There was no "freight version" of the T1, as it was a passenger engine. It tended toward driver slipping due to its high boiler pressure, and misaligned sand pipes, and was not used on freight, except perhaps when testing. The skirts were cut back to allow access to the mechanical components, and possibly to simplify production.
I know that is version is freight one..because the passanger version has full side skirting on it.." mce_src="">
I looked over my notes on the Bowser T1, based on my experience with one engine that I have rebuilt:
Old boiler (lead alloy, poor detail and inaccurate contour): 24 oz. (1.5 lbs)
New boiler (die cast Zamak, improved contour and detail): 15 oz. (0.94 lbs)
Old boiler and chassis combined: 40.4 oz. (2.53 lbs)
New boiler and chassis combined: 30.8 oz. (1.93 lbs)
Chassis only: 16.4 oz. (1.025 lbs)
The reason I did all this weighing was to determine how much weight I might add to the new boiler to bring the tractive effort up to that of the engine with the old boiler. About 10 oz.of lead should do it; there is space between the electric motors, high in the boiler.
The most important single improvement I made was to get rid of the two high pivots above the motors which causes some odd boiler motion under load. The high pivots also cause the front motor unit to "walk out" under load, which raises the front drivers clear of the track, with derailment. So, I milled out a solid brass bar that connects the two engine units, making it a true duplex (not articulated). The bar is the same design you would find under any 4-8-4, retaining the axles in the frames. Fortunately, I run on broad curves only (about 72" radius). With the rigidized frame, the engine is very steady, and pulls plenty.
I also have the Bowser lost wax cast detail kit, and after studying many photos of the actual engines, a few errors in the directions were discovered. The lubricators on the left side are laid out incorrectly. The diagram shows three lubricators on the rear engine, whereas the actual T1's had two on the rear engine, and one on the forward engine. The forward engine lubricator should be over the exposed piston rod, and should be mounted in mirror image to the lubricator on the right side (correctly shown in the diagram). The twin lubricators on the rear engine, left side, should be mounted forward of the position shown on the diagram, so they are directly above the crosshead.
Also, the whistle should be lying flat on the boiler, not standing straight up as on the diagram.
The two stack holes should be filed out so they are one oblong hole. T1's were produced with only one stack opening.
There are numerous other small adjustments that can be made. There are lots of books, magazines, and internet sites with photos of nearly every T1, and you can make a very accurate model with the Bowser T1 as a basis. Some of the magazines I have used for reference are Mainline Modeler (April 1982), and Keystone published by the PRRTHS, (Autumn 2001, Vol. 34 No. 3; and Spring 2004, Vol. 37, No. 1). While the actual performance of the T1's are described in the PRRTHS publications, Mainline Modeler has excellent scale drawings of later-production T1's as modeled by Bowser.
Note that the prototype Pennsy T1 went through some styling changes especially at the front end during its rather short production life, and the Bowser version is a bit different than the Broadway Limited.
Penn Line brought out its model in very early 1950s. Penn Line went belly up around 1960 or so and Bowser bought up the tooling and gradually released the various Penn Line metal kits, often with improvements. If you get the Bowser Manual you'll see that over the years the parts, and parts numbers, changed, which can make repairing or completing an older kit a distinct challenge.
Just this year Bowser ceased production of these kits to concentrate on their freight car and plastic diesel production.
While the detailing of the T1 was a bit crude even by the standards of its day, when carefully constructed and neatly painted the Penn Line / Bowser engines can look nice and being all metal they can really pull. My advice would be to look over your model very carefully. There is probably a very limited time frame in which to purchase any replacement parts you'll need from Bowser. I also don't know if the decals are still available.
Dave Nelson
The PRR painted its engines Dark Green Locomotive Enamel (DGLE) which is black with only a hint of green.
I'm not sure if you have already seen this, but here is a nice pic of the Bowser T1 fully assembled and painted, with gold stripes on the side of the tender. Looks classy! Is that the look you are going for? Anyway, congrats again. Beautiful engine.
