Worst PRR T1 4-4-4-4 Bowser Steam Locomotive - Can We Make It Run?
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- čas přidán 15. 09. 2022
- A few weeks ago I found this Bowser T1 ho scale steam locomotive on eBay for only $85 and overall it wasn't in great shape however the drive was somewhat mechanically solid. Today I attempt to clean, lubricate and rewire the model to turn it into something decent. It still needs some fine tuning but it at least is in working order now.
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I'm a gun smith, and when I have any small fly away parts or springs , I place the part in a 1 gallon zip lock bag. Both hands will fit and you can still see what you are doing. A tip I think you will like! Enjoy watching you work on your 'special' engines.
What a brilliant idea!
hoq so
That's genius, thanks for the tip.
Excellent Man gotta remember that cool magnets also help
are you sure youre a gunsmith? you don't even know how to spell it. i have a white plastic box i use for that purpose. i usually charge extra if i have to use it (box fee)
The T1 is one of my favorite locomotives! The correct color is Brunswick Green. I was published in the August '87 issue of modelrailroader on this specific locomotive.
This channel is so relaxing. It’s like watching bob ross, and I’ve started fixing up old locomotives because you inspired me!
I'm a huge fan of Bob Ross and am a huge believer in his idea that a hobby is about enjoyment and not about making something perfect.
i would be violent bob ross working on some of this junk!
The Harrison Touch continues to prevail. I love when you are able to hook up several cars and watch her pull them with ease. Thank you. 😊
Thanks. I'm sure this loco could probably haul around 50 cars with the amount of weight it has.
@@SMTMainline holy moly that is a lot. Would be really cool to see.
Yep. That hitch is definitely a customization not found on the original. Bowser steamers are very rugged and powerful. The T1 is definitely the most complicated loco they made. Later versions had many lost wax detail parts you could add to them but the basic mechanism remained almost identical from the original Penn Line version until the last ones of the early 2000s.
It's amazing they made these things for so long. I wonder when mine. is from.
@@SMTMainline It is very difficult to date these. I think the spring loaded brush tensioner was a late 60s through early 80s design. Also that box is a later design. Early Bowser (Montoursville, not Redlands) boxes were just red and white Penn Line boxes with a Bowser sticker on them. Next generation boxes were mostly white with some green. Your mostly green box is, I believe, an indicator that this is an 80s era kit.
@@jefflynnalex I'd bet that the quality of the castings were better earlier on. This just looks like it was cast from a mold that was used for a couple of decades.
Beautiful locomotive, both the real thing and the model. Many of the real T1s met their fate at the scrapper's torch at a now closed scrap metal facility in Sharpsburg, PA, just 10 minutes from my home. Now an organization is in the process of building a new T1.
I lived in Sharpsburg and I knew that scrapyard. I remember the big gantry crane visible from the Highland Park Bridge. The last sight I saw there before it closed was dozens of ex- Pittsburgh PAT PCC trolleys awaiting their fate.
Take a piece of single strand wire, completely strip it and run it through the spring, then put 90 degree bends in the ends, remove the spring.
Quite a handsome engine, the drive system is very fascinating with the twin-motor setup. The lights definitely improve the look of the model, can't wait to see this out and about in future!
it's gonna be awesome when the get the real thing done. It's probably what I will re paint it into.
very happy to see such a beautiful engine run again, great job smt
“I think I found the solution - don’t screw up” LOL. I’m making t-shirts. Excellent project. From trash to treasure. Even though I know what the outcome will be I’m still engaged throughout the entire video. Hard to do these days with Tik Tok-like videos trending.
Great job on that engine. It's always a good day when smt uploads a new video
Im glad your fixing up one of these, very unique model.
Nice work as always getting this one back on the rails. When a loco looks like it was painted with a broom, you know it's going to take some work.
You did an amazing repair on that and just seem to be getting better and better at doing this and I really enjoy watching your videos 👍
Every time I do one of these repairs I learn a little more which can be applied to the next one.
That particular design always fascinated me. You definitely have been fortunate to locate one. As always nice job with the restoration.
It sure is and I hope they succeed on the project of building one today.
Now that was a great job. I look forward to the end product after painting, etc.
You are literally the angel of model engines you save them from scrap keep doing this stuff, I love your repair and EBAY haul videos
Thanks, I try my best to get them going again :)
Wow, Harrison, you have the patients of a saint. Your diagnostic skills are quite amazing. Didn't take you long to figure out the short between tender and engine. Very nice loco. I was beginning to think you weren't gonna have success--but, hey, we have a RUNNER! W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
IT LIVES!
Seriously satisfying to see this epic boi riding the rails again!
