RPO Newsbag
This is the Lowell Smith Signature Series and RailSmith blog, (or perhaps it's better called, ‘stories around the caboose stove’). Either way, bookmark this page for updates as they happen and check back regularly!
Northern Pacific Terminal Co. – Portland Terminal Railroad Co.
‘Sharing some love’ I am sure you never saw this coming, but with all these great passenger trains being made, we need a ‘Terminal’ switcher right? Many of you are familiar with the Terminal Railroad of St Louis, but what about this line of similar purpose in the Northwest? Over twenty five years ago I…
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Bringing the Baggage Cars to Your Trains
RailSmith is excited to announce that we are working with Wheels of Time to bring you the very best Head End cars for our Build-a-Train series of train consists! Pressed with the issue of needing heavy-weight Mail & Express Baggage cars, we have made an agreement with, in our opinion the best HW baggage cars in N…
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A Yellowstone Celebration!
We love to celebrate our parks. This year we must celebrate ‘all that America is’ in our parks, with the sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of YELLOWSTONE, our first park. Only 150 years ago, in 1872, President US Grant signed the document making Yellowstone a national park. ‘National’ because Wyoming was still a territory and not a state yet.…
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To BSB or Not to BSB
Building an Accurate Train… We always want to do the best we can to create an accurate train in our Build-a-Train process. That said, lets consider the Big Sky Blue sleepers we recently announced in our new P-S 4119 (Duplex) plan. Our research for this GN ‘River’ series (each car having the suffix ‘River’ in…
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New Duplex Sleeper
We have selected and begun production on our latest RailSmith N Scale model – a new duplex sleeper! As railroads entered the ‘Streamline Era’, sleeping cars were developed that had a variety of accommodations all in the same car. These were a popular choice in this time of expansion. Pullman-Standard led the way with the…
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Newly Tooled Coach!
New N scale model is in production! Our ’newly tooled’ Coach, is a Pullman-Standard car that follows the plan 7510. We are very excited to bring this car that has never before been produced in N Scale. This coach was seen in several paint schemes and will offer a nice variety to the N Scale modeler…
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Passenger Service on the SP&S
The picture below tells a fun story of this Northwest train, our next Build-a-Train consist. The SP&S Train #2 ran from Portland to Spokane. Train #1 ran the opposite direction. This photo shows its late-day trip west of Wishram, Washington traveling at speed over the fill at Horse Thief Lake, with the mighty Columbia River in the…
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Consist Chart Choices
I have found it useful to have a visual aid when it comes to passenger train consists, so when it came time to build a chart for some of the trains I plan to build in RailSmith, I found it fun and challenging. As seasons and years pass, changes would come to how a railroad…
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RailSmith Development
Learning more about trains… I love all the feedback and responses I have had about RailSmith Models and what direction to go! I read each one and have filed them for review. Being from the great Northwest, my passion has always been for the Hill Lines, and specifically the Spokane, Portland, & Seattle, and many…
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Arrivals Update: December 2018
RailSmith It is very exciting to know that the first RailSmith shipment is ‘on the water’ as they say. I am delighted that the factory had the first run completed ‘on time’ in early November. The fact that it took me much longer than planned, or understood, to set up the paperwork to become an…
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