RailSmith Cars

[Tad_T]

I received this car and a few others today. Another Rock Island and two Santa Fe coaches.

I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. I was laying on the floor of my train room taking them with my phone.

I’ll post better photos of this one and the others in a day or two.

[nkalanaga]

How many Midwest roads used what I always thought of as "Burlington-style" lettering?

[nickelplate759]

Not just Midwest. Seaboard too.

[thomasjmdavis]

How many Midwest roads used what I always thought of as "Burlington-style" lettering?

"Zephyr" lettering was a font created by Budd for the first CB&Q Zephyrs, but it also appeared on some other railroads cars (apparently Budd retained rights), especially the early Budd cars build before WWII.  For instance, FEC (another southeastern example) also used it on their late 30's Budd cars (and the non-Budd cars used a different font).  Some railroads that ran trains in cooperation with CB&Q also used in on the cars that were commonly mixed with CB&Q equipment. 

I will give credit to Lowell on the ATSF cars that his advertising points out that these are not accurate representations of ATSF cars. He in fact shows a photo of the side of prototype 3179, to demonstrate the actual window arrangement.  My opinion is that the cars are also not too far off from the 3 PS divided chair cars that were built for use on the Texas Chief.  But, of course, anyone considering using them for that purpose should compare them to the real Texas Chief cars (3187-3189).  In any case, I can only agree with his statements that not enough streamlined ATSF chair cars (coaches) available in N scale- the only (more or less) accurate ones being the Con-cor and Bachmann versions of the Budd 'twin window' cars.

[nkalanaga]

Thank you!  I always assumed that it was a CB&Q font, as the only place I remember seeing it was on their passenger cars in Amtrak trains.  It wasn't until recently that I started noticing it on other roads passenger cars as well.

And, yes, if one wants prototypical passenger cars, one needs to look closely at RailSmith offerings.  If it says "Classic" it isn't 100% correct, and may be off by quite a bit.  They all look good, but whether they're close enough to "right" is an individual call.

As an example, I've bought his GN MidCentury duplex sleepers, although they're actually an NP prototype.  The duplex rooms are at the wrong end for the GN, but they look a LOT better than the old ConCor cars.  On the other hand, his MidCentury "Pass" series cars are too far off for me, and I'll stick with my Brass Car Sides on Concor bodies.

[Tad_T]

Hopefully, these are a little better. I need to keep working on getting better at taking photos.


RI 323 "Chisolm Trail"










ATSF 3179








RI 425 "Golden Banquet"

[thomasjmdavis]

I have to admit to a love-hate relationship with Lowell Smith's models (and the Walthers predecessors). He doesn't make the cars I need, but I use lots of them as stand ins for cars that are not readily available.  So, I may point out errors when I see them, but I suppose that just means that sometimes something falls outside my 'close enough'.  The only car I consider a 'foobie' (that is, not really 'close enough' to its prototype) is the 12-4 sleeper, which is only a 12-4 on one side (it is a 10-6 on the other). But... Railsmith is the only company bringing out new transition era passenger cars, so... I'll cut him some slack on the 12-4.

For sake of comparison, here is a photo of the real Chisolm Trail, the major difference is that the prototype photo is a Budd car.
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/ri_chisholm_trail0.jpg
RI did have PS coaches with windows similar to the model, but those had vestibules at both ends.  Which reminds me, I need to complete an ATSF divided coach with USP sides.

The Golden Banquet model is much closer to reality (although I believe the diner model is based on cars used on the MKT/SLSF Texas Special).  Detail differences, but it was a good choice for a 'generic' PS diner that can look 'close enough' for a lot of roads.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1492540

Photo links courtesy of our late friend Jerry Laboda's Passenger Car Photo Index.

(the rrpicturearchives photos take a llllloooonnnngggg time to load, at least for me)