Northern Pacific Duplex Sleeper from Lowell Smith

[Nato]

       I just received  my Northern Pacific duplex sleeper in the original Pine Tree scheme from Rail Smith. Wozzers! A great  rendition of this paint scheme, the car name on my car is "Missoula" , complete interior in tan color, window shades in some of the rooms in various positions, their color matches descriptions of the cars in various publications. These cars were later painted in the two tone green Lowie scheme and lost their names in favor of numbers. Nate Goodman.(Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[eja]

Lucky you !

[nkalanaga]

I have the later version, and the GN "stand-in" Fraser River.  I agree, he makes beautiful cars.  The only problem is that, if one wants to "Build-A-Train", ones going to have to live to a ripe old age, and start buying early.  He doesn't rerun sold-out car numbers!

[Mark5]

I agree, he makes beautiful cars.  The only problem is that, if one wants to "Build-A-Train", ones going to have to live to a ripe old age, and start buying early.  He doesn't rerun sold-out car numbers!

Agreed. I was interested in the North Coast Limited, but wasn't sure if the domes would ever get done - and now (due to sold out cars) I have pretty much missed that train! I guess I will revert to hoping that Kato will do it some day ...

[Sokramiketes]

Agreed. I was interested in the North Coast Limited, but wasn't sure if the domes would ever get done - and now (due to sold out cars) I have pretty much missed that train! I guess I will revert to hoping that Kato will do it some day ...

While Lowell has said he won't rerun car numbers, that doesn't mean he won't run new numbers of the same cars.  I bet the coaches (for example, if that's what you missed) will be rerun with new numbers at some point.  And he's heavily hinted at domes in his Facebook live streams.  With his releases picking up steam lately, I think the lead times are going to get shorter for complete or mostly complete trains. 

I'm having a lot of fun picking up his models and combining them with existing prototype cars to model these trains.  I like doing specialty cars, the railroad's character really comes through in their diners, lounges, and tail cars.  And using good models to fill in the rest of trains. 

[thomasjmdavis]

From the direction he's going, I doubt I will end up with very many of his cars- he simply is concentrating on roads/trains/bodystyles that don't fit my modeling plans.  But I do have a Wabash sleeper on order, and will hopefully be able to pick up an odd car now and then when something does fit my needs.  He seems to have mastered the ability to turn out different sides on his Pullman Standard core (due to the way the original tooling worked? I'm guessing), without having to make "too many", and so I am hoping we see more plan numbers produced.

We need to give Lowell some recognition for having, at this point, introduced more car types since buying the tooling than Walthers produced in the 10 years they had it.  IIRC, there were only 3 original Walthers car types- a coach based on NYC, the plan 4140 sleeper, and the baggage car based on a CGW baggage- granted, all available with or without fluting, and in both accurate and "stand in" paint schemes. Was there a fourth?  Lowell has added to that at least 2 more sleepers (the 12-4 and the NP duplex), another coach, a diner, and RPO, and I apologize if I missed some.   

[Bill H]

I agree, credit due to Lowell for his contributions. I met him a few years ago at a op session. He seemed legit and a general nice guy. Unfortunately, he doesn't model my road, but from what I saw of his samples, good stuff.

[wazzou]

He models the SP&S.

[Sokramiketes]

From the direction he's going, I doubt I will end up with very many of his cars- he simply is concentrating on roads/trains/bodystyles that don't fit my modeling plans.  But I do have a Wabash sleeper on order, and will hopefully be able to pick up an odd car now and then when something does fit my needs.  He seems to have mastered the ability to turn out different sides on his Pullman Standard core (due to the way the original tooling worked? I'm guessing), without having to make "too many", and so I am hoping we see more plan numbers produced.

We need to give Lowell some recognition for having, at this point, introduced more car types since buying the tooling than Walthers produced in the 10 years they had it.  IIRC, there were only 3 original Walthers car types- a coach based on NYC, the plan 4140 sleeper, and the baggage car based on a CGW baggage- granted, all available with or without fluting, and in both accurate and "stand in" paint schemes. Was there a fourth?  Lowell has added to that at least 2 more sleepers (the 12-4 and the NP duplex), another coach, a diner, and RPO, and I apologize if I missed some.

You're right on the mark.  Those were the original three Walther's cars.  There were plans for an Illinois Central dining car included.  Lowell shifted that prototype, which makes more sense overall... would have been fun to add a true IC car to our stables.  As Wazzou points out, Lowell is an SP&S guy in his heart.  That helps the NP/GN bent as well.  And means that we're going to be closest ever to a true Empire Builder and North Coast Limited RTR.

If you're still headed toward Dearborn Station, you're right about not too much overlap.  But maybe check out the L&N stuff too!

[thomasjmdavis]

If you're still headed toward Dearborn Station, you're right about not too much overlap.  But maybe check out the L&N stuff too!

