While I was at my favorite auction house last Saturday waiting for some Lionel pieces, I notice those strange live steam O gauge BOWMAN trains so … I bid on them and got them for a fair price.
They have something special, even the wooden box is something to see.... nail some bad wood parts, don't adjust them and you have a Bowman box. Just heat stamp the cover and you have a very nice box !!! So British....
As it is possible to say, it's only a face her mother could love as those engines are really specials, huge in size, very simply made with two oscillating cylinders and a burner with six wicks. They are made to run and they run very well despite their crude appearance.
The larger one is a 234 model and the loco tender is a 265 model. The British firm has been in existence from 1923 to 1935 manufacturing steam toys, stationary steam engines , steam boats and a short range of trains; there is two more models of locos, smaller than those two; a range of three or four freight cars and one type of passenger car that I still have to find...
Have a great tinplate weekend, Daniel
