Bowser RoadRailers Info

I believe that Bowser originally made the designs for the cars based on real roadrailers. They may have sold Weaver the designs, and weaver just scaled them up from HO scale. Bowser might also just use the Weaver name for O scale. A simple search of “Weaver O Scale Roadrailer” gives you a Bowser link. (http://www.bowser-trains.com/h...scaleroadrailer.html)

NS6770Fan posted:

I believe that Bowser originally made the designs for the cars based on real roadrailers. They may have sold Weaver the designs, and weaver just scaled them up from HO scale. Bowser might also just use the Weaver name for O scale. A simple search of “Weaver O Scale Roadrailer” gives you a Bowser link. (http://www.bowser-trains.com/h...scaleroadrailer.html)

Well, Bowser sold them directly but so did Weaver. Weaver Road Railers came in a Weaver box and Bowser Road Railers came in a Bowser box. But they both had the Bowser logo molded into the plastic floor of the car. So I'm a little confused as to what Weaver's role was.

-Eric Siegel

https://ogrforum.com/.../roadrailers-anyone-

Link to forum topic on the Roadrailers. When Bowser got out of making O scale trains except for detail parts, they sold the Roadrailer toiling to Weaver.

Joe Congemi posted:

https://ogrforum.com/.../roadrailers-anyone-

Link to forum topic on the Roadrailers. When Bowser got out of making O scale trains except for detail parts, they sold the Roadrailer toiling to Weaver.

Ah ok, that makes sense. Thanks and thanks for the link too.

-Eric Siegel

The Bowser Roadrailers have shown up on eBay and Trainz but it’s been years.

I know I gobbled up my fair share of them off eBay about six years ago. I have some from both Bowser and Weaver. The real question is, since Bowser quit O scale, and Weaver tooling has been split between Lionel and Atlas. Who has the roadrailers?

LIONEL must have the RoadRailer injection molds because they were always produced in the USA. 

e-mail them directly

http://www.bowser-trains.com/contactus.htm

bowser released them in early to mid 90's, some where packed in a box I have prototype info that I obtained from Wabash National in the late 90's

I bought one Bowser roadrailer, found the bogies to be too light weight and cheap plastic.  They did not run well. The trailers are very nice though. 

 I use K-line rail mates on my Amtrak mail trains and paint the bogies black for a better Amtrak looking consist.  The K-line ones may not be quite as realistic and use different bogies, but they are metal bogies and operationally better than the Bowser or Weaver models.

falconservice posted:

LIONEL must have the RoadRailer injection molds because they were always produced in the USA. 

e-mail them directly

http://www.bowser-trains.com/contactus.htm

Not necessarily. Atlas did take some of the Weaver tooling to China. I believe the troop cars were former Weaver models. Also the 20' intermodal containers, and I suspect there are others, just not sure which ones. 

I don't think either company has produced products from all the tooling they acquired, to date.

Joe Congemi posted:

The Bowser Roadrailers have shown up on eBay and Trainz but it’s been years.

And when they DO show up, they're askin' stupid money for them.   I doubt many sell at the ridiculous prices I've seen posted on Ebay.

Chief Bob (Retired)

I talked with Bowser recently, maybe 2 months or so ago. They confirmed that they do NOT have the tooling for the O scale RoadRailers. They also told me that they do not know who does have the tooling. If someone finds out who does have the tooling, please post it here! There are some parts I need to obtain. BTW, I have had no tracking problems with stock RoadRailers.

Chris

LVHR

VistaDomeScott posted:

I bought one Bowser roadrailer, found the bogies to be too light weight and cheap plastic.  They did not run well. The trailers are very nice though. 

 I use K-line rail mates on my Amtrak mail trains and paint the bogies black for a better Amtrak looking consist.  The K-line ones may not be quite as realistic and use different bogies, but they are metal bogies and opetationally better than the Bowser or Weaver models.

 

I haven't taken mine out of the boxes yet, but I kind of figured they were light. I would start by just adding some weight. Actually, this problem is prototypical. As a result, if an engineer wasn't careful when starting on a curve, it was easy to stringline them.

RoadRailer fans should find this interesting.  Virtual Railfan has posted a Oct 4 2019 video of TripleCrown roadrailers at Santa Fe Junction, Kansas City Mo.  The cam operator does a nice job zooming in on details of the roadrailers, including the bogies.  Enjoy!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXvzyM0NFtA

Bryan

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RidgeRunner posted:

RoadRailer fans should find this interesting.  Virtual Railfan has posted a Oct 4 2019 video of TripleCrown roadrailers at Santa Fe Junction, Kansas City Mo.  The cam operator does a nice job zooming in on details of the roadrailers, including the bogies.  Enjoy!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXvzyM0NFtA

Bryan

And the trailers shows in the video are of the newer 53' Wabash trailer type. The Bowser roadrailers in O scale were the older type with no Brace rail above the frame.

briansilvermustang posted:

 

 

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Very nice...although, I believe train cars on a shelf are the unhappiest of railroad cars...even sadder than a Charlie in a box on the Island of Misfit Toys. 

 I’d be happy to make a video of these running on my track, for you...and everyone else to see and share...just box em up-send em over😁

cause that’s the kind of generous person I am😆

Seriously though, I am curious what these cars originally listed for-because the prices now are prohibitive to say the least. 

I hope to acquire about 10 for my layout...before I die. 

color me envious of what looks to be 32 of your collection 

1drummer posted:

Seriously though, I am curious what these cars originally listed for-because the prices now are prohibitive to say the least. 

Here's a snip from Weaver's 2007 catalog.  Their Roadrailers were $39.95 with plastic trucks or $44.95 with diecast trucks.

RidgeRunner posted:

1drummer posted:

Seriously though, I am curious what these cars originally listed for-because the prices now are prohibitive to say the least. 

Here's a snip from Weaver's 2007 catalog.  Their Roadrailers were $39.95 with plastic trucks or $44.95 with diecast trucks.

Although cataloged, I don't think that Weaver models made Any Smooth sided Roadrailers. I did order the demonstrator ( which is a smooth side model) and that was cancelled.

Also while Weaver models did advertise for cast trucks, all my Triple Crown models came with plastic trucks.. no die cast. Subsequent undecorated models were also equipped with plastic trucks. Anyone out there claims their order came in with for cast trucks? If my memory serves me correctly, back in 2007 Weaver models was having a tough time obtaining die cast trucks as that was around the time Kader gave Model RR importers "das boot"!

The RoadRailers have to be in the LIONEL LionScale collection some where.

Andrew

I bought 23 Bowser RoadRailers at four York Meets during the 2002 and 2003 timeframe.  Bowser had a booth in the Yellow Hall back then.   I paid between $35 - $60 each depending on what trailer it was.  The higher priced ones included the coupler.  Some of the lower priced ones had minor scratches on the paint, which didn't bother me.  

I had seen the Bowser model in the Orange Hall after it opened, and I didn't buy any of the Weaver offerings.  I wish I had bought more, especially the two different Norfolk Southern styles.  In my collection I have about a half dozen Amtrak versions.  They look cool trailing an Amfleet set like how Amtrak use to run them.

I was planning to get the Canadian National  ROADRAILERS, but I never could get them. 

I was only able to get the 4 road numbers of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway RoadRailers.

Andrew