I'll have to send Lowell a wishlist, one of these days.  Would love to see him do the 6-4-6 Pine sleepers - C&EI, L&N, NC&StL. CN's original Green sleepers were identical but for one small window, IIRC, and CN bought some of the L&N and C&EI sleepers when their passenger operations wound down in the late 60s.  I have Athabasca sides for the Greens, but could still use one or 2 more for GTW trains. And I've assembled Laser Horizons and USP sides on cores for the L&N, etc, but had various issues and I'm not entirely happy with how those turned out.

I do appreciate that Lowell has done the original L&N plan 4140 scheme that uses PRR colors and typefont.  I already have a PRR car filling that spot (the few photos I've seen of those cars in L&N trains often have a PRR car subbing- even at Dearborn).  But I think he does have a few of the L&N cars left, so I may pick one up. 

I have 3 of the original Walthers version smoothside coaches - which Walthers sold painted for L&N, which I am using as "stand ins" for the 1955 L&N smoothside divided coaches.  If Lowell does his fluted NYC coach in the all blue 1954 scheme, I will definitely give some thought to those.  The window arrangement would be closer to the Hummingbird/Georgian coaches than anything else available RTR, although I am also considering doing those with USP sides.  My current trains use several of the ancient Rivarossi ACF Rock Island cars, painted blue.  Windows are all wrong, but let me run a Georgian for the past 10 years. "Great Decals" makes doing L&N cars easier than most.  The hard part are baggage cars.  Nothing out there that really looks much like an L&N baggage car, other than the 2 cars that can be done with the WoT 70' cars.  I wish Atlas would make parts for their baggage cars available- the easiest kitbash I can see is to cut one of their 60' cars in half and splice in the middle 10'.  But I don't want to pay $35+ each for "parts" cars when all I really need are a few bodies.

[nkalanaga]

Part of the reason that the domes haven't yet been done is the roof.  The GN/NP/SP&S domes are Budd cars, and will need an entirely new roof, not just adding a dome to the existing roof.  Yes, he does plan to do the domes, and has said that he will also do BN, and maybe Amtrak, versions, but those roads are "a way off".  The domes will be a relatively expensive project, so I suspect (I haven't asked, he hasn't said) that he's saving his profits for that!

Given that Kato has made Budd stainless steel domes in at least two versions, it would be natural for them to make the Hill Lines "slab side" version as well.  But they don't seem to be interested in that.

[Nato]

          The Con COR GN dome coach is the closest thing we have right now, Con Cor also did them in NP Two Tone Green.                     Nate Goodman. (Nato).

[nkalanaga]

Yes, and I have several of them.  Other than the windows being a little too tall, they're good models.  Body mounting 1015 couplers allows them to work very nicely with today's truck-mounted passenger cars, and couple as closely as RailSmith's cars.  1016s might work even better, but I had the 1015s.  1025s work, if all of the cars have body-mounted couplers, but don't have enough swing for mixed styles, even on 18 inch radius curves.

If someone would make replacement windows for them they'd be much better.  Cutting and fitting individual "glass" for each window would be a real pain, but a clear injection molded, or laser-cut, strip wouldn't be hard to do.

[Sokramiketes]

I'll have to send Lowell a wishlist, one of these days.  Would love to see him do the 6-4-6 Pine sleepers - C&EI, L&N, NC&StL. CN's original Green sleepers were identical but for one small window, IIRC, and CN bought some of the L&N and C&EI sleepers when their passenger operations wound down in the late 60s.  I have Athabasca sides for the Greens, but could still use one or 2 more for GTW trains. And I've assembled Laser Horizons and USP sides on cores for the L&N, etc, but had various issues and I'm not entirely happy with how those turned out.

I do appreciate that Lowell has done the original L&N plan 4140 scheme that uses PRR colors and typefont.  I already have a PRR car filling that spot (the few photos I've seen of those cars in L&N trains often have a PRR car subbing- even at Dearborn).  But I think he does have a few of the L&N cars left, so I may pick one up. 

I have 3 of the original Walthers version smoothside coaches - which Walthers sold painted for L&N, which I am using as "stand ins" for the 1955 L&N smoothside divided coaches.  If Lowell does his fluted NYC coach in the all blue 1954 scheme, I will definitely give some thought to those.  The window arrangement would be closer to the Hummingbird/Georgian coaches than anything else available RTR, although I am also considering doing those with USP sides.  My current trains use several of the ancient Rivarossi ACF Rock Island cars, painted blue.  Windows are all wrong, but let me run a Georgian for the past 10 years. "Great Decals" makes doing L&N cars easier than most.  The hard part are baggage cars.  Nothing out there that really looks much like an L&N baggage car, other than the 2 cars that can be done with the WoT 70' cars.  I wish Atlas would make parts for their baggage cars available- the easiest kitbash I can see is to cut one of their 60' cars in half and splice in the middle 10'.  But I don't want to pay $35+ each for "parts" cars when all I really need are a few bodies.

You're a man after my own heart. 

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[thomasjmdavis]

You're a man after my own heart. 

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Thanks for the plan, Mike. Where did it come from?  Is that something you've been working on?