Bowser - 37642 - Open Hopper, 2-Bay, GLa - Union Carbide

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: Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary (since 2001) of Dow Chemical Company. It currently employs more than 2,400 people.[2] Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some are high-volume commodities and others are specialty products meeting the needs of smaller markets. Markets served include paints and coatings, packaging, wire and cable, household products, personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, textiles, agriculture, and oil and gas. The company is a former component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Union Carbide was 50.9% stakeholder in Union Carbide India Limited, the company responsible for the Bhopal disaster.

Founded in 1917, the company's researchers developed an economical way to make ethylene from natural gas liquids, such as ethane and propane, giving birth to the modern petrochemical industry. Before divesting them, the chemical giant owned consumer products Eveready and Energizer batteries, Glad bags and wraps, Simoniz car wax, and Prestone antifreeze. The company divested other businesses before being acquired by Dow Chemical on February 6, 2001, including electronic chemicals, polyurethane intermediates, industrial gases and carbon products.

From Wikipedia

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.