I'm not a RR Modeller, but still enjoy your videos. My dad was with the Illinois Central for awhile and Grandpa was a clerk with The Rock Island. Grandpa would take us kids to the switch yard and we'd watch 'em switching all the cars around. Thanks for entertaining the little kid in me.
Two great railroads of the glory days of America's classic trains.
That must have been an exciting thing to see. Were you watching from the switching tower?
nice loco, i really love the T1’s.
Wow really nice restoration on this prr t1 from bowser.
Another SMT success! You really have a talent for fixing model trains.
Thank you!
Nice to see this old loco come back to life. Good job!
I knew about how the motor brushes worked on this loco, and I was almost yelling, "Noooooooo" through the screen. If I was there, I would have stopped you from making that mistake.
While I'm not into scale trains myself, I do like old trains a lot, and I find your videos very entertaining 😊🚂.
Greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
I'm happy to see that it's a really good runner!
A great tip I learned from watchmaking when removing springy bits is to do it inside of a large clear plastic ziplock bag that way when it goes flying it's contained in the bag
SMT mainline you secede to amaze us all with the repairs. Keep up the great work 👍🏻🇨🇦🚂🥓
Thank you!
Congratulations friend! Enjoy it a lot, for more successes! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I love the T-1. Hello again from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.
Nice restoration Harrison, pretty wild looking machine there!
Yup I agree with you
Another method I used to clean the commutators on afx cars was a pencil eraser cleans them nice and the rubber dust is easier to clean up than the fiberglass bits. Live the channel!
Congrats for that, I have some Bowser steamers to work with, so this video gives me hope :) The only thing I would to verify on your model is the second truck on the tender. I think it should be another 4 wheel truck. Anyway great model and video.
Great video as always! I've got one of these locomotives (a dual-motor version, much like yours from the looks of it). The gentleman I purchased it from said something like "this thing will pull a house". He wasn't joking (okay, maybe the house part), but that locomotive walks away with just about any heavy train.
Great low angle track side video!
That's an awesome locomotive. Looks pretty cool with those wagons attached to it.. Another Job well done.. I did notice a new layout in the back ground, nice green hill and all.. And also did notice 4 diesel locomotives which reminded me of the movie Runaway Train starring Jon Voight...
I was waiting for this one!
Nice job mate 👍
First rate loco! I would like to see you do a cosmetic restoration too.
Beautiful loco. Nice video.
Good job on the T1 . I built one over twenty years ago from a new kit. It is a Tough loco to make run well and you did a good job. I would sand down the paint job and paint it flat black. They were never clean in real life .C-D-S made T1 decals in Canada years ago, you might find them online
you overestimate him....
Nice video and can you do a double heading big boy train please.
Now this was really cool!
You are the master with this stuff. Also I noticed you add new brass to the layout. Layout update coming soon perhaps
I plan to make some major changes to the track work soon. The other stuff you see is just small cosmetic work.
Nice work! Brought it back from the brink of extinction.
Well done, young man!
Great to see more models being restored- hope you can make it to the Massena show next weekend!
I'm gonna try, I miss that show.
@@SMTMainline I’ll have my 1970s D&H equipment available for running and my Z scale suitcase layout! Hopefully we can collab! Also, i hear the show is completely sold out which is exciting.
Of course, you got a runner, Harrison. But a real looker, not yet. That paint needs to be removed and reapplied with an airbrush, some new decals, and clean up the drive rods. Great job getting her riding the rails.
Thanks for sharing. 👍👍👍
Great restoration. At 5:14 I put playback speed at slowest . the spring shot off going left and straight up near left hand. Its unfortunate that its gone. Im sure it will be found somewhere. But by time that happens it be a long long time. I know the feeling done that myself many times on rhings ive worked on and its like that essential screw or something
Yeah i did the same and saw the spring fly off to the top left of the screen
@@CustomiZe_ yeah but it's unfortunate it's gone. But I like the way he used a pen spring to fix it. Now that's using ingenuity
@@mercuryoak2 yeah I’ll tell you this if I had a older bowser steam loco like this one right here, I’m probably gonna try to be kinda careful with it when taking off the spring.
@@MattKonsol there isn't any other way to do it it comes off it comes off. It's a poor design there was an easier way to do it with the motor because I come into it motors have a spring that's attached to the top and it pushes against the brushes one is insulated the other one is not. I'm not saying Bowser is a bad manufacturer but it's just from that time frame it wasn't a good idea. Unfortunately Bowser does not sell kit locomotives anymore they're all ready to run
Excellent Job!!!!
Great video and keep it up
Another great job.
Excellent vid.
This T1 won’t be heading to the scrap yard now that it can run. And that sounded a lot better in my head.
