Bowser 2024 releases

[blhs569]

Has Bowser released any product in 2024? The F-units were expected in January... Canadian SD40's in February... etc. and nothing seems to have come to light that I'm aware of... Their delivery schedule on the website is grossly outdated with the latest edition being from early 2023. Has anyone heard word? I have some of the RS-3's on pre-order, due to come in April, but it seems like it may be many months more and they seem to be strangely quiet of late about any locomotive releases.

[ambluco]

Not really although they might have had one group of RS-3 arrive.

[marknycfan]

The F-units are 4 years late

[prr 4467]

Modern Canadian SD40-2 rebuilds and ECO units were delivered in the fall and gone very quickly (that was a second run I believe of those).  They delivered a bunch of RS-3's recently, a couple months ago, and a bunch of HO freight cars including boxcars and two-bay hopper cars.

They have shown Alco C-415 sample body shells at various train shows. With the shells tooled the C-415 fans will not have to wait that much longer!  The project is alive and considerable investment has already been made just to produce the shells.

Those who complain now about product delays should be sent back to the 1980's or 1990's for a few weeks. Athearn at that time only ran hot sellers like their 57' mechanical reefers about once a year if not once every two years; they quickly sold out and would be unavailable for another two years (I still remember the bare shelves where they would be in the warehouse, if we had them, which we usually did not.  Shelves were assigned by Athearn item number range). This was the case for many Athearn products, and wait times for new product runs could be longer than what seems to be commonplace today. Although the merchandise was not all limited edition (as it is today), some locos could easily be out of stock and not readily available to the distributor for a couple years, depending of course on the roadname.  We also had drawers of Athearn loco bodies so that walk-in retail customers could buy a model and switch the shell to whatever they wanted because we typically had the body shells in stock.

Precision Scale holds the dubious record of having advertised some projects for longer than 5 years and NEVER having produced the model locomotives. Never ever produced.  Back then many importers would run the advertisements until they had enough pre-orders to actually make the products.  We have it good today!

Today if you want something and are truly willing to search for it online you can usually locate a dealer somewhere that still has one in stock, without having to call all around the US as some of us did back then to find items.

[cemr5396]

Apr 24, 2024 16:29:11 GMT -8 prr 4467 said:

Modern Canadian SD40-2 rebuilds and ECO units were delivered in the fall and gone very quickly

The SD30C-ECOs came out a year ago, and the last run of SD40-2s was before that.

AS far as I have heard, the next run of SD40-2s is due in the spring or summer.

[lvrr325]

I have in stock and have sold a bunch of 2024 Bowser product. I passed on a few things. Mostly freight cars and RS-3s as mentioned above. Bowser is not as good with you knowing what's coming as say Atlas is. But usually the pieces come in small groups, a few roadnames at a time.

[DaYooper]

Apr 24, 2024 14:51:59 GMT -8 blhs569 said:

Has Bowser released any product in 2024? The F-units were expected in January... Canadian SD40's in February... etc. and nothing seems to have come to light that I'm aware of... Their delivery schedule on the website is grossly outdated with the latest edition being from early 2023. Has anyone heard word? I have some of the RS-3's on pre-order, due to come in April, but it seems like it may be many months more and they seem to be strangely quiet of late about any locomotive releases.

Well I think the latest H22a hoppers came out the beginning of April and the release schedule shows 11/1/23 for them, so that's at least five months behind. The F units are shown as 12/1/23 so probably July at the soonest. And the one I'm waiting for is the next batch of GMD SD40-2's which list 5/1/24 so I'd guess around Christmas if we're lucky.

Ryan

[The Ferro Kid]

I once waited 6 years for BLI Daylight passenger cars. I finally cancelled. Not sure how long it was after that before they actually arrived.

I remember the Precision vaporware being advertised. Can't remember what it was they were going to do.

[ChessieFan1978]

There are several manufacturers that need to update their websites; Bowser's Shipping schedule (I recall them saying they were going to do that several months ago), Spring Mills Depot, Trainworx, and of course Athearn (whole website sucks) to name a few.

