Possible New Frisco Lightweight Passenger Cars - N-Scale

Some of you may know that Lowell Smith bought the Walthers N-scale passenger car tooling last year

( see https://lowellsmith.net/press-release-tooling-purchase/ )

The Walthers line included:
A Pullman Plan 4140 sleeper in both smooth side and Corugated side versions ( the smooth side version is appropriate for cars the PRR contributed to the Texas Special pool )
A Pullman Plan 7484 64seat coach.
A 72 foot Pullman standard baggage car.

What really makes me excited is the plans that have been revealed for the line:
https://lowellsmith.net/railsmith-plans-revealed/

The notes at the bottom include plans for four new cars:
*Plan 7510 -56 seat coach
*Plan 4119 -Duplex Sleeper
*Plan 7540 -Fluted diner
*Plan 7536 -Fluted RPO

The Diner and RPO are the Pullman plan numbers used for Frisco/Katy cars

The 56 seat coach should be similar to the Frisco cars, though not exactly the same.

Also at the bottom of the page are logos for the Frisco, Katy, and PRR. I would not be surprised if the first release under the Railsmith name included the 10-6 sleeper painted in Texas Special colors. Hopefully we will know soon.

 

More exciting news!
https://lowellsmith.net/product-category/railsmith/the-mkt-the-friscos-texas-special/
And, possibly the Meteor.......

Gerry - now planning to sell the grandchildren!

 

From the updated page, it looks like the focus is on cars that were sold to the Hill lines ( GN, NP, and SP&S in particular ), so we may never see a complete train, but we will be getting some prototypically correct cars out of the deal. ( at least the diner and RPO, and perhaps a coach and coach-buffet-lounge from the 1955 equipment reorder ).

Just for reference, here is the
PRR Page:

https://lowellsmith.net/product-category/railsmith/pennsylvania-transcontinental-cars/

 

Lowell Smith has updated the page on the Texas Special.

It now lists 3 sleeping cars (All katy cars) on the fluted 10-6 body ("David Crocket", "William B. Travis", and "James Bowie".

It says sold out, but I haven't seen anything other than the David Crocket listed before today, so I'm hoping this is just in the process of being updated.

 

And now the cars can be ordered.

Right now, $43 each, or $119 for all three. This is roughly the same price as the Intermountain 10-5 PRR Texas Special cars announced last month ( though you have to order directly, no dealers to try to get a discount through that I am aware of... )

 

Lowell Smith has posted a phoypto of a pre-production sample of the Texas Special sleepers here:
https://lowellsmith.net/texas-is-special/

He indicates in the post that three coaches will be announced soon.

 

Coaches have now been announced, 3 MKT owned cars ( all the names so far have been MKT ) for August delivery.

https://lowellsmith.net/product-category/railsmith/the-mkt-the-friscos-texas-special/

Paul

 

Also of interest is the first announcement of PRR cars from Railsmith:

https://lowellsmith.net/product-category/railsmith/pennsylvania-transcontinental-cars/

This release included “Tippecanoe Rapids”. The prototype for this car was assigned to the Texas Special NYC to San Antonio pool in 1957.

 

...but it's all N-scale. Bah!

GS

 

Yes, of course it is n-scale. This is an N-scale thread after all

 

Received my Texas Special Sleepers today. They are really nice. Too bad they are all MKT. Lowell Smith has announced more cars for the Texas Special. Post on their Facebook requests for Frisco cars. He also announced that Broadway Limited will be doing E7s for the Texas Special. They also announced some heavy weights in order to make some prototypical consists. I don't have the paper in front of my, so that is all the info I have right now.

It sounds like the Meteor will be coming in the future. Also they are looking at other named trains to produce. How about a Frisco Firefly in zephyr blue and streamlined steam engine?

 

I received my sleepers last week.

If I am being a prototype stickler, there are 3 issues with the cars ( which are not going to Lee me from running them,,, )

1. They are the wrong car ( it is a 10-6, not a 14-4 ).
2. They lack number plates above the trucks
3. They lack car ownership plates ( which all the Texas Special cars had ) near the ends.

The flyer included with the cars mentions the following upcoming releases ( in the order listed )

1. Coaches ( which are on the website ) are set for a September release.
2. An observation car is in production and will follow the coaches
3. Broadway Limited has been commissioned to produce EA7s. Formal announcement to come by the end of 2019
4. Heavyweight cars are going into production at MicroTrains and will be available Q1 2020. ( Lowell notes thesecare part of his “Pullman Parks” series, so the car names will not be prototypically)

I already have the coaches on order.

I have have already expressed to Lowell how I feel about the non-prototypical names on the heavyweights ( I probably won’t buy them that way ).

The most interesting announcement to me is the observation car. Lowell bought the lightweight passenger car tooling he is using for the coaches, sleepers, and a baggage car ( Neither Frisco or Katy owned lightweight Baggage cars ) from Walthers. I am not aware of the Walthers’ line including an observation, so this may be new tooling... hopefully it is correct for the Texas Special....

 

One other interesting note from the flyer... Lowell mentions the Texas Special has been the most popular of the RailSmith models.

 

AE3AA7F9-234E-4F84-8449-8BCC1E6FD638 by pbender posted Jun 28, 2019 at 9:45 PM

Lowell Smith’s Texas Special display at the 2019 NSC convention.

 

The next two cars Lowell is producing for the train. Lowell tells me the observation is from the Kato Santa Fe Super Chief and will be released after the coaches arrive.

The baggage RPO is going to be produced on a MicroTrains car.

 

Lowell’s PRR through sleepers. The “Tippecanoe Rapids” was assigned to the Texas Special pool in this paint in 1957.

 

Is there any info anywhere on Texas Special consists? I know the TRRA book has a lot of info, but I don't have access to it, unless some one would loan one to me, or has an extra for sale.

 

For a general listing, the 1955-1956 listing I just posted here is a good start:
http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/frisco-consist-books.12508/

(The Texas Special is the the first consist).

Paul

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Just FYI, Lowell now has the MTL RPO-Baggage listed on his website:

https://lowellsmith.net/product/texas-special-rpo-albert-martin/

The name is for another MKT car, but there wasn’t a Frisco heavyweight RPO painted in shadowline.

Paul