Bowser - 37958 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, GLa - Reading - 82158

Specific Item Information: This paint scheme was real, but it never appeared on this car so it is technically a fantasy car.

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: Let’s get a couple of quick clarifications out of the way first. Reading rhymes with bedding and is not “reading” a book. Second, the only “Reading Railroad” is on the Monopoly game board. Its actual name was “Reading Company” with “Reading Lines” used on logos and advertising.

The Reading Company, usually called the Reading Railroad as was enshrined by the Monopoly board game, and boasting a predecessor company officially founded under the name the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states from 1833 through 1976. Until the decline in anthracite loadings in the Coal Region after World War II, it was one of the most prosperous corporations in the United States.

Reduced coal traffic coupled with highway competition and short hauls forced it into bankruptcy in the 1970s. The railroad was merged into Conrail in 1976, but the corporation lasted into 2000, disposing of real estate holdings.

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.