Lowell Smith is treating us to a pair of MoW baggage cars http://lowellsmith.net/product/sps-mow-work-cars/
I'm looking for the GP9s...................Atlas has GP9TTs and RS1s on the water. I have a Milwaukee Road RS on order so I'm watching. But I'm guessing Lowells GPs are in the crate too. Also matches up with his expected delivery dates. Surprisingly short delivery time on the MOW cars!
Yeah, I'm hoping the 9's are here before the next show. The F3's I'd wish they'd hurry up, #750 can't be the only passenger loco.
It is nice to see someone commercially making some SP&S stuff however for me it comes a bit too late in the game since I already have a fairly extensive M of W fleet including almost the same old baggage cars I did myself. Also have my own version of a GP-9 although in the original green and red and not the broad stripe scheme plus my Kato F-3s also in the four stripe green and red. I also note that these seem to be an expensive set of cars at what amounts to $54.50 apiece before you add shipping. And I thought the Centralia cars in SP&S were expensive but this tops their price. Still as I stated it is nice to see someone doing some SP&S commercially. So far only MT has offered a selection in SP&S with IM offering its Centralia line of passenger cars. And Lowell Smith has been about the only one on the block to offer any motive power.
With these cars coming I'll have a head start on my neglected MoW fleet which consists of that Spreader, 6 hart Ballast hoppers, an MTL SP&S/BN mow boxcar, and caboose #722. Once I get my hands on a Bachmann 250T crane and a tichy wreck train set I'll be farther along. I agree John, Lowell's work is making it slightly easier for a late comer like me to model the SP&S. I wish I didn't miss his earlier releases.
We sooo need to update our group. HO is getting treated to Rapido steam gen cars 1&2 and the 636's came out. Still waiting on the F units though. I also got my unpainted Centuries by Atlas finally. The kill joy for me is that the Rapido cars are just their standard steamer cars with SP&S paint, but they're better then nothing. If you guys want I'll post some pics in our group of what I have now.
I'm not holding my breath on the F3s since they are Intermountain...........Intermountain has been HORRIBLE with delivery dates. I waited over 3 years for my Milwaukee Road FP7s in orange/maroon. So I didn't preorder any f3s cuz I don't want the money tied up waiting....which probably means they won't get enough preorders and will cancel or delay the production. I'll wait till Lowell gets them in HIS hands and I'll hope I can grab one at the last minute. My plan is to run an F3 and the new GP9TT as my Broadstripe passenger power, and my 750, F7, and GP9TT (in the green/maroon pinstripe paint) as the older power. I cringed a little at the price on the MOW cars , but Wheels of Time cars are always pricey, and then you have the "limited run" which always adds some cost, and then we're buying them from Lowell, who has to buy them from WOT and still make a profit. In the end, if I bought the same cars, had some decals printed, bought paint, ect.........plus factored in my time, it probably isn't that bad a price. On that note, I wish someone would print up some accurate SP&S passenger decals! I'd like to see Lowell branch out into some freight cars too, but I'll take what I can get. I picked up another C424 the other day and renumbered it and I have a FA1/FB1 set waiting to get painted into the green/maroon pinstripe paint. After that I have an undecorated S2 on order and then I plan to sit back and see what comes along......no more projects. Unless I can find a baggage/dormitory car that's close.
Yet another whine for me............Rapido is rapidly catching ConCor and Bachmann in the Foobie department. The majority of their N scale passenger cars are wrong car/ right paint. But they're so darn purdy!! I'd love to see everybodies SP&S stuff.
I can live with foobies, I just want SP&S cars and locomotives. The F3's I can wait for, I have plenty of F's at the moment. I'd love to see some F7's though.
Bowser is releasing the F units in ho, and since they've already done them before this will just be another run rather then a new tooling. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The HO SP&S modelers have C636's, I'm very jealous right now. Come on Atlas, Kato, IM, or etc. No excuses now for making a C636 in N. Get to it chop chop, I'd like to have one before I expire.
