Budd Smooth-side Domes from Lowell Smith

[nickelplate759]

Lowell Smith has announced Budd smooth-side dome-coaches, painted for GN Empire Builder and NP NCL.
https://lowellsmith.net/product/rsm-gn-empire-builder-dome-coach-pair/
https://lowellsmith.net/product/railsmith-ncl-dome-pair/

No indication as to whether this is new tooling, or if it's just the old Concor tooling with the oversize windows.

[samusi01]

For the NCL cars, the website says

We are so very excited to bring you this Prototype car.

Which leaves the impression they are new - or more accurate - tooling versus his “classic” or whatever they are called… I forget and the internet isn’t working great in the airplane today for his site. I’ll be ordering the NCL cars once stationary.

[Mark5]

Crap, I was skeptical that he'd ever get to the domes (knowing that new tooling for dome cars would be big $), which is the reason I have been avoiding the RailSmith NCL releases ...

Now, I guess I missed the boat on the RS NCL. Now I must take a look to see if enough of the already released cars are available to make a proper NCL.

Props to Lowell for making it happen!

[nickelplate759]

He's also hinting that he hopes to do the Dome Sleeper as well.  That was an NP-only (well, NCL - CB&Q and SP&S contributed) car, although some were leased to the IC in the winter (painted in IC colors - and he shows one in his City of Miami consist diagram), and of course they ran in Amtrak colors later on, although he generally doesn't offer Amtrak-painted cars.

Anyway, I sure hope he does the dome-sleeper too.

[milw156]

Talked with him at Springfield about these after one of his Facebook live presentations around the first of the year. Almost certain this is going to be new tooling, and he does plan to do the sleeper as well as he already will have the dome roof. He talked very briefly about it on the train ride out to Omaha (on the Milwaukee Road Superdome!) If anyone at the convention, pester him for more info.

[nickelplate759]

More generally, I'm curious as to how he will have these built.  There's not much that's common with his current products that could be re-used (other than wheels, couplers, and paint).

For example, these Budd domes used different trucks than any of Lowell's existing cars.  I wonder if he will have new trucks tooled, or use trucks from some else.   The ConCor model has the right style trucks, but I'm not certain that ConCor is making any N-scale at all any longer.   

Kato has the right trucks too (and better modeled than ConCor).  In fact, Kato has tooling that would cover everything but the sides of the car pretty nicely, but I haven't heard of them making models for anyone else since they stopped doing engines for Atlas many years ago.

[Mark5]

In fact, Kato has tooling that would cover everything but the sides of the car pretty nicely, but I haven't heard of them making models for anyone else since they stopped doing engines for Atlas many years ago.

European company Lemke has been partnering with Kato to make Euro models, so I guess it could be conceivable: https://www.reynaulds.com/kato-hobbytrain-lemke.aspx

[peteski]

European company Lemke has been partnering with Kato to make Euro models, so I guess it could be conceivable: https://www.reynaulds.com/kato-hobbytrain-lemke.aspx

True, but there is more to the story.

Hobbytrain and Lemke used to be separate companies, and now they are one.  But each side has models made differently.  Lemke models are made by Kato in Japan, where Hobbytrain models are made in China, and their quality is what is expected from Chinese made models (basically *NOT* Kato).  So  yes, Kato does make models for other companies.  Kato also made some N scale train sets for Other German companies like Noch, but I have my doubts that they would just run some individual parts (like trucks) for another company.

[samusi01]

For those ordering - while, sadly, there are only a pair of NP domes - there are three different GN domes: the pair, and the single dome is an SPS dome that made it all the way to Amtrak in orange and green.

[nickelplate759]

Well, I couldn't help myself and ordered the NCL (NP + SP&S) pair of dome-coaches. 

[squirrelhunter]

I think people should remember that Lowell is a die hard SP&S guy, and pretty much all the new prototype tooling he's done ran on the SP&S. Honestly I'm a little surprised he's not committed to doing the one of a kind SP&S baggage dorm amd diner used on the Empire Builder connection as a 2 car set. He's clearly got good sales on the BLI special run SP&S F units he's done.

[carlso]

Why will  nobody make an SP 3/4 dome car ? ?

[chessie system fan]

I'm excited about this.  And I just double checked my blueprints, and the car is indeed correct for both roads.  The only differences I could see are GN had a heater vent on the roof, and NP's roof vents are more rectangular than GN's square vents.

[nkalanaga]

samusi01:  Great!  I suggested to Lowell that he do the SP&S car as the single EB, as that was the ONLY one to make it to Amtrak in its original paint.

He probably only made two NP cars because the NCL usually only had two dome-coaches.  The EB quite often had three, but no dome-sleepers.

I'll be ordering a bunch of these, if he does all of the color variations.

[pdx1955]

A baggage-dorm has come up multiple times before in his live chats. Many of the trains that he is putting together on his web site have baggage-dorms in them. I am sure he will get around to it, although I expect it to be a car that fits the best across many roads, not necessarily the SP&S version.

I think people should remember that Lowell is a die hard SP&S guy, and pretty much all the new prototype tooling he's done ran on the SP&S. Honestly I'm a little surprised he's not committed to doing the one of a kind SP&S baggage dorm amd diner used on the Empire Builder connection as a 2 car set. He's clearly got good sales on the BLI special run SP&S F units he's done.