RailSmith - 303208 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Pullman, Sleeper 10-6 - Louisville & Nashville - Kentucky River

Specific Item Information: Louisville & Nashiville railroad sleeper ‘KENTUCKY RIVER‘.

Delivered by Pullman in 1949, this sleeper was one of 3 the L&N ordered that was built to plan 4140, (our RailSmith car) a ten roomette-six bedroom sleeper. This class configuration of sleeper for the L&N were all given the “River” names.

These cars were built to the Pennsy standards for through service to New York on the Pan-American and PRR’s Cincinnati Limited. Originally painted tuscan red, they later wore Louisville & Nashville’s blue and gold.

Later in the 1960’s, this car was also used on Pennsy’s SOUTH WIND, service from Chicago to Miami.

Model Information: First released in 2007.

• All-New Tooling based on Plan #4140
• Prototype Specific Details: - Skirted or Non Skirted, Corrugated or Smoothside
• All Detail Parts Added with flush fitting windows
• Full interiors and working diaphrams
• Blackened Metal Wheelsets on correct GSC 41-N style Trucks
• Come with decals permitting multiple car number and names
• Drop-In Lighting Kit will also be available, item #933-1099

Prototype History: After World War II the 10-roomette 6-double bedroom (colloquially the "10-6 sleeper") design proved popular in the United States. A roomette is a type of sleeping car compartment in a railroad passenger train. The term was first used in North America, and was carried over into Australia and New Zealand. Roomette rooms are relatively small, and were generally intended for use by a single person. Double Bedrooms are private rooms for two passengers, with upper and lower berths, washbasins, and private toilets, placed on one side of the car, with the corridor running down the other side (thus allowing the accommodation to be slightly over two thirds the width of the car). Frequently, these accommodations have movable partitions allowing adjacent accommodations to be combined into a suite.

The Pennsylvania Railroad had 61 Pullman Standard 10-6's in all. The Norfolk and Western “County” series and the RF&P “King” sleepers were built by PS in 1949 for the New York to Richmond and Norfolk trains.

Road Name History: The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (reporting mark LN), commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.

Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the great success stories of American business. Operating under one name continuously for 132 years, it survived civil war and economic depression and several waves of social and technological change. Under Milton H. Smith, president of the company for thirty years, the L&N grew from a road with less than three hundred miles (480 km) of track to a 6,000-mile (9,700 km) system serving thirteen states. As one of the premier Southern railroads, the L&N extended its reach far beyond its namesake cities, stretching to St. Louis, Memphis, Atlanta, and New Orleans. The railroad was economically strong throughout its lifetime, operating both freight and passenger trains in a manner that earned it the nickname, "The Old Reliable."

Growth of the railroad continued until its purchase and the tumultuous rail consolidations of the 1980s which led to continual successors. By the end of 1970, L&N operated 6,063 miles (9,757 km) of road on 10,051 miles (16,176 km) of track, not including the Carrollton Railroad.

In 1971 the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, successor to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, purchased the remainder of the L&N shares it did not already own, and the company became a subsidiary. By 1982 the railroad industry was consolidating quickly, and the Seaboard Coast Line absorbed the Louisville & Nashville Railroad entirely. Then in 1986, the Seaboard System merged with the C&O and B&O and the new combined system was known as the Chessie System. Soon after the combined company became CSX Transportation (CSX), which now owns and operates all of the former Louisville and Nashville lines.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: RailSmith is a brand launched by Lowell Smith in 2019. Lowell acquired the toolings from Walthers.

With each release, RailSmith will bring passenger cars from across the spectrum of North America’s railroads, with the goal of building entire trains over a period-of-time. It is our plan to release cars that might be for a specific train, but you can use these cars as you see fit, as did the railroads.

Production plans are grand, but we believe they are also achievable. We do not have the capabilities to release an entire train at once, but being able to focus on one release (two-or-three cars at a time), we can build a train over time.