Lowell Smith Has Purchased The Tooling For The Walthers Passenger Cars

pmpexpress Nov 15, 2017

  1. Randy Stahl

    Randy Stahl TrainBoard Supporter

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    Weren't the 10-6 cars backwards? Or more accurately very road specific?

    I have a few of the smoothside baggage cars I really like.

    Randy
     
  2. Ike the BN Freak

    Ike the BN Freak TrainBoard Member

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    Only sleepers I knew that were backwards were the con-cor cars.
     
  3. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    let's remember that this is about Walthers selling off their N Scale tooling to Lowell and the possibility of a future selling of other tooling, and not an attack on a distributor and manufacturer that has kept this hobby alive since the 1930's....
     
  4. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    me too, but remember that his minimum run for a MTL car is 300, he has to pay for the artwork and any special tooling.
     
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  5. Jeepy84

    Jeepy84 TrainBoard Member

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    Oh yeah, no doubt the business model demands the price to be sustainable.

    Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
     
  6. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    I met him at the Helena Railfair a couple of years ago. Seemed like a decent fella and very knowledgeable. He had an AFT set that was super tempting, but way more than I could afford at the time. I talked myself out of it by remembering that I model the 1920's!

    Anyway, I hope he does well with this and maybe it will encourage the Big Old W to step back up to the plate!
     
  7. Point353

    Point353 TrainBoard Member

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    In the case of the NP cars, since there is no special tooling involved, is it the relatively smaller run or the cost of the artwork that mainly results in the significantly higher prices (as in a factor of x2 to x3 compared to regular production cars)?
    https://lowellsmith.net/product-category/n-scale/northern-pacifics-mainstreeter/
     
  8. urodoji

    urodoji TrainBoard Member

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    Too bad they have he Erie Built tooling. I’d love a set in FM demo colors.
     
  9. bman

    bman TrainBoard Member

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    I'm kinda going to be a bit optimistic about this. In the Model Roader article, as well as mentioned in the opening post of this thread, it does say state "New releases will be sold under the RailSmith Models line. RailSmith also plans to expand its line of N scale passenger cars. The first RailSmith Models offerings are scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2018." I did go to Lowell Smith's website to try and find a bit more info but found none. So what this all means is anybody's guess at this time. But more options to spend my money are always welcomed as far as I am concerned. I'm hoping it will mean more road names and/or paint schemes on these models and a little less on the selling price. So far Lowell Smith has yet to produce something that screamed "take my money" as far as my modeling interests go. I guess we'll have to stay tuned.
     
  10. Thomas Davis

    Thomas Davis TrainBoard Member

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    The only "downside" I see in this is that I bought so many of these cars in the Walthers blowout sale and someone's "passenger car junk box for sale" that I probably won't buy any right away from Lowell Smith- although am open to the possibility depending on roadnames. I do look forward to him bringing out additional cars- a diner has been missing from the line all along, or additional sleepers.

    For the record, (and to counter a bit of misunderstanding up above) the prototypes are (but feel free to correct me on these points if I am spreading my own misinformation).

    baggage- Chicago Great Western- the only one that is accurate AFAIK is the smooth side version and then only for CGW, the full fluted and 1/2 fluted were done to mimic Pere Marquette and C&O cars that are more or less similar in design. Not sure if they may have released the fluted cars in other roads as well. But a good generic car that will look good in a variety of paint schemes, or can be further modified ala Bruce Arbo's ATSF car.

    Coach- NYC 64 seat coach. I believe NYC had both smoothside and fluted versions of this car to match their various consists. While strictly speaking the car was road specific, there were other roads that had similar cars. Another good generic choice.

    Sleeper- PS 4140- actually a fairly widely used design. Prototype was made in both smoothside (4140 PRR, RF&P, N&W and 3 L&N that were in PRR colors; 4140C SP) and fluted (4140A SAL, RF&P; 4140B ACL, FEC, RF&P for Champion trains; 4140F Southern, L&N, A&WP, FEC, PRR, WofA for Crescent and Royal Palm). Generally similar in layout to some of the other 10-6s produced by PS and ACF. I don't know if some series were mirror images of other series, or if vestibule might have been on roomette end or bedroom end of a given series.

    My gripe is not so much with rolling (although they definitely do not roll like Kato or Rapido), but on several I have, the coupler hangs a bit on the end of the car and this tended to derail trains on a curve. It is fixable with a thin washer to raise the body by a .010, but should have been dealt with at the factory.

    On my someday to be layout (playing with the track arrangement for the passenger terminal) the Walthers coaches will play the role of some of the 1955 vintage L&N coaches (factory paint in that scheme) on Dixie trains and as stand ins for 4-5-1-4 sleepers on the "New Dixieland" (originally the Dixie Flagler, renamed in 1954), and baggage cars in NYC paint will appear now and then as head end cars on various trains. Plus the ubiquitous PRR sleepers, that could appear almost anywhere as leased cars or in tour specials.
     
  11. wcfn100

    wcfn100 TrainBoard Member

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    When passenger service ending on the CGW, these cars went to the Great Northern so that would be another prototypical scheme.


    Jason
     
  12. Thomas Davis

    Thomas Davis TrainBoard Member

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    Good point, thanks Jason.

    The list for the sleeper needs some work as well, as CN purchased some of the fluted version from US roads shortly before or after Amtrak came into being. Mexican railroads may have purchased some as well, and some may have gone on to Amtrak.
     
  13. mcjaco

    mcjaco TrainBoard Member

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    The diesel tooling is on the market. Could not get confirmation on the LL steamers.

    I'd say major players would be Atlas. Maybe MT because of the SW chasis fiasco, but they've already stated trying to get the chasis would be a huge headache thanks to China (see Railwire for that discussion).

    You may be right. Walthers has always been HO centric. LL had a large, and very good line of HO models as well, which filled a nice niche that Walthers did not have when LL was available.

    N wasn't sacrificed. I just don't think they had any N scale guys there when the purchase went through, and they treated the scale like HO, which then led to mass producing models that were never going to sell at the quantities put out....which led to resentment of the scale, and it was put on the back burner. I was told that the structure line will continue to stay within Walthers, and will likely grow, as it does very well for them.

    Lowell is a good guy, with good business sense. His stuff is always done well. Like you there's never been anything for me that screams "take my money" but, I think that'll be changing with this.
     
  14. Allen

    Allen TrainBoard Member

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    As far as the "lousy" rolling of the cars, Walthers did include a note about lubing the ends of the axles to decrease roll resistance. Granted, that's something highly unusual and most of us (me included) probably overlooked it. It's a shame they made those trucks so wonky like that. They ruined a series of well done cars except for forgetting a diner to feed the 1/160th passengers. Hopefully Lowell will correct that.
     
  15. MRLdave

    MRLdave TrainBoard Member

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    On the LS/MT "partnership", it's possible MT might be able to use the tooling with their injection machines. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm sure Lowell didn't buy the tooling to decorate the shelves in his shop. He also has worked with Atlas for models and painting.
     
  16. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    once tooling is in China, it never leaves
     
  17. Ike the BN Freak

    Ike the BN Freak TrainBoard Member

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    I've heard that the tooling technically belongs to the Chinese government too
     
  18. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    Correct! The way that country deals with intellectual property is that once you come in with something to be manufactured, the government owns it and does whatever it wants with it. That's why there are so many knock offs coming from there.

    It amazes me that even with that caveat emptor, US businesses still manufacture there!!!!!! I guess Wall St. likes immediate profits with dire consequences later. I just hope no US military stuff is made there. :eek:

    Sorry for the thread drift. :)
     
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