Bowser - 37952 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, GLa - Delaware & Hudson - 121263

Model Information: Bowser originally produced these models in kit form. However, all releases since 2007 or so are in Ready-To-Run (RTR) form. The kit form it included: a one piece plastic molded body, underframe, brake wheel, air reservoir, brake cylinder, control valve, X2f and McHenry KS couplers, plastic trucks/wheels and steel car weights.

This model comes in two variations: a vertical and a horizontal brake wheel. The ones with vertical brake wheels are delicate, so handle them with care. The plastic loads that come with the cars are low-to-mid grade quality and not up to the standards of the rest of this quite excellent car. Recent releases use high grade (MTL clone) body-mounted couplers and blackened metal wheels and are easily a nice value for their relatively low cost.

Prototype History: In 1898, Pressed Steel Car Co. built the first all-steel hopper car designated the GL. The Pennsylvania Railroad would purchase several thousand of this design. Due to production backlogs at P.S.C.Co. and flaws in the initial design, the Penny came up with its own all-steel, bottom-discharge hopper car in 1904 designated the GLa. Approximately 30,000 GLa's were produced between 1904 and 1920. The Pennsy also built Gla's for numerous coal companies who were anxious for the well-built and reasonably priced cars. Until the 1960s, this design was one of the three most numerous classes of PRR freight cars. Although by this time, these cars began to rapidly disappear from the PRR roster, a few made it into the Penn Central and even Conrail rosters, lasting into the early 1980s.

Road Name History: The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company would found the Delaware and Hudson Railway to support its mission of getting fuel to the timber denuded cities of the northeast when it was discovered that 'rock coal' or Anthracite could be burned successfully. In time the railway eclipsed the parent company, and America's brief canal age would be ended by the availability of more powerful traction locomotives, so today the canal is little known. Today the Delaware and Hudson Railway (reporting mark DH) is again a subsidiary railroad that operates in the northeastern United States. Since 1991 it was owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway under the rail subsidiary Soo Line Corporation also controls the Soo Line Railroad, Canadian Pacific Railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited.

The name itself originates from the 1823 New York state corporation charter listing the unusual name of "The President, Managers and Company of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co." authorizing an establishment of "water communication" between the Delaware River and the Hudson River.

Nicknamed "The Bridge Line to New England and Canada," the D&H helped connect New York with Montreal, Quebec and New England. It called itself "North America's oldest continually operated transportation company." Between 1968 & 1984, the D&H was owned by Norfolk & Western. N&W sold it to Guilford Transportation, who cast it into bankruptcy in 1988 and in 1991, the D&H was purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway (CP).

On September 19, 2015, Norfolk Southern Railway assumed control and began operations of their recently acquired Delaware & Hudson "South Line", the 282 miles from Schenectady, New York to Sunbury, Pennsylvania from CP. The Delaware & Hudson "South Line" is a rail route that now consists of three rail lines, the Sunbury Line, the Freight Line, and the Voorhesville Running Track; the Sunbury Line absorbed the original route of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad main line which contains the Nicholson Cutoff during that rail line's history.

Brand/Importer Information: On May 1, 1961, Bowser was purchased by Lewis and Shirlee English and moved from Redlands, CA to their basement in Muncy, PA. The original Bowser Manufacturing Co first advertised in the model railroad magazines in November 1948. At that time, the company had only one (HO Scale) engine, the Mountain, which had a cast brass boiler that is no longer available. It was sometime later that Bowser (Redlands) developed the NYC K-11 and the UP Challenger. The molds were made by K. Wenzlaff who introduced himself at the MRIA Show in Pasadena, CA in 1985 These two locomotives are still current production.

Bowser entered into N Scale in 1998 with their acquisition of the Delaware Valley Car Company, a manufacturer of N scale freight cars.