One idea I've always thought about with an engine like these Bowser T1s is the idea of converting to dcc with each motor given it's own decoder. Going with sound decoders, that would make timing offbeat exhausts more accurate sounding and you can do neat tricks like simulating wheel slip, which the T1s were notorious for
They were only notorious for that because it was way more sensitive than the k4, so the engineers gave it too much throttle.
That's a super interesting idea but wiring such a thing would be a nightmare and I don't know where you would fit the decoders and speakers.
Decoder-per-motor setups are actually the standard for G scale dual-motor models, so it should work on the smaller scale provided there's space for it.
13:48 Always a fun project when lighting things on fire is involved
No doubt
Watch repair vids are adept at losing very tiny parts during disassembly. They sometimes use a clear plastic bag but even then parts go flying. Vintage Watch Services is a good channel. One begins to know the watch parts after awhile.
There was one channel where the watchmaker dropped the entire contents of a watch mechanism on his floor and miraculously he found every last piece. Those guys are very funny.
Now I want to find one of these for myself. This is a great locomotive with some good looks.
I had my Broadway Limited T1 come in last Sunday and i adore the thing. Unlettered though but it's such a detailed locomotive and runs smoothly.
Tender truck hitting the side of the tender. That locomotive is designed for a minimum radius of 26”
Thanks for posting before the weekend, you said you’d post it on the weekend on stream!
Thanks, I was up until 3 last right trying to meet the target.
You don’t need to do that, I would be happy just the same if you posted the next day. But thanks, I live in Portland, so it was closer to twelve.
Great video. Recently got one of these. Love the way the really heavy locos sound on the tracks!! Any idea when these were made?
This thing is a beautiful beast. I imagine it really has a presence on the track.
It sure does, I wonder what it can pull?
@@SMTMainline Probably quite a lot considering how massive it is. I've heard that these models are insanely strong.
Would be great to strip the paint on the shells and re apply a fresh coat.
Just bought one of these bowser t1s this is a great video especially if I need to troubleshoot mine when it arrives from America. Love the fact that Bowser's are articulated whereas the bli version isn't but that's exact to the prototype. Personally I'm going to be happier with the Bowser because it means it'll be able to handle tight curves and have better traction
The larger flanges are a huge advantage for that.
with those twin pittman motors, that T-1 should literally pull paint off the wall...remeber it was designed in an era of all metal passenger and freight cars that had trucks with the general rolling characteristics of a solid lead brick!
When I was a kid I would go to swap meets and find Penn Line (later on Bowser) locos that people had put together and got as far as the Walshearts valve gear and gave up. I got really good at riveting the valve gear and got many fine Pennsy engines for pennies on the dollar. Had one of the T1s and it would pull anything you could put behind it. Great video!
I’ve only built a couple kits and can understand why people would get frustrated with them. Takes a lot of patience and skill to make them work right. It’s great to hear about someone mastering the skill
Those skills I learned while I was young have turned into a hobby of fine scale model building in which some of the builds number into the thousands of hours. Just remember, the most complex kit is still put together one part at a time. The hardest thing is knowing when to stop!
I think you are a model rr restorer genius. A Canadian James May. Kudos!!😊
I'm a fan of James May so I really appreciate that.
Nice beautiful engine
Back in "58 I built a Bowser UP Chalenger kit when they first came out .I was 14 and recoperating from a motorcycle crash. As I recall the main casting was much more detailed than this T1 . Only had 1 motor that drove both power trucks. Was $50 USD for the kit whitch was a LOT of $$ at that time. Only correct tender available at that time was a Japanase made RTR at $20.
Thats a bold looking loco and looks to be able to pull a lot.
One of my favorite body designs.
Nice job with the fixup. One thing I noticed is that it seems like the hitch part for the tender would fit better mounted with the pin facing down. Not sure if the tab sticking out from the tender will support itself though. Anyway, nice job.
Again, you're the man
Back of the tender has a three axle truck.
You should give it a better paint job, the one it has is kind of rough and also doesn't match the tender perfectly (Look closely, it isn't the same shades).
P.S. Great video! This is the kind of stuff I subscribed for!
Good job!
From a scrapyard special to the pride of the line!
Nice job. Those of us from Pennsy country are smiling
The PRR sure had some good stuff, huge fan of those GG1s
@@SMTMainline you know there is a group actually building a new T1 duplex. It's a couple years away from being finished. Can't wait to see it run. The real ones were scrapped not to far away from my present location.
Nice vid
Yep have made a few sacrifices to the shag carpet ( basement floor in your case)gods over the years.
While still a bit of flickering there was some very definite flickering of the headlight before the short was fixed.
I really wish I hadn't lost that but trying to find that spring would be worse than a needle in a hay stack.
