Building a Bowser H9

[Autobus Prime]

Folks:
The other day, I obtained a Bowser H9 kit. I have to admit it: every time I open a plain box and see lots of little parts it is a little daunting, no matter how many kits I put together, but that soon gives way to a real sense of satisfaction as the thing goes together.

I think a lot of modelers are missing out on that satisfaction because they think this stuff is harder than it is, or because they tried once and had problems. The difficulty is certainly talked up, but really this stuff isn't a hard job, it's a series of small, simple jobs.

So while I put this thing together, I'm going to post a running commentary in this thread.

The most important thing, when doing a kit like this, is to take your time. If you start getting frustrated, you're either going too fast, or trying to do too much in one day. Take a break and run the trains, or shoot up some Germans in Castle Wolfenstein, or just wait until the next evening. Now to start -

-General remarks-

The PRR had a unique aesthetic. It sometimes looks odd. The E6, for instance, has a strangely squashed appearance. It's like a "chibi" steam locomotive. So kawaii! ^_^

Ahem. Anyway, the family look works GREAT for the H9. It's a real pocket battleship of a Consolidation; looks like it could pull the Great Pyramid off its foundations. So I like it, and this kit is a very cheap way to get one. In fact, Bowser kits have gone up less than other steam, and are now among the cheapest quality steam you can buy! I'm not counting build time, because I find it to be relaxing and fun.

The castings in this kit have some flash, of course, but are generally clean and straight. Bowser supplies a rivet tool and a siderod hex-wrench (actually a socket head set screw), which is nice, and probably saves them returns.

-Preparation-
Work in a well-lit space. I. E. something better than the basement workshop I am now using. :) Place the kit box and the parts you are using on a cookie sheet or something similar, to keep them from running away. I'm using a large Sterilite tub lid. Don't open any packets until you need to. Losing parts is hard on the knees.


-Evening 1: Frame, drivers, side rods, cylinders, main rod (2 sessions totaling perhaps 1 hour)-

These parts were very clean, with just a few small, thin fins of flash at the sharp frame corners, and
some slight burrs here and there.

Clean the frame and cover plate. The H9 frame has no bosses or pegs on top, just some ejector-pin marks, so I laid it on a 10" file and rubbed it flat. Don't remove too much, just flatten out the marks.

Clean the rest of the flash with a 6" file. Do NOT file the axle slots! Just use a no. 11 blade and carefully trim any flash from the *corners* where the slot meets the bottom and sides of the frame. You don't want to make the axles sloppy.

Use the same no. 11 blade to trim any burs from the drilled or cored holes in the frame and cover plate. Now blow or wipe off the filings. I like to burnish the axle slots lightly with the shank of an axle-sized drill bit, to get a head start on the running-in process, but take care not to gouge out material.

Now insert the drivers, with the insulated wheel on the proper side per instructions. You can see the insulation easier on the inner wheel face. Lightly oil the axles (I use a wire to touch a small drop to each) then screw on the cover plate. Be careful not to cross-thread the screws. Place the assembly on a piece of track, and tip it slightly. It should coast very freely, like a model freight car. If not, something is binding. Find and fix before proceeding.

Sight along the side rods to check straightness. If slightly bent, straighten carefully with gentle finger pressure. Lightly debur the inner faces of the rod journals with a flat file, and do the same for the flat crankpin bosses on the drivers. I also like to lightly burnish the holes in the rods with a small drill bit shank.

Assemble the rods. It's easiest to do the main driver first, then the others. Don't cross-thread or overtighten the crankpin screws, and don't use Loctite just now...just snug them up, but be careful during testing so they don't loosen up and fall out.

Note that the H9's rods are not symmetric, although they appear so. The center 2 crankpin holes are slightly different sizes - one has to go over the brass main-crankpin spacer. If your main crankpin seems too tight, you probably have this wrong. :) Be sure the oil-cup 'tabs' are facing up.

Oil lightly, and test the chassis again. Rotate the drivers by hand and see if the rods work freely. Place the chassis on a track, tilt the track, and make sure it coasts easily without binding. If it binds, find and fix before proceeding. Again, it should coast freely.

You might notice that the middle drivers don't press on the rail as hard as the outer ones. This is good; it helps the loco go around curves.

Clean the cylinder castings. This takes some filing (I used a 6" file) to remove the parting line and flatten out the casting draft, for best appearance, but zamac is really quite soft and cuts fast with a sharp file...in fact, I think it's less aggravating than plastics in some ways, since it doesn't load up the file as badly or melt and fuzz up. Then use that no. 11 blade to clean out the small openings where your file can't reach. Straighten the crosshead guides gently with finger pressure if needed.

