Thanks. They are kind of a mixed bag. Most of them are the old Atlas/Rivarossi corrugated side cars. (A bit shorter than 85 foot) I had custom decals printed with my own artwork derived from photos of actual cars. The Postal/Baggage car and sleepers are built up from M&R etched sides. Lowell had not released his cars yet back when I took that photo but I have picked up a few of his sleepers. I was a little disappointing in them because the lettering is not correct for the names and numbers. The lettering style is way off.
That's great advice for hobbyists that have the room and other resources for a larger layout. The rest of us (that don't have the room, etc.) can still run and enjoy them on our small layouts, and focus on how good they look in the straights and eased entrances/exits of the sharper curves. Let trees, mountains, structures, etc. hide the details in the tighter turns. Even straights can be replaced with broad, shallow curves that can make these cars really shine (e.g. think kidney-bean-shaped rather than straight-sided oval.) Also, raising the layout height closer to eye-level avoids top-down (aerial) views of these cars on sharp curves that accentuate the segmented look of a string of these cars.
Thanks for your reply. Can you post photos of your custom decorated Texas Special cars versus the Lowell Smith cars with incorrect lettering?
It has been a while since I looked at the cars. The lettering style is not really "way off" as I stated above. I think what bothered me the most was the lack of numbers and small railroad names at the ends of the cars. The letters in the car names should all be the same size and not the first letter larger than the rest of them. The "TEXAS SPECIAL" script seems a little too compressed vertically as well. One of Lowell's cars. One of my cars. The Texas Special script is a little more compressed lengthwise than the prototype. I think I may have shrunk the old HO Champ decal artwork to get those back in about 1995. Prototype.
Wow hard to tell from the 'birds-eye' perspective. It may actually vary a little depending on the car type (lightweight, heavyweight, corrugated or smoothside). As said before... the paint scheme and lettering is great either way.
