Railsmith Tourist Sleepers

[nickelplate759]

Lowell Smith has announced heavyweight Tourist sleepers (14 section).   Seems to be new tooling.  Pre-production models are shown on his web site.

The first cars are for the Santa Fe Scout:  https://lowellsmith.net/product/rs-scout-santa-fe-sleeper-pair/


More background on the cars here:  https://lowellsmith.net/the-story-of-a-pullman-sleeper/

I haven't even started on my KV models sides for these cars yet!

[Mark5]

Lowell Smith has announced heavyweight Tourist sleepers (14 section).   Seems to be new tooling.

It does indeed appear to be new tooling.

Pressed with the commitment to produce a run of our Pullman Park Series, we decided to make our own car

Our 14 Section sleeper is based on the Pullman Plan 3985 and features: High level accurate body and interior details, Metal wheels, close coupling (no longer will your passengers need to jump between cars!), Running on minimum of 14″ radius  like our streamline RailSmith cars, flush fitting windows where applicable, and we are very excited to say that our new heavy-weight cars will accept our RailSmith lighting boards allowing you to choose if you want to add this great detail of scale lighting to your train!

[thomasjmdavis]

Are these being produced in China/Vietnam, or is THIS why things have been taking so long at Micro-trains?  (Several of Lowell's emails in the past couple years have mentioned delays at Micro-trains) Tooling up a new body style would take a lot longer than producing more sleepers from existing molds.  But I would think they'd make a big deal about it being 'made in America' if it was MTL.

Whichever is the case, these cars do fill a gap in existing models.  The tourist sleeper was a common sight on a number of trains that marked the transition from Heavyweight to Lightweight equipment, and would be found in a number of what we think of as 'streamlined' trains.  And, externally, they can quite easily substitute for standard 14 section sleepers.  And, a number of roads also used these either as-is as coaches, or installed coach seats in later years.  Or converted for MOW use.  So, excellent choice.

As to doing the Scout... well, this is going to be fun to watch, as there are no other accurate cars being made by anybody- so, either Lowell is going to be doing a lot of tooling, or he is going to be stretching 'stand ins' to the edge of foobie-dom.   Of course, if he wants to tool up a couple more heavyweight sleeper types, an ATSF diner, lounge, baggage car, and heavyweight coach, more power to him- and I will likely be a customer, even if I do still have several sets of sides for some of those cars.  The Kato 'corrugated' Budd coaches of the 1990s were pretty close to the early Budd ATSF chair cars, the main difference being (IIRC) that the vestibules are at opposition ends in relation to the window arrangement.  I almost wonder if Lowell has happened upon the old Arnold- Rivarossi tooling for the diner and cafe-lounge. (As far as I can tell looking at consists, the cafe-lounge only appeared on sections running from Barstow to Oakland, but... they would still be sharp cars.)

[nkalanaga]

The old Rivarossi tooling with separate, flush-mounted windows (and probably a new roof) would make a nice looking car.  The windows held the old roof on, and the roof had no AC ducts, so it would probably be easier to make a new one.  But the body castings were nice.

[chessie system fan]

This is great. Maybe there's hope for 8-5 cars and other variations in the future.  I like how the roof has relief and details on the sides of the clerestery.

In the blurb, Lowell did state that other cars in the Scout would not be so prototypically accurate.

The old RR tooling looks alright, if you ignore the lack of steps, but it's actually too short. Compare the sleeper to a MT car and you'll see it's off by two or three feet.

[thomasjmdavis]

This is great. Maybe there's hope for 8-5 cars and other variations in the future.  I like how the roof has relief and details on the sides of the clerestery.

In the blurb, Lowell did state that other cars in the Scout would not be so prototypically accurate.

The old RR tooling looks alright, if you ignore the lack of steps, but it's actually too short. Compare the sleeper to a MT car and you'll see it's off by two or three feet.

The old Rivarossi is modeled after a plan 2410 12-1 sleeper, while the MTL is modeled on the later 3410 12-1.  The 2410 was a foot shorter than the 3410, and lacked the 'pediment' end of the 3410.  The model should be a bit longer than it is, but even if accurate would still be shorter than the MTL 3410.  Ironically, the RR coaches are a couple feet too long- and should be 78' instead of 80 scale feet. The Rivarossi diner, obs, combine and baggage (the latter 2 both rebuilt from long baggage- lounge cars) were all too short.  But.... I still run all of them, with some in my collection being almost 50 years old.

[nickelplate759]

Also, if memory serves, the Rivarossi combine and baggage are actually models of the same car, of which there was only one, at different stages of it's existence.

[thomasjmdavis]

Also, if memory serves, the Rivarossi combine and baggage are actually models of the same car, of which there was only one, at different stages of it's existence.

Not quite- the 'rider' combines and the baggage were converted from baggage lounges of the same series. Original numbers used for the combines were 1342- 1347, and 1349 (conversions 1939-40).  The odd one out, 1348, became baggage car 1849.  (Per the SFRH&MS Head End Cars book by Ellington and Shine.) 1348 was still riding the rails as a baggage lounge until 1943, when they were converting large numbers of older cars to baggage cars as baggage cars were hard to come by with a war on.

[Sokramiketes]

This is brand new tooling and solves some of the shortcuts taken by MTL to simplify their roofs. They are outstanding.

Big move for Lowell to jump into heavyweights and basically move on from Microtrains.

[CBQ Fan]

This is brand new tooling and solves some of the shortcuts taken by MTL to simplify their roofs. They are outstanding.

Big move for Lowell to jump into heavyweights and basically move on from Microtrains.

I think producing heavyweights is a great move.  Two manufacturers increases the odds of more types of cars being made, increased availability on a more regular basis and fills a need in the market.