Carefully clean the delicate crosshead castings. I used a no.11 and a mini flush cutter, cleaning the bar slots with a fine hacksaw blade and sandpaper, and the back recess with a chisel-edge blade. The screw hole in mine had to be enlarged a little. Now slip the crosshead between its guides and make sure it slides freely.

Clean and straighten the main rod, just as the side rods. On mine, the big-end hole had to be reamed a little with a no. 11 to enlarge it. Assemble it to the crosshead as directed, trim and add a bit of glue(I used CA). When dry, oil lightly and assemble. Test again as before. Whack! Oops...the crosshead screw hits the lead crankpin screw...but that's something to solve next time. Done for now.

Edit: Except to leave you with a conundrum...since Bowser kits *ARE* currently in production (the discontinuation thing was, happily, just a rumor) and currently in stock at a number of places online, why do they keep selling for over the list price on Ebay? I had an auction going on an H9 kit at the same time as I was buying this one...the auction ended at $30 over the retail price. Needless to say, I stopped bidding long before that! :D

[andrechapelon]

Edit: Except to leave you with a conundrum...since Bowser kits *ARE* currently in production (the discontinuation thing was, happily, just a rumor) and currently in stock at a number of places online, why do they keep selling for over the list price on Ebay? I had an auction going on an H9 kit at the same time as I was buying this one...the auction ended at $30 over the retail price. Needless to say, I stopped bidding long before that!

Actually, if you check the Bowser site carefully, they're discontinuing some of the basic kits (i.e. the ones not including the superdetail parts) like the K-4.

#100500

Locomotive & Tender Kit - DISCONTINUED See #525 Deluxe kit above

And the I-1s

#100700

Locomotive & Tender Kit - DISCONTINUED See #527 deluxe kit above

And the L-1

#100800

Locomotive & Tender Kit - Discontinued see #526 deluxe kit above

Andre

[Autobus Prime]

AC:

And here they say only the Big Boy is discontinued:
http://bowser-trains.com/holocos/holocos.htm

I'm pretty sure that went up after the discontinuation rumors started kicking around. I'm going to have to send an Email and ask which one is right. :D



(Still doesn't explain why people bid almost $120 on Ebay for a kit that is currently available for under $80 from Standard Hobby Supply, where I bought mine. No accounting for auctionitis!)

[georgev]

Autobus,

Great thread about great locomotive kits.  I built a USRA Mike a couple of years back (which is now finally in the paint shop!).  Runs well, a tad noisy but that's not unexpected with the open frame motor.  My 2 cents on Bowser kit assembly:

1) Take your time, then slow down some more.  It can be easy to mis-assemble valve gear or rods as you pointed out, or other components. When bending the wire for piping it's easy to get the configuration wrong the first time. Fortunately there is extra wire!  

2)  Wear an apron(!) - the kind that covers you up almost to the neck.  Pin or tape the lower edge to your workbench.  When (not if!) the small parts go wandering, they will land in the apron.   

One other comment - Bowser has great customer support.  If anything is missing or damaged they will replace it promptly.  You can also buy replacement parts if you truly hash something up. 

George V.

Edit:  Added a picture from prior to painting.  Locomotive got primed last weekend.  

[Autobus Prime]

Folks: I hope the length of these posts isn't making this process look harder than it is. It really isn't; I'm just that wordy, and I'm trying to point out pitfalls - most of them ones that I have encountered in the past. Usually by falling into them.

G5:

Good tips. Nice work on your loco. Did not follow your apron plan, but it's a good one. The alternative I use is to resist the temptation to pick up assemblies and roam around the shop, working on them. :)

Evening 2 - Valve Gear. About 45 minutes.

Having left off with one crosshead, I started the other, but after cleaning it up, ran into a problem. The small end of the main rod was, seemingly, not tapped, or perhaps not tapped right. It's 00-90, and it's hard to see in - the usual tapping burr is there, but the screw wouldn't start without stripping; the other crosshead (and other similar screws in the various rods) started very easily. I'll E-mail Bowser and get a new one, or pick up a small micro tap set (which I've wanted for a long time anyway. )

I did want to get something done, so I tackled the valve gear. This assembly is favored with more trepidation than anything else in the kit-steam world, but it's completely undeserved. In fact, the riveting process itself is made as nearly foolproof as possible with the Bowser rivet tool, which is included with a kit. It centers itself in the rivet, and as long as you use very light blows, and don't overtighten, forming a perfect head is very simple. Give a few very light taps, to hold the parts together, pick up and check for tightness, and tap a little more if needed.

