N Product Lines

This series started as a feature of amazing model railroad private cars. Morphing into some prototype cars along the way. The Brotherhood of Model Railroad Engineers is a brand / logo that I registered many years ago. To me it speaks to the fellowship of brothers who share that common interest of modeling and operating their railroads. Watch for something more here soon. It's 'in the cooker!'

These cars are always first introduced at the N Scale Collector’s Convention. We produce forty of them, and they are not announced until opening of the doors at the SWAP-A-RAMA. Each car is a unique design created, painted, and decaled by Lowell. Of the forty cars, twenty are in numbered boxes.   The first “concept” car was released at the Baltimore convention in 1995, and it was named “the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company”. Those cars sold out in ten minutes, and that was surprising because the cars were decaled! The next year, at the Denver N Scale Convention, Lowell put Lifesaver’s in a hopper and called it “Operation Lifesaver”. “Operation Lifesaver” was the first concept car where twenty of them were numbered as 1 of 20, 2 of 20, 3 of 20, etc. The other twenty cars were not numbered. That year Lowell offered the first twenty customers the option of always having the same number, year after year, of the new concept car numbered. That’s how the numbered “concept” series was started, and you had to be in the right place, at the right time, which was Denver, Colorado in 1995. Of these twenty sets, the rights of certain numbers have been sold only three times. These twenty customers do not need to be at our table “first in line” to get their cars, as they are always held in reserve for each of them.   Lowell decided to call them “concept” cars following the pattern of the Detroit auto makers. New ideas are rolled out, and some are used, but many are never put into production. We have just decided to add the “Concept Cars’ to our website, but like the Detroit auto makers, some may be special runs someday, but many will not, because they are victims of bad ideas, or “too costly” fees, and will be rare cars from a moment in time. If you have any questions about any of the “concept” cars, you may email Lowell at contactus@lowellsmith.net.

The Great Northern Series captures the stunning art of Winold Reiss and his Blackfeet Indian paintings which were used for thirty years of calendar art and promotional purposes for the Great Northern Railway. Now through a license agreement with the BNSF Railway Company, Lowell Smith Signature Series brings you a chance to own current calendars with this iconic art from the past. Reproduction with technical accuracy from the 1946 version, 'Wades-In-The-Water' is the second release. Dimensions 17" x 33".

Watch for the next release coming soon!

In the 1950′s and 60′s, most Lionel train sets included a boxcar. The common number '6464' was printed on every car, regardless of the road name, and these cars have become a highly collected series for Lionel lovers throughout the world. We commissioned Micro-Trains to reproduce these cars in N scale. We chose Micro-Trains because they are a company that, like Lionel, and Marklin, is a major brand name of trains that are both “collected and operated”. Our series began in 1995 and was projected to take seven years based on releasing six cars each year. The series was completed in 2002, as expected. All cars were produced using the Micro-Trains 20,000 body style.  At the end of the series, several "customer appreciation" sets were produced (shown at the bottom of this page). Three locomotives and a caboose were released in conjunction with this series.

The 'Walt Disney's Trains' product line includes my three individual series depicting Walt Disney's famous trains.

Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Series

Disney Christmas Cars for the Walt Disney Family Museum

The Disneyland® Mainstreet USA Collection by artist Robert Olszewski

To learn more about the Walt Disney Family Museum click here.