Will you see all the trains you want in your lifetime?

Creating an exact model of a passenger train comes one-car-at-a-time. Only Kato has given us complete train sets. But, hold that thought… As a consumer we want it all and are pretty fickle about criticism of those manufacturers when they decorate a car that is not, although nicely decorated, accurate to that particular body style. What do you care about? If we learn about what passenger cars made up that ’name train’, that knowledge can work against us as criticism when it is wrong and some will ask, ‘why can’t they get it right?’.

Now I’m on the other side-of-the-tracks and personally deciding what my vision is of how to move forward with the acquisition of the Walther’s N Scale passenger cars. Cases in point that you will understand: Kato produced very nice models, and nicely decorated, and we like their models for those reasons. Did we care that the models were of Union Pacific cars that are now painted GN, Via, SP, etc…? We bought them because they were nicely done and because there were few, if any, other choices.

Walthers passenger cars, nicely done, never carried a road number or a road name, and the cars were sold with a decal set for the consumer to decide and ‘finish’. I want to produce a finished car. That decision means that choices need to be made about producing a ‘prototypically’ accurate car. And when it is not, what would you suggest? And, how many of you really know the difference and do care? I know the answer to that question and will show you. We buy a boxcar because we ‘like it’ and like the decoration or road name. Knowledge can be good and bad. We have heard folks say their railroad never had that car, so they won’t buy it. And while I can appreciate the desire for accuracy, it comes down to time. I want it in my lifetime! The process of manufacturing, and the cost of tooling, is limiting the end solution of perfection of a train!

I think that less than 20 percent of model railroaders know that a car is right or not. When a producer boasts they are making a boxcar with XYZ accurate brake wheel, roof detail, etc., I did not realize the ones produced in that paint scheme in the past, were not prototypically accurate. Did I care? Did you care? The fact is that less than 20 percent do. You may know YOUR railroad, but in this day-and-age of model railroading, can we expect that all will come our way and we will get 100 percent prototype trains? In recent years Kato is doing a pretty good job of this. But time works against us all and we still are not there. It is a numbers issue. The cost of tooling-up new models is very high.

I am committed to produce high-quality and accurately-decorated passenger train models for the RailSmith line.

I believe that most will support my plan to continue, as I do with Lowell Smith Signature Series, to produce smaller quantities in my production of RailSmith Models. So whether or not somebody likes it, if it is decorated correctly, I’d like to believe ‘ideally’ the quantity produced will not be sitting on a shelf six months later, thus allowing more trains to be produced.

What is your opinion? Please share in the comments below…