Fluted Side Diners coming from Lowell Smith / Railsmith

[CBQ Fan]

Yes, thanks - I have spent plenty of time navigating that website and am quite familiar with that page. What would be more helpful to me is a chronological "new arrival" page. Making the scale more obvious in the listings would be helpful as well. But again, that's my problem, not his.

Surprisingly enough (or maybe not), TRW is probably the best resource when it comes to keeping up with new arrivals. God bless those multi-page bitch threads that inevitably spring up 

-Mark

Everything is N scale unless otherwise stated.

[nkalanaga]

George:  Thank you!  The only time I was in Hobbysmith was at the 1994 N Scale Convention in Portland.  We usually didn't go west of the Cascades on our vacations to the Northwest, as I was from Pasco, and Mom grew up in Wenatchee.

Tom D:  Yes, his new diners are the same prototype as the ConCor smoothside cars.  I was very disappointed with CC's second batch of cars, as both the diner and sleeper were mirror-imaged.  I ended up building my own diners, using styrene sides and Rivarossi "cores", which have since been replaced with styrene sides on ALM core kits.  I've reserved Railsmith's set!

[Sokramiketes]

George:  Thank you!  The only time I was in Hobbysmith was at the 1994 N Scale Convention in Portland.  We usually didn't go west of the Cascades on our vacations to the Northwest, as I was from Pasco, and Mom grew up in Wenatchee.

Tom D:  Yes, his new diners are the same prototype as the ConCor smoothside cars.  I was very disappointed with CC's second batch of cars, as both the diner and sleeper were mirror-imaged.  I ended up building my own diners, using styrene sides and Rivarossi "cores", which have since been replaced with styrene sides on ALM core kits.  I've reserved Railsmith's set!

I like Wenatchee a lot, fun railfanning between there and Quincy, including Trinidad Loop.  They even have a hockey team now!

[thomasjmdavis]

George:  Thank you!  The only time I was in Hobbysmith was at the 1994 N Scale Convention in Portland.  We usually didn't go west of the Cascades on our vacations to the Northwest, as I was from Pasco, and Mom grew up in Wenatchee.

Tom D:  Yes, his new diners are the same prototype as the ConCor smoothside cars.  I was very disappointed with CC's second batch of cars, as both the diner and sleeper were mirror-imaged.  I ended up building my own diners, using styrene sides and Rivarossi "cores", which have since been replaced with styrene sides on ALM core kits.  I've reserved Railsmith's set!

I never owned a complete ConCor smoothside diner, but I bought several large lots of passenger car parts, and ended up with a number of ConCor diner bodies. In addition to the "mirror image", I am also amused by the fact that they have coach seats cast in. One of my projects (first attempt was less than satisfactory) is to chop these up for "above the beltrail" parts for Erie rebuilt heavyweight diners.

Hard to believe that ConCor is still selling those mirror image cars... and at a price that is about 4 or 5 times what they originally went for. 

I am sure that any NP or GN fan is pleased with Lowell's offerings generally and with the infinitely better model of the diner.  While those diners don't fit my modeling interests, even I am pleased to see the 50 year old CC errors corrected.

[nkalanaga]

I've just encountered my first problem with a Railsmith passenger car, and have emailed him about it.

This problem likely won't bother most people, but the window glass is glued in!  It fits the same way Kato passenger car windows do, and both holds the floor, and is held in place by the floor, so there's no need for glue.  But they're glued anyway, making it almost impossible to repaint the cars, unless one wants to individually mask each window.

I found that while renumbering a GN coach, so could mask the entire window panel, as only the new decals needed to be clear-coated.  But I plan on repainting a couple of the cars I have on order, and it looks very difficult.  I asked him to ask the factory not to glue them, which shouldn't be a difficult change to make.

[peteski]

I've just encountered my first problem with a Railsmith passenger car, and have emailed him about it.

This problem likely won't bother most people, but the window glass is glued in!
. . .
 I asked him to ask the factory not to glue them, which shouldn't be a difficult change to make.

It might be more difficult than you think.  The Chinese contractors used by American manufacturers seem to do things their own way, regardless of what they are asked to do.  They even seem to control how many spare parts, or undecorated kits they produce in a model's run.