[alcoc430]

Apr 24, 2024 16:29:11 GMT -8 prr 4467 said:

Modern Canadian SD40-2 rebuilds and ECO units were delivered in the fall and gone very quickly (that was a second run I believe of those).  They delivered a bunch of RS-3's recently, a couple months ago, and a bunch of HO freight cars including boxcars and two-bay hopper cars.

They have shown Alco C-415 sample body shells at various train shows. With the shells tooled the C-415 fans will not have to wait that much longer!  The project is alive and considerable investment has already been made just to produce the shells.

Those who complain now about product delays should be sent back to the 1980's or 1990's for a few weeks. Athearn at that time only ran hot sellers like their 57' mechanical reefers about once a year if not once every two years; they quickly sold out and would be unavailable for another two years (I still remember the bare shelves where they would be in the warehouse, if we had them, which we usually did not.  Shelves were assigned by Athearn item number range). This was the case for many Athearn products, and wait times for new product runs could be longer than what seems to be commonplace today. Although the merchandise was not all limited edition (as it is today), some locos could easily be out of stock and not readily available to the distributor for a couple years, depending of course on the roadname.  We also had drawers of Athearn loco bodies so that walk-in retail customers could buy a model and switch the shell to whatever they wanted because we typically had the body shells in stock.

Precision Scale holds the dubious record of having advertised some projects for longer than 5 years and NEVER having produced the model locomotives. Never ever produced.  Back then many importers would run the advertisements until they had enough pre-orders to actually make the products.  We have it good today!

Today if you want something and are truly willing to search for it online you can usually locate a dealer somewhere that still has one in stock, without having to call all around the US as some of us did back then to find items.

The C415 samples were 3d printed but at least the cadd work is well along.
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=808454717964055&set=pcb.808454847964042

[packer]

I'm curious if the tooling on the bowser F's was updated at all (primarily that casting lines on the nose)?

[prr 4467]

Apr 29, 2024 9:54:49 GMT -8 alcoc430 said:

Apr 24, 2024 16:29:11 GMT -8 prr 4467 said:

Modern Canadian SD40-2 rebuilds and ECO units were delivered in the fall and gone very quickly (that was a second run I believe of those).  They delivered a bunch of RS-3's recently, a couple months ago, and a bunch of HO freight cars including boxcars and two-bay hopper cars.

They have shown Alco C-415 sample body shells at various train shows. With the shells tooled the C-415 fans will not have to wait that much longer!  The project is alive and considerable investment has already been made just to produce the shells.

Those who complain now about product delays should be sent back to the 1980's or 1990's for a few weeks. Athearn at that time only ran hot sellers like their 57' mechanical reefers about once a year if not once every two years; they quickly sold out and would be unavailable for another two years (I still remember the bare shelves where they would be in the warehouse, if we had them, which we usually did not.  Shelves were assigned by Athearn item number range). This was the case for many Athearn products, and wait times for new product runs could be longer than what seems to be commonplace today. Although the merchandise was not all limited edition (as it is today), some locos could easily be out of stock and not readily available to the distributor for a couple years, depending of course on the roadname.  We also had drawers of Athearn loco bodies so that walk-in retail customers could buy a model and switch the shell to whatever they wanted because we typically had the body shells in stock.

Precision Scale holds the dubious record of having advertised some projects for longer than 5 years and NEVER having produced the model locomotives. Never ever produced.  Back then many importers would run the advertisements until they had enough pre-orders to actually make the products.  We have it good today!

Today if you want something and are truly willing to search for it online you can usually locate a dealer somewhere that still has one in stock, without having to call all around the US as some of us did back then to find items.

The C415 samples were 3d printed but at least the cadd work is well along.
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=808454717964055&set=pcb.808454847964042

The point is that since they already have sample shells, there has already been considerable investment in time, research and cadd just to get to the point of having body shell(s).  They already previously tooled the Alco hi-adhesion trucks too, with an eye toward the future C-415.  There is so much effort just to prepare a decent cadd model that people who do not do it for a living cannot fully understand.  A locomotive body is not something that gets drawn up in just a few hours.  There is a ton of cross-checking of dimensions relative to each other.  It can take months when they get interrupted all the time with other things.