went to a train show this past weekend and got some rather bad news. myself and the two other guys i was with talked to several dealers who stated they talked to BOWSER within the past few days ,and informed them that they will very soon no longer be making car kits. they will strictly be manufacturing READY TO RUN. these guys appeared to know what they were talking about, and if it is in fact true, i think its rather sad. bowser makes great kits . im curious if anyone else heard this.



todd

Seems believable.
Lots of manufacturers are moving away from the kits, and going to Ready-To-Roll (Run).
Even Athearn's cheap Blue Box kits(the five minute, put together ones) are getting harder and harder to find. The trend today is put it straight from the box, to the track, get it rolling.

Man I hope not, I heard about the locos but not the kit cars

I don't like ready-to-run I don't want to ever like ready-to-run. Even though I like the details on ready-to-run, I got a lot of satisfaction out of putting together a "shake-the-box" type kit. I could put them together when I was stuck in a hotel on a business trip, or when I was watching teevee. Athearn says they will continue their kits. But I don't know how long that will last.

Athearn is continuing to make the kits, but my local hobby shop doesn't carry as many as they once did because most people want to take it home and put it on the track. Sad to hear that Bowser is dropping kits, but it is really not a big surprise.

you guys are right , the athearn blue box kits are hard to find too. i get more satisfaction myself putting kits together. but seems they are getting harder to find, especially the undecorated kits. about two weeks ago i was at my local hobby shop and noticed the bowser kits were around $12.00. i thought this was a mistake, because about this time last year they were about $9.00 per kit. when i asked the owner about this, he stated it was'nt a mistake , the kits just went up in price.



todd

I am semi-glad my LHS has fixed prices on everything they buy. They still have the good old walthers boxes still around $7

I'm 9 months away from retirement. I'll have time, and Money won't be a problem, but If it comes time to lay out $30.00 for a ready to roll car it frankly is not going to happen for me.
I have 65 kits still in the box and over 500 cars already so I really don't need anything else. I just got some nice cars today, they were ready to roll and the most expensive one was $7.00, (Walther's specials).
Charlie

Charlie B Wrote:I'm 9 months away from retirement. I'll have time, and Money won't be a problem, but If it comes time to lay out $30.00 for a ready to roll car it frankly is not going to happen for me.
I have 65 kits still in the box and over 500 cars already so I really don't need anything else. I just got some nice cars today, they were ready to roll and the most expensive one was $7.00, (Walther's specials).
Charlie

Charlie,That's how I stand in HO..I don't really need any more even after I sold 2/3s of my HO I have more then enough to meet my club needs...

I am only buying enough N Scale to use at home and the N Scale club.

since im still kinda new to the hobby, there still are a few car kits id like to get. but there is no way im going to pay $2o.00-$30.00 for a ready to run car, no matter how nice it is. for a while i have looking for coil car kits and just one walthers hot metal car kit. i couldnt find them anywhere, even on ebay. oddly enough, last weekend at the first train show that i went to in ten years, i found both kits, at a very good price. i just cant see the fun in the ready to run stuff.


todd

From Al Buchan of the PRRTHS in the Products section of "The Keystone Modeler" just out...

Bowser
During the past weeks there has been lots of
speculation about the fate of the Bowser steam
locomotive kits, offered by people who have recently
visited there shop.
However, Rich Orr posted that at 517pm EST
March 2, 2009, that Bowser had sent out an email
announcing the retirement of all steam locomotives,
turntables, Standard gauge and O gauge parts. Steam
loco parts will be available until the current stock is
gone. They will continue the HO and N scale lines
along with Cary, CalScale and Selby.
Also during this time there had been many
comments, both pro and con, about these old standby
PRR steam locomotives. It’s a classic case that
was described, I believe, by management consultant
Peter Drucker who stated that if you don’t make your
own products obsolete someone will come along and
make them obsolete for you. Bowser was not open to
taking suggestions and they have been made obsolete
by BLI, PCM and Walthers, to name the leaders of
the pack. They seemingly refused to upgrade, perhaps
they were just tired and wanted to get out of the
business anyway. I personally reached out to them at
least twice offering the Society’s assistance to make
their PRR freight car offerings better and never
received a response. Another fallen flag.
To clear up a misconception that has arisen –
during the discussions about the demise of the
Bowser line of kits, they will not be continued by
Eddystone Locomotives. The Bowser components
will be used to make future custom built locos.
Eddystone stated if Bowser could not make a go of it
anymore, how could we?

As he says, another fallen flag. Bob C.

This is a bit off topic, but Intermountain continues to offer all of the freight cars they make and diesel locomotive shells as undecorated kits. They don't bother with decorated kits because they think that most modelers who would go to the trouble of building an Intermountain kit, would also paint and decal them. Having built some of their kits, I can say that they provide a lot of hobby fun with a challenge. They are NOT "shake the box" kits!

I have built Intermountain kits in both HO, and N, they are great kits, and I'm happy to hear they are still available in undec. No paint to have to strip off!! That was the part of kitbuilding I didn't enjoy!