Its a kit and it's put together,but not painted or railing installed.. The train only as one motor installed in.. it's a two motor version..It does have the other motor in the box..I will install it on too have a two motor system..I do autobody&paint work..so this will look sweet when its done..I'm not a big fan of that green..I might paint it black to go with the gold stripesing..From the black and white pics of the T1 it looks black...I think it might look sweet in high gloss black..and stripes..Ok another thing I wanted to do on it is to installed protosound system in it....Oh those BlL duplex are out of stock with no restock date eighter..The train runs and has been cleaned and relubed too..Any ideas what the bowser sells the 4-4-4-4 kits for?
Your girlfriend is definitely a keeper!
The Bowser T-1 4-4-4-4 Duplex was originally produced by a company called Penn Line, up until the late '60s or early '70s. Bowser bought out Penn Line at that time, and produced the loco until earlier this year. The loco has been produced with one and with two large open-frame motors. Both versions are heavy (my two-motor version weighs in at around 3 pounds for the engine and tender) and extremely powerful, and can handle most curves well, due to having both sets of drivers pivoted inside the boiler housing.
These are kits which will require some patience and care in building, but when done you will have a truly beautiful streamlined steamer (the original was designed by Raymond Loewey) that will pull the plaster off the wall. With a little patience, you can light the number boards, as well as the class lights, headlight, and running light (in the center of the front radiator housing). And yes, there was a radiator/cooling housing for the air pumps. on the pilot.
Good luck with your locomotive, and hang onto that girl!
Google "PRR T1 Duplex" for a bunch more information.
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Gary M. Collins gmcrailgNOSPAM@gmail.com
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"Common Sense, Ain't!" -- G. M. Collins
http://fhn.site90.net
I have the final version of the Bowser 4-4-4-4. It's all metal, very nicely detailed, and came in full kit form. It has two large Pittman-style motors (open-frame with a large magnet on the back), and after quite a bit of fine tuning, it's a great runner with a huge amount of power.
There are two version of this engine from Bowser. One has a crudely detailed lead boiler that came straight from Penn Line when they shut down over 40 years ago. The other is the newer version that I have. The one advantage the old lead boiler has over the new zinc ones is its weight. I hear they weighed as much as 5lbs!
Bowser's T-1 page
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joseywales My girlfriend just won me a Bowser 4-4-4-4 HO PRR Duplex..Anyone knows this brand and train?
My girlfriend just won me a Bowser 4-4-4-4 HO PRR Duplex..Anyone knows this brand and train?
Bowser is a USA company that announced, maybe six months ago or more, that it was finally discontinuing to offer for sale many of the HO metal locomotive kits it had offered for years and years. Some are still available, and will be for the foreseeable future, but this engine is likely to be scarce.
You should know that it is/was in the form of a kit that requires/required assembly. If you know that yours is assembled, your hope now is that it was done well, and that the kit had no defective parts or deficiencies. It still may need to be painted and decals applied.
They are heavy engines that are good pullers. You can apply more appliances and piping if you wish to super-detail them, and Bowser offered some super-detailing sub-kits for many of their engines. The T1 should need few, if any, since it was streamlined and meant to be 'clean' in outward appearance.
Also, this will almost certainly be a strictly DC (Direct Current) engine, although it can be converted to run on the DCC (Digital Command Control) method.
-Crandell
Hey, sounds like you have an awesome girlfriend. And she couldn't have chosen a better train. The T1 4-4-4-4 duplex engine is my favorite of all time.
I have the BLI version, which is superb. I don't know much about Bowser, but I have seen pics of it. I'll post them later on.
Congrats on your new engine!
Here is a link with a lot of information on the loco. One of the links is your question in this forum. This why I tell people here to never put their email address in a message. Scammers can find it very easily.
http://tinyurl.com/yg2f4r3
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Since you say "won," I'm assuming eBay or something similar. Do you know if it's RTR or kit form?
Welcome, you have come to the right place.
The brand is very good. I don't personally own any, but I have known people that have some. Bowser used to offer these in kit form and recently stopped production on those along with other manufactureres.
Will