Pretty much every model of a diesel that was on the SP&S roster has been done by one manufacturer or another. Even the C-636 was done by Concor, although a poor runner that needed a lot of work. And fortunately Microscale did carry the diesel decals for units along with a decent set of freight car decals that covered much of the eras. The big pain was that very few of them ever made anything in SP&S lettering and paint. At least MT did release a few boxcars and some wood cabooses lettered for SP&S. For some of the unique passenger cars there have been some offerings in replacement sides but alas no passenger car decals and the most recent offering of the Centralia cars in SP&S left me very dissatisfied with the paint colors. While proportionately SP&S did not have a large fleet of freight cars they did have a lot of woodchip cars for their size and a large variety in the older type gons that were converted to that use that were begged, borrowed, and stole from nearly everyone. In that respect the old Tichy Train offerings of the wood side sugar beet gons have made a decent stand in and I even found a few Caswell gon kits that I was able to use with scratch built extensions. What I see that has been the glaring lack of equipment has been in mostly the passenger end of the spectrum. For anybody modeling the Portland sections of both the EB and the NCL the consists usually consisted of about 60 to 70 percent being cars of the SP&S from the headend cars to the diner, coaches, and lounges. Never been an issue having the power for those trains as the F-3 and 7, E-7, and the TT GP-9 have been available along with the decals for them. However steam has been another issue. Nobody yet has made a commercially built 700 series that would take care of the NP modelers as well as SP&S with an oil burning Northern. And the only stand in for the Pacifics has been the long out of production MiniTrix with Belpaire firebox. About the only steam freight power one can model is what was acquired from NP. Everything that came from GN was Belpaire equipped. So what would blow a SP&S modeler's dress up. Well for starts a decent Alco C-636. Some SP&S passenger decals next. Then hopefully at some point somebody will do a decent oil burning version of a A-3 Northern and that will make both NP and SP&S modelers happy. And last hopefully some Belpaire equipped steam that will make a lot of Pennsy, GN and SP&S modelers happy. And of course the C-636 will also fit the bill for a few other roads that had them on their roster.
I can definitely agree to that last paragraph, shoot I only had 5 SP&S passenger cars(4 technically) prior to buying some cars from you. I'm not a steam guy but an E-1 series Northern would definitely be a must have for me even if the last run was made in 1956. I'd buy 3 so I could have 700, 701, and 702. That said, I could definitely use some Americanized Alco C424's and 425's, some updated Alco Cab units with DCC friendly(like Kato's newer F units). I don't know how Manufacturers claim that SP&S stuff doesn't sell, Lowell's site is a good example as to how the SP&S stuff sells. [video=youtube;52D1xs_hc_k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52D1xs_hc_k&index=5&list=PLHtxVVWa1FwgH9I4 GwOsG61-yaj1_RVUZ[/video]
If that occurs it will be a major leap forward for SP&S modelers. SP&S had three versions of the passenger scheme on cars and all existed at the same time in the later years. The first cars were all green without the striping and some of these were around almost to the end but confined mostly to mail storage and baggage cars. The four stripe scheme was next, with some lightweight carrying that scheme also, right up into the early BN era. And last, and my least favorite, was the Broad Stripe scheme. The only other paint scheme that a few cars carried was the EB paint with Spokane, Portland, & Seattle spelled out in the letterboard. That dated to when trains 1 and 2 were only carrying the GN Portland section and before NP adjusted their schedule to allow their Portland bound cars to be included. So it would be nice that any passenger decal sheet would allow for the lettering options. Unfortunately as seems the case today any decal sheet will not include the stripes meaning one has to spend again to get a stripe set for the four stripe scheme. Still any decals at all for passenger will be welcome.
Did any sp&s passenger equipment make east to the twin cities or even to Chicago in actual sp&s colors?