Another problem might be that while the construction appears similar to Kato, the design might be slightly different and it would be difficult to keep all the parts aligned during assembly (requiring gluing the window strips).  There are other models (from other manufacturers) which also use window strips to retain the floor, and those strips also get glued in.  Usually because (unlike Kato), there are no tabs in the roof to retain the tops of the window strips keeping them tight against the car's side.

Hopefully your request will be honored.

[Sokramiketes]

I've successfully pried them out when needed.  While they may separate between windows, I've never had one crack in the visible window portion.

Kato's method is preferable, for sure. 

[Sokramiketes]

Here’s an example. I modified the windows to match SP and had to blend the yellow paint into the factory. So all the window glass came out.

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[AlbertSpor]

Mike
Nice job SPing the windows on that sleeper. I was planning on modifying mine as well.
Did the glass come lose relatively easy? Where was the glue concentrated?
Thanks
Albert Spor

[Sokramiketes]

Mike
Nice job SPing the windows on that sleeper. I was planning on modifying mine as well.
Did the glass come lose relatively easy? Where was the glue concentrated?
Thanks
Albert Spor

Yes, relatively easily.  My weapon of choice was a small Wiha flat bladed screwdriver to get under and twist.  You can see the glue, it varies by assembler. 

[AlbertSpor]

Mike thanks for the quick response.
Albert

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  Thank you!  I was afraid to try, for fear of breaking the body, more  than the windows.  Since you got yours out, it gives me hope for mine.

I was seriously considering putting a piece of clear plastic tape over the entire window area, and cutting around the window frames.  Peel off the tape, and the pieces left on the windows should work as masking.  I've never tried it, but do have a pair of cars made from laser-cut plastic sides, where the windows are part of the sides.  They came factory-masked the same way.  Peel off the protective film, and the windows stayed covered.

Peteski:  I can see your point, but don't think it would be a problem with Railsmith cars.  The top of the window glass is held in place by tabs on the body, so the top of the windows themselves have to stay in the body holes.  The bottom is held against the sides by the floor, so the whole thing is held in place by the windows themselves.  Once the floor is in, it can't fall out, without spreading the sides. 

In this case, the glue is an unnecessary step, and just adds construction cost and time.  The factory could eliminate the step, and make more money, as they'd sell the cars for the same price.

[Sokramiketes]

Mike:  Thank you!  I was afraid to try, for fear of breaking the body, more  than the windows.  Since you got yours out, it gives me hope for mine.

I was seriously considering putting a piece of clear plastic tape over the entire window area, and cutting around the window frames.  Peel off the tape, and the pieces left on the windows should work as masking.  I've never tried it, but do have a pair of cars made from laser-cut plastic sides, where the windows are part of the sides.  They came factory-masked the same way.  Peel off the protective film, and the windows stayed covered.

Peteski:  I can see your point, but don't think it would be a problem with Railsmith cars.  The top of the window glass is held in place by tabs on the body, so the top of the windows themselves have to stay in the body holes.  The bottom is held against the sides by the floor, so the whole thing is held in place by the windows themselves.  Once the floor is in, it can't fall out, without spreading the sides. 

In this case, the glue is an unnecessary step, and just adds construction cost and time.  The factory could eliminate the step, and make more money, as they'd sell the cars for the same price.

Masking the windows is another fine option.  I use the Tamiya tape, lay it on the car side, and run a fresh #11 blade around the openings.  It goes pretty quick.  And it's the only option for things like the Concor Budd dome glass.  I'm glad RailSmith is going to solve that problem too.  Wonder if I should be selling off my Empire Builder and North Coast Limited...

[thomasjmdavis]

On removing glued in glass....has anyone tried the "freezer" method?  I've used it with some success to dis-assemble glued freight cars, but never tried it on passenger windows.  Might be worth a try.

What I am referring to is leaving the car body in the freezer overnight and then gently twisting or prying as appropriate to break the glue joints.

[peteski]

I thought for the freezer method you were supposed to soak the model in water so it gets into all the gaps. Then freezing expands water causing it to pry open the glue joints. At least that is the way the freezer method  is described by automotive modelers to remove windows (and other glued on parts) from model automobile bodies.  Being skeptical, I never tired it.