Bowser - 37617 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, GLa - Alabama Great Southern - 14356

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 AGS was established by British financier Emile Erlanger in 1877 to re-organize the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad. AGS ran from Chattanooga, Tennessee southwest to Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama and on to Meridian, Mississippi, a total length of 292 miles. It became the center link in Erlanger’s “Queen & Crescent Route” network linking Cincinnati and New Orleans. In 1890, two predecessors of Southern Railway purchased control of the AGS. By the First World War, AGS equipment was receiving SOUTHERN lettering and logos and AGS sub-lettering. This practice continued into the diesel age (look for AGS letters below the road number on the cab.) AGS diesels are allowed to roam the greater Southern and subsequent Norfolk Southern systems. In 1969, Southern bought all outstanding shares in AGS and fellow Southern holding New Orleans & Northeastern (New Orleans to Meridian) was merged into AGS. In 1993, more than a decade after the merger of parent Southern and Norfolk & Western, AGS acquired Chattanooga Terminal Railway, Louisiana Southern and New Orleans Terminal Company (all fellow paper railroads under the Norfolk Southern flag.)

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.