was using rented cars still in NYCS paint and markings.

I suppose that you could put together two of the Athearn or MDC "Overland" "Business" or "Pullman" cars to make a passable NYO&W wood coach.

Kato does mostly western roads, so do not look for it to issue one in Old and Wobbly.  B-mann might be a possibility.

As someone is restoring one of the 44 tonners, I would hope that they might commission one from B-mann and sell it to raise some money to continue the restoration. 

Strasburg did similar when it sold a set of four of the Athearn "Overland" cars.  I have three of them.  The Strasburg people did tell me that they were looking at several possibilities for a locomotive.  Until they do something, I just use a B-mann CN mogul and put a couple of the B-mann Jackson-Sharpe excursion cars behind the three Strasburg cars.

Oh, and Mark5, thank you for pointing me in the proper direction.  It does appear that Old and Weary had NEW GLa hoppers.  I had thought that GLa was a Penn designation, but, it appears that it was a general designation.

[thomasjmdavis]

I am aware that Kato never did Old and Weary F-3s.  I do not recall seeing an announcement from IM about them, although considering that it did do the FTs, I would think that it would eventually do both the freight and passenger F-3s.

69116(D)(S) on the Intermountain F3 list B is 69816. They say "Reserve Now".  Says they will do 5 numbers.  Freight scheme, I think (and no steam generators in the artwork)  No idea what (D) or (S) stand for, but appear on all the "reserve now" units.

edit- left out the link https://intermountain-railway.com/n/nloco/nlocf3.htm

Some of the locomotives in "reserve now" status have been there for a good part of this decade.  I wanted some of the C&EI units, but have started painting my own, as they only way to assure I get them in my lifetime. 

[CBQ Fan]

Digital and sound I would suppose.

[brokemoto]

Intermountain F3 list Says they will do 5 numbers.  Freight scheme, I think (and no steam generators in the artwork)

The Old and Weary had exactly five F-3 A units and two Bs.  Thus, IM is going to offer the entire roster, assuming that this is not just more vapourware.  All of the F-units had the same paint scheme, passenger or freight.  I forget if there were two or three F-3s that had steam generators, although  I have seen photographs of even the FTs' working passenger trains.  None of NYO&W FTs had steam generators.

[thomasjmdavis]

In my own defense, I said IM had listed O&W F3s, not that IM would ever actually produce them.