To the best of my knowledge nothing pre Amtrak made it that far in the SP&S colors except a possible mail storage car and those were most likely heavyweights. However SP&S owned passenger cars did make it into Chicago. Those were the SP&S owned cars painted in GN or NP colors with small SP&S sublettering on the car corners and carrying the parent's roadname in the letterboard. Both SP&S and CB&Q owned cars were regulars in the consists of both the NCL and EB during the lightweight car era from Chicago to the west coast. The early BN era saw a rainbow of color from Chicago to Seattle and Portland but the photographic data I have doesn't show any past Spokane, other than the lightweights as mention earlier that were parts of both the NCL and EB consists regularly. Pretty much a good bet that all the passenger cars painted in the SP&S colors during heavyweight and lightweight eras stayed on home rails with the only exception as mentioned of the headend cars. Typically the Portland in or outbound cars in NP or GN colors, to or from Chicago, were transferred to their respective parents trains in Spokane. SP&S supplied mail, baggage, and coaches based on traffic needs, a diner, and one of their two lounge cars. Usually two cars from each road, more in high traffic season, were added to the rear of each train. Pretty decent sized train along the Columbia and a rainbow of color with the SP&S four stripe cars followed by several cars in the EB colors and the NCL colors. When the first year of the broadstripe scheme came in there was even a greater mix of color. Power on trains 1 and 2 was originally 4-6-2s later replaced by the Northerns which in turn were bumped back by the F-3s and F-7s and lone E-7. If diesel power was short it could be augmented by the TT dual service GP-9s or one of the several Alco RS units that were steam generator equipped. Once in a rare while the Northerns would be pulled from freight duty when adequate diesel power was unavailable. SP&S originally had 8 mainline passenger runs. Trains 1 and 2 were the main ones with trains 3 and 4, and 5 and 6 serving as fast mail connections and local stops. The last two which would have been 7 and 8 ran on the Oregon trunk between Bend and Wishram. The Oregon trunk trains were discontinued during the steam era and much later during the diesel era trains 5 and 6 were dropped. Additional locals were on the Goldendale branch and the Astoria line and were generally just local coach runs pulled by Atlantic and Pacific type steamers with the Goldendale branch being served for a short while by a lone gas electric and later a mixed train service. When the Astoria service was stopped and trains 5 and 6 also SP&S found itself with more than adequate passenger power and that spelled the end of the Pacifics leaving only the Northerns as reserve power for awhile. The only reason they stayed around as long as they did was because they were also excellent fast freight power along with the Challengers. For a small class one road SP&S had some pretty impressive passenger operations for awhile and some locals could found running behind steam generator equipped RS units and occasional excursions behind several dual service GP-9s. Add in the cars they owned in the EB and NCL consists and colors that ran in those trains and you have a lot of interesting modeling that can be done. MS's decals for both the NP and GN passenger cars do have the SP&S sublettering to model those cars at least. The big hang-up has always been the lack of SP&S passenger lettering and the later gold lettering for the steam. Most of the earlier white letters and numbering can be cobbled together from both the NP and GN steam sets while the football and some other lettering can be obtained from the freight car set for the early steam with white lettering. The cars and locos that have been put out by Lowell have been a Godsend to the SP&S modeler who didn't want to be stripping and painting cars and trying to cobble together lettering and numbers plus other data from various decal sets. And the few commercially released passenger sets for NP and GN have seem to have overlooked the CB&Q plus SP&S cars that were part of each set that each road rostered.
John, You are a wealth of information, let alone an excellent modeler. I too heard that MS list SP&S passenger decals as one of the four new sets to be released. I do not know which style is being done, but would guess at least the extended roman lettering. The NP striping set has the correct color for the four stripe version. These should go a long way in helping many of us build a correct version of the early EB or trains 3-6. We still need some head end cars and single window coaches from MT hopefully soon. While I would love some 636s (still hoping Matt at Fox Valley will come through) , but would really appreciate some Belpaire steamers. We have Challengers and Mikes through GHQ kits and the A3 northern is around in brass, but still waiting for some decent 2-8-0s with the correct boilers. The Consolidation was a well used loco on the SP&S. I am certain that I will probably have to bash them myself. I have been modeling the SP&S for some time now and Lowell Smith and MT has made this so much easier for us. As far as diesels we have most except the 424, 425. I think Atlas would do the best job here as already produced the HO version. Life Like runs well, but they did the wrong version. There is a conversion kit out there, but spendy. I am hoping MS will get the correct color for these decals, unlike their hood units. These are NOT to be gold, but closer to the NP tan. I know the market may be a small one for SP&S modelers, but please make them correct! Thanks MS, sincerely from a modeler waiting way too long.
I'm playing catch up, though I've acquired a number of SP&S models fairly quick. I just wish I had the others that have been made.