The strength you use when drumming your fingers idly on the desk is about right, I think. Not to your favorite song, but maybe to that song you kind'a'like but wouldn't if the radio played it more.
Right? I think you want about .003-.005 clearance between the riveted head and the stacked parts. This sounds technical bit in fact it ain't. One sheet of typing paper is about .003, so just eyeball it. Like the instructions say, the parts need to "dangle loosely". Not totally floppy, but loose, and definitely not tight. Hang loose.

If you get a part slightly tight, you can work the joint a little to loosen it, but be gentle and don't bend the rods. You can also cut a rivet loose. I had to cut one, with my mini flush cutters, because I mis-assembled the first 2 parts (the combination levers are not long-axis symmetric; everything else is).

(I think I've got that name right. Walschaerts valve gear nomenclature is somewhat random. You've got a combination lever *and* a union link, which is IIRC the short link to the crosshead)

I think the most difficult part of the valve gear assembly was getting the parts assembled in the right order, so I went slowly and tried to carefully follow the diagram. It helps to consider only two parts at a time...the old folks out there might like to compare this with making change. Nowadays, with cash registers being so smart, people tend to count out the change amount, but the right way to do it is start with the sale price, then count up to the tender amount...you think about the current *step*, not the whole *procedure*, and this simplifies the mental process and eliminates errors.

For instance, to start with I looked at the combination lever and said "Okay, this projection goes /that/ way when the rivet head is on /this/ side"...then assembled it and checked against the diagram. (Is this helpful / making sense to anyone?)

Handling the tiny parts is a bit tricky, too. I dumped the rods into a small jar lid, set on my Sterilite lid work tray, and left the rivets in their little sub-bag, squeezing out a few as I needed them. Bowser actually includes three full sets of valve gear parts and rivets, and you only need two...this is nice. Picking up the rivets can be tough. Tweezers are helpful. Pearl tweezers might have been really nice for this..I don't have any.

Be sure the rivets slip easily into the holes. I found that the smallest punched rod-ends tended to be tight, so I reamed them with a micro drill bit. You don't need a huge set of these; mine is a Hobbico set of 6 that comes with a pin vise for $10. I'm not sure which bit I used; I just checked to see which fit the rivets, but I think it was a #56 or #60.

Each set of valve gear is put together in two subassemblies: valve rod/combination lever/radius rod/union link for one, and expansion link/eccentric rod/eccentric crank for the other. While the instructions appear to show that these must be assembled to the valve gear hanger and then riveted together, this is not the case. The holes in this hanger are large enough to put the entire VR/CL/RR/UL assembly through, at least on this particular version of the H9 kit (caveat assembler). This is a nice feature, as it is easiest to rivet the parts together as a flat assembly, without the hanger getting in the way.

The use of screws to attach the riveted assembly to the hanger and crosshead is a nice feature, even though it involves the extra step of trimming and glue-locking the screws. Mantua kits used rivets in these areas, and they were the most awkward riveting jobs on those kits, because of the relative bulk of the parts.

If I had the other crosshead assembled and tested, I'd now install the valve gear...but I don't, so I put it in a little box I had, set that back in the kit box, and stopped work...but not for long...but I'll leave that for next time.

andre c: Lee English wrote back that deluxe kits 525, 526, and 527 have replaced 100500,100800 100700; all K4, L1, and I1 kits sold now will be the version with added detail parts. So, only those 3 kits, which have fairly extensive detail sets and probably look bare without them...I notice the B6 has always been available deluxe-only.

Still a good deal...for instance, SHS is listing the dx K4 for $130 at the moment, which is Spectrum territory.

[Dean-58]

Great thread, you guys!  In my opinion, too many of today's "modelers" miss out on the joys of the old Do It Yourself movement.  All too often I see letters and messages like: "I'd like to have a good Consolidation for my model RR, but nobody makes one lettered for the XYZ.  (Boo-hoo: me)"  This ain't rocket science, people.  I had a couple of teenage friends (now in their 40s; gee, I'm gettin' old) who mastered handlaying of track, painting, decaling, kit-building, a little scratchbuilding, etc.  Try things!  Even if things don't come out the way you'd like, go on--and come back to rebuild, repaint, re-decal, or whatever.  Steam locomotives are a particular treat when you finish them and put them on the track for the first time--and they run "smooth as an oiled earlobe," as the venerable Tom McCahill, the Automotive Editor of the old Mechanix Illustrated used to say.

Model Railroading is FUN!  Really.

[loathar]

I think a lot of modelers are missing out on that satisfaction because they think this stuff is harder than it is, or because they tried once and had problems. The difficulty is certainly talked up, but really this stuff isn't a hard job, it's a series of small, simple jobs.