@@SMTMainline yep restoring my father in law's Revell set I scavenged some springs from some old grungy sprung trucks ( Revell were truck mounted couplers these were from body mounted and separate trucks) and needed only 8 springs and had 19. I burned through all my extras and only made it to completion because one spring launched in such a way it got trapped and was recovered. The other one was building a model of KITT and dropped the steering yoke and the part just vanished. Figured I was going to have complete it with no steering method until I noticed it had caught on my pant leg just above my shoe.
I'm having trouble believing this engine is a scale model of an ACTUAL engine. Did they really build those thing? It's HUGE!
Thanks for the video. I always enjoy them.
Yep, they existed. They are building one from scratch as we speak. Search up the "T1 Trust"
@@SMTMainline Holy Smokes!!! Aparently Big Boy is the largest engine. I've seen one on your channel. Somehow it doesn't look as big to me. Not as monolithic. I wonder what it feels like to drive? Frankly I'd be scared to try. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
@@alpetterson9452 The big boy is slightly longer but only by a few inches.
When you repaint this loco it will look spectacular! I have a Bowser locomotive I am refurbishing myself. I recommend Tru-Color's Brunswick Green.
I played spring removal at 0.25x speed to try and see which way it shot and couldn't see it either. I've done plastic Revell style model car kits and have lost many headlight lenses and even some kits with very tiny photoetch metal pieces. I have such good eyesight I always found the missing parts in a carpeted apartment I had years ago. Sorry I couldn't assist.
I’ve had one of those screw drivers for years. Most excellent.
Those are good runners. There is a brass strip the connects the tender trucks and the power wire gets connected to that.
Exploded drawings were not provided by all manufacturers. Bachmann and Kato do. They should never be thrown away. Just a thought: someone should scan a bunch of drawings and post them on a web site.
It would be smart to have a place where people should share them. Athearn and Rivarossi also made them I believe.
@@SMTMainline I posted a comment with a url to such a site but I guess that is not permitted. Anyway, if you are an HO seeker of HO scale exploded locomotive drawings you can seek them on the internet.
Beasty! Thee old girl warranted a new coat of paint👍👍🚂🇨🇦🚃🚃🚃🙋
And then some lol. I need to find some decals and proper paint.
@@SMTMainline if ya get stuck with a real tough decal, let me know. My daughter can make some with her CriCut. Just got done doing a decal job. Last video post. Railcity Brewing Co Build.
Good job
Those old browsers Are not easy to keep running.
i just realized that the rear truck on the tender is broken and missing an axle,this poor thing had a rough life
Someone must have run the snot out of it considering the wear on the gears and motor.
@@SMTMainline 8 wheel tender trucks are occasionally available on E-Bay - you are looing for part number 7006
Nice...for small parts, I use a mini muffin tin to keep thing separated and organized.
The lower headlight on the pilot Loewy "Coke machine" was a fog light added to some of the T1s for use in Ohio.
That was law in the state?
@@SMTMainline Not to my knowledge, I think it was just specific weather conditions.
Good on ya m8 ,, its gr8 feeling to see and get a non or half runner get going again.
Q. What power controller are u using there on your layout if you dont mind me asking ?
Keep up the good work and awesome video's there m8.
Cheers from John in Australia.
Thanks for the comment. My controller is an MRC Tech 3 9500 series
Only one mechanical pencil was hurt in the making
Interesting, but logical that Bowser would articulate.this loco. The Pennsy loco had a rigid frame, but you would probably need a radius of 36" or so to run a rigid frame T-1. Really not a bad runner for a kit locomotive with three pole motors of fifty years or more vintage. Just imagine what it could do at low speeds with seven pole skew wound motors and flywheels. Great job as usual.
The Bowser T1 was the old Pennline model from the prehistoric era of HO trains. It’s so early that there was both a 2 rail and 3 rail version. HO in the mid 1940s was still trying to decide which way to go. Believe it or not parts are still available for the 2 rail version. You are working on the later version because the older ones only the rear drivers are powered. The 2 rail version usually has a Pittman motor and the 3 rail was usually a Roadale. I admit you have a challenge there.
First time I've heard of an American HO maker using 3 rail. I think Lionel considered it for their deal with Rivarossi but never followed through.
@@SMTMainline The AC Gilbert company did sell 3 rail HO just before WW2 and I don’t think it was a success.
Have an identical one, runs but needs more attention!
Bowser steam locomotives don't care whether they are clean or not. I have the M1A kit and that sucker gets dirty like crazy and it's still run smoothly when the drivers and all the contact points are full of dirt
Just found this resto video, you did a fantastic job! By chance do you have any updates on the cosmetics (cleaning, paint, etc)?
I haven’t done anything with it since but I intend to eventually repaint it.