Interesting article from dealer perspective

[brianel027]

Gang, I'm kind of a news junkie. This article appeared in serveral newspapers a couple weeks ago in the Berks County, PA area. Of course, the articles in our train magazines like CTT are just as good (even better). But from a dealer perspective, there are some interesting lines in this article that do sort of sum up where the hobby is today.

I've always been such an advocate for seeing kids getting back into trains, and I do what I can do. But when I see stories like this one, I know it is an uphill battle. And for all of us sometimes-know-it-all's (I'll include myself in that assessment too) the last sentence of the article will put you (and me) in your place. So read on and enjoy...


By DAVID THOMPSON
The Associated Press

MONTOURSVILLE, Pa. - Lee K. English might be in the toy train business, but make no mistake about it, he deals in a miniature version of reality.

"I've had people count the number of rivets in the rib of a coal car. They've actually done that," English said.

English was describing the difference between train collectors - those who collect specific types, though not necessarily realistic reproductions - and the modelers - train enthusiasts who are looking for scaled-down versions of the real thing.

"My dad is a train collector," he said. "He collects antique trains. They're not necessarily copies of real trains. They just look like nice trains."

Modelers, on the other hand, are fanatical about detail, English said.

"The modeler of today wants everything to be a perfect, scaled down copy," he said. "I mean every nut, bolt, rivet, and ladder rung in the right place."

English has made a career of meeting the needs of both types of railroad enthusiasts. He is president and co-owner, with his brother Lewis English Jr., of Bowser Train Manufacturing of Montoursville. The business was started in 1961 when their father, Lewis English Sr. bought the Redlands, California-based company from its owner Don Acheson.

Communications between English and Acheson were done informally, to say the least.

"I was dealing with Bowser - selling Bowser engines to the local model railroad club and friends," said Lewis English Sr. "They were advertising that they were going out of business. Because of that, the club decided to buy repair parts. I wrote in the bottom of an order for parts, 'Do you want to sell it?' and he wrote on the bottom of the bill for the parts I was ordering, 'Yes.'

"We got together shortly afterward," he said.

The business was moved to the basement of the English's home in Muncy when Lee English was eight years old. By 1965 the company had grown sufficiently to warrant a move to Montoursville where Lewis English Sr. opened a store - English Model Railroad Supply. It is possibly the largest model train store in the east, said store manager Rich Cox.

By then Lewis English Sr. and his wife, Shirlee, were buying other companies and integrating them into the Bowser line. All told, Bowser bought 17 model train companies.

In 1976 Lewis Jr. and Lee joined the company full time. A building was built to accommodate growing inventory and to make room for more manufacturing. It has been added on to twice, said Lee English. Between 25 and 30 people are employed at the plant.

While much of the model train industry is based in China or South Korea where items can be made cheaply and efficiently, Bowser has developed a niche producing small-quantity specialty pieces.

"Where the Chinese want to make thousands, we will make hundreds and there is a market for the odd things we make."

Odd they may be, but Bowser train manufacturing's pieces are also high quality, he said.

Nearly every part of the Bowser line is manufactured under one roof, said Lee English.

"We do all of our casting, stamping, machining and assembly," said English. "We do contract our plastic molding to Boyar Machine in Northumberland."

English said Boyer is one of the best plastic molding companies in the United States.

"We have been forced to go to China for out motor manufacturing and brass investment casting - the detail or dress-up parts - literally, the (train) bells and whistles," he said.

Pewter figurines and detail pieces are cast in house on the plant's first floor, as are zinc alloy train pieces both for Bowser trains and other train companies. Pewter is cast using hard but pliable rubber molds; the zinc alloy is cast in steel. Both are very hot - pewter is heated to 600 degrees Fahrenheit; the zinc alloy is heated to 800 degrees.


"You don't touch anything here," English said of the zinc casting area. "A little drip of 800 degrees burns badly. There's no second chances."

The pewter molds are made by hand-carving a piece of metal into a master pattern. The piece is pressed between two rubber disks, which are then heated, An indentation of the pattern is formed. Hot pewter is poured into an opening in the center of the mold, then spun so that it spreads into the pattern area. The process is called centrifugal pewter casting.

It only takes a minute. The disks are separated and the molded pewter pops out easily when the rubber is twisted like a plastic ice-cube tray.

Anything any size can be cast - from people and animals to park benches, parking meters, street lights - "all the little details that make your (model) town look like a real town," said English.

The first floor also contains offices, a room for packaging and assembling the thousands of parts, some not much larger than the head of a pin, and seemingly miles of shelves containing not only Bowser products, but those of other manufacturers. They are the materials that fuel the company's robust mail-order business.

"We carry 60 other brands for our mail-order business," said English. "The store carries about 100."

Some of the brands involve only one or two items.

"An engineer decides he can do something better so he designs an electronic circuit board and he's only got two - we carry an awful lot of that stuff, especially in the store," English said.

The assembly room also contains shelves containing thousands of replacement parts.

"We supply parts to repair your train that was made by Bowser in 1955 or earlier," English said. "We have repair parts for all of our products in stock 99 percent of the time."

"We manufacture somewhere around 10,000 parts and accessories," he said.

The company also makes replacement wheels for Lionel trains, and plenty of them too.

"There is a wheel that we made because my dad wanted to repair his Lionel train engine," English said. "You wonder where they all go - but they go somewhere."

The upstairs portion of the plant is for storage, but that is also where paint is applied to plastic pieces to give it a more realistic look.

"It takes the 'toy' look off," said English. "The plastic shines. It now looks like a metal painted train car."

Father-son team Roy and Eric Ryder use printing machines to put details such as train car numbers and railroad line names on cars.

"It's a glorified rubber stamp," English said of the machine Roy Ryder is using to put numbers on cars.

The 5-star Microprint machine Eric Ryder is using is different. It is a computerized contraption that can print almost microscopic detail on very small objects such as "Z" scale - 1 to 220 scale. It can reproduce picture quality graphics.

"It's artistic and scientific because it's computer driven," said English.

(making model trains) takes expensive equipment and a lot of knowledge," said English. "I have computers everywhere. Everybody in shipping - even in production to a smaller extent - have to be computer literate."

"If making toys were easy, everybody would be doing it," said English.

[cnw1995]

Interesting. There's a similar piece on Bowser in an old Model Railroader I have somewhere. Nice to see they are surviving in their niche. Pretty decently written for an article by a 'non-enthusiast'