Couldn't agree more! My first kit was a Mantua heavy Mike. I opened the box and looked at all the little parts and thought-"What have I got myself into???"
I never thought I'd be able to build it, let alone have it run good. Just took my time and followed the directions and it was a snap! Really gives me a sense of pride when I run it!
Now if I can just super detail it like Georgev's I'd be REAL happy!

(good thread!)

[dti406]

The PRR Pro Group is going to do a super detail modification on various H8/H9/H10 Consolidations as its next project.  You might want to join and get a lot of information on building a PRR Consolidation.

Regards

Rick 

 

[7j43k]

I bought an H-9 back when it was done by Penn Line.  At that time, the metal they used was much softer than zamac.  Has Bowser changed to the harder (and more brittle) zamac?

 

Ed

[7j43k]

I just explored the wonders of the internet and found that zamac is an alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium, and copper.  It's my impression that the old Penn Line alloy had some lead in it.  I recall it acting as if it did.

 

Ed

[Autobus Prime]

The PRR Pro Group is going to do a super detail modification on various H8/H9/H10 Consolidations as its next project.  You might want to join and get a lot of information on building a PRR Consolidation.

Regards

Rick 

 

dti:
Just joined. Thanks for the info. I have a few detailing plans for mine, but won't be doing that until the basic kit is assembled and working...made that mistake before, ended up with 32,767 half-finished projects...

[Edit] Read some posts there. Good grief. I'm all for accuracy, but when it comes to picking the microscopic lice *off* the nits...golly, I love this nice, relaxed forum of ours...





wj:

The frame has always, I think, been zamac alloy*. Zamac may contain traces of lead, up to .005%, but it is considered an impurity...and too much of it causes the zinc pest that rotted some older zinc models, such as Varney, and the imported New One line. Improvements in manufacture and the end of postwar shortages ended this problem years ago.

Older Penn Line and Bowser PRR boilers were cast from some sort of lead alloy; correct. Zamac isn't actually that brittle, for a cast metal. Without boring everybody with percent elongation and such, it's much less brittle than cast iron, for instance.

Hot Wheels cars are die-cast zamac, and as we all remember they do bend when beaten with hammers.

All Bowser metal boilers are zamac today.

*Except for the ones that were fabricated brass, right...forgot.

[georgev]

I think a lot of modelers are missing out on that satisfaction because they think this stuff is harder than it is, or because they tried once and had problems. The difficulty is certainly talked up, but really this stuff isn't a hard job, it's a series of small, simple jobs.

Couldn't agree more! My first kit was a Mantua heavy Mike. I opened the box and looked at all the little parts and thought-"What have I got myself into???"
I never thought I'd be able to build it, let alone have it run good. Just took my time and followed the directions and it was a snap! Really gives me a sense of pride when I run it!
Now if I can just super detail it like Georgev's I'd be REAL happy!

(good thread!)

Loathar,

All that bling on the USRA Mike comes in the kit and the boiler is pre-drilled.  Like you said, its a lot of small jobs.  Some of the detail parts required some thought and study - most significantly the air pipes that have to zig zag through the small hangers.  I did need to drill out a couple of holes in the running boards that hold the air tanks.  Everything else was properly drilled and all I did was put it together.  I would work only about 30 or 40 minutes at a time to keep from getting stressed.   

George V.  

[Autobus Prime]

I think a lot of modelers are missing out on that satisfaction because they think this stuff is harder than it is, or because they tried once and had problems. The difficulty is certainly talked up, but really this stuff isn't a hard job, it's a series of small, simple jobs.

Couldn't agree more! My first kit was a Mantua heavy Mike. I opened the box and looked at all the little parts and thought-"What have I got myself into???"
I never thought I'd be able to build it, let alone have it run good. Just took my time and followed the directions and it was a snap! Really gives me a sense of pride when I run it!
Now if I can just super detail it like Georgev's I'd be REAL happy!

L:

This is great.  That's exactly the kind of thing I'd hoped would come out.  "I was worried, but it went great" !

As for your heavy Mike, there was an amazing article in the Aug 06 - Sep 06 RMC by Tom Bailey about detailing one for the Ann Arbor.  It was pretty amazing, considering Mr. Bailey actually worked the boiler to a taper with a /hand file/.  You could also look to the NYC for inspiration - the odd Mantua Mike is somewhat like an H10 2-8-2.  There was a discussion about that on RMR once.

[Darth Santa Fe]

Good article, Autobus Prime. Always nice to see people building kits, and enjoying it!