Press Release: Lowell Smith Purchases Tooling From Wm. K. Walthers

Lowell Smith is very pleased to announce the recent ‘purchase of tooling’ of the Walthers line of N Scale passenger cars. The line includes the sleeper, coach and baggage cars in both fluted and smooth-side versions.

The line will be released under the new name of RailSmith Models. RailSmith also plans to expand this line of well-done N Scale passenger cars.

Watch for the first RailSmith Models release the second quarter of 2018!

With these models I can continue my Office Car Special (OCS) series of Norfolk Southern cars, as well as several other current series, but more importantly is the ability to expand the line. What would you like to see? My planned target-price-point on the RailSmith line will be $49. I hope you are excited like I am!

RELATED: Visit my RailSmith page here!

Lowell Smith

A native of Portland, Oregon, Lowell Smith married his church choir sweetheart Barb in 1978. After a lifetime of rail-fanning, Lowell and Barb ventured out in 1992 to launch a new business in Portland, Oregon. Read more

17 Comments

  1. Tom Crowley on December 5, 2017 at 12:26 pm

    Great news Lowell! A fluted side dinner would be great. I don’t think one is currently available from anyone else. There are smooth side from Intermountain.

  2. Bradley Ogden on December 5, 2017 at 2:35 pm

    I would love to see a heavy weight solarium. Some Gorre? & Depheated, Utah Belt, V & O OCS cars and release some older models that you’ve done in the past.

    Cheers,
    Bradley Ogden

  3. David Leasure on December 28, 2017 at 1:54 pm

    Lowell-

    Congrats on purchasing the tooling for the Walthers passenger cars. I’m excited like you are.
    What would I like to see? What I would really like to see is/are the DRGW combine cars as used on the Rio Grande Zephyr train. I’d have to go through my notes to find car numbers, but I think there are at least 6 iterations possible: 1 stripe, 4 stripe, solid silver, for each of the 2 cars they had. One combine had 1 dorm window, while the other had 2 windows.

    Thanks,

  4. Jim Podlich on December 31, 2017 at 9:59 am

    Love to see some Great Northern Big Sky Blue smooth sides in the correct color. (Sorry Centralia).

  5. Allen Evans on January 2, 2018 at 9:44 pm

    Glad to hear that you’ve acquired the Walthers streamlined passenger car tooling. Like many others, I hope that you’ll eventually develop a dining car in smoothsides (I’m thinking ex-N&W Powhatan Arrow cars).

    Regards,
    Allen Evans
    UNW Model RR Club

    • Lowell Smith on March 20, 2018 at 8:07 pm

      Thanks for your note Allen. Yep, we need a diner! Time will tell.

  6. Gerry Baldwin on January 19, 2018 at 7:59 am

    I’d suggest MKT, MP and Wabash corrugated cars (for me!), and a coach baggage combine would be so useful for everyone. Good luck from the UK!

    Gerry Baldwin

    • Lowell Smith on March 20, 2018 at 8:12 pm

      Gerry I really appreciate your suggestions. At least one of those three are on my hit list!

  7. Steve Cleere on February 14, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    Congrats Lowell – the tool & die could not be in better hands. Of course, I’d love to see more prototypically correct cars that would keep me from doing terrible kitbashing– Maybe a Santa Fe Lunch Counter Diner so I can complete my San Francisco Chief? or a Santa Fe Heater Car (converted from smoothside baggage…) and any number of NP, GN and SP&S cars –but you knew that, right??

    Steve Cleere

  8. Peter Schuytema on February 18, 2018 at 11:23 am

    I’d like to see the 10-6 sleeper done in the two-tone gray but lettered NP for the SP’s Cascade service. Other good possibilities are early SP&S (50’s) cars that are painted more correctly than IM’s. As far as new cars, my vote would be for mid-train dome sleepers and coaches as that is a huge hole in N to supplement the IM and Rapido cars that are out there. Good generic lounge or baggage-dorm cars would also be great choices.

  9. Joe Grzelak on March 6, 2018 at 9:00 am

    N&W 10-6 and coach cars would be nice.

    • Lowell Smith on March 21, 2018 at 9:16 am

      and that is on my list Joe! No kidding.

      • Mark on April 13, 2018 at 10:47 am

        Excellent! Walthers did an excellent job matching N&W red, I hope you are able to continue this!

        • Lowell Smith on April 13, 2018 at 3:53 pm

          Yes you are right Mark, they did a great job on all the cars or 99% anyway. And you will be delighted to know that I purchased all the assets including art and paint specs. Happy days ahead!

  10. Donovan M. Proft on April 2, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    I already have several of each of the Walthers cars in NP Lowey scheme but would really like to see NP dome cars and NP & GN baggage/dorm or café/dorm as well as a GN ranch car.

  11. Alwyn Cutmore on April 20, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    Hi Lowell<
    I would like to know more about what PRR Cars you are going to be producing. I will be putting a link to your home page on my PRR N Scale Modelling FB Page as it is there to promote anything PRR. I already have a WKM 10-6 Sleeper but would like more. I was impressed with the quality of the car. If there is anything I can do to assist please just call.

    • Lowell Smith on May 7, 2018 at 1:54 pm

      Alwyn, thank you for your note here and positive encouragement. I plan on doing several Pennsy cars in the RailSmith line! Please email me if you have specifics. Lowell@lowellsmith.net

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