Bowser - 38330 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, 70 Ton, Ballast - Reading Blue Mountain & Northern - 114

Road Name History: The RBMN was the result of the 1990 expansion and re-organization of the Blue Mountain & Reading Railroad. At first, locomotives were lettered for Reading Blue Mountain & Northern but this was later simplified to Reading & Northern. For most purposes, the company uses the two names interchangeably. Today the RBMN operates 300 miles of line in eastern Pennsylvania (it’s about the length of the Clinchfield or Toledo Peoria & Western.)

The mainline runs north from Reading through Port Clinton, Tamaqua, Jim Thorpe, to Pittston. Branches from Pittston reach Scranton and Mehoopany. There is also a dense network of branches to the west of the mainline in Schuykill County. This is Pennsylvania’s anthracite region and while the golden age of anthracite for home heating is well behind us, it still has important industrial uses and RBMN proudly calls themselves the Road of Anthracite on their Reading influenced black diamond logo.

RBMN has continued the tradition of tourist operations begun by their predecessor and continues to roster the ex-GM&N Pacific and ex-Reading Northern. A former Canadian Pacific 4-6-0 has also been added to the roster. As of this writing, the freight locomotive fleet includes two SD50M’s, two SW8’s, two SW8m’s, an SW7, two SW1500’s, three SD38’s, four GP39RN’s, nine SD40-2’s, and three SD50’s. We will have more Reading & Northern photos with tomorrow's Railroad of the Day.

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.