ConCor "Great American" Trainsets

[OldEastRR]

I see BLW has a few of these things up for sale --- of course they're all foobs. But I'm wondering if ConCor ever did a trainset of these passenger cars in GN or NP -- the only railroads that actually ran them or similar cars?

[Missaberoad]

They sold the cars painted for Great Northern... Not sure if it was part of a set...

Not sure if they did them in NP but the NCL cars were different...

[nkalanaga]

As far as I know they never sold a GN set, but did sell the GN cars from the very beginning, and the paint and lettering were quite good on them.  The tooling is dated know, but the original cars were accurate for the GN.  The later additions were odd.  The baggage was fine, but the sleeper and diner were mirror images of the GN prototypes.

The NP set, not so much.  The paint was fine, but the lettering proportions were off, and most of the cars were not correct.  The baggage was usable, and the dome-coach was correct, as the NP's were identical to the GN's.  The F3s, of course, weren't much good, and I replaced mine with Minitrix Fs.  But, again, for the time, they were the only NP passenger cars available, and until MicroScale offered decals, the only way to GET an N scale NP passenger train.

The Con-Cor domes are still the only "smoothside" Budd domes made in N scale.

[Nato]

              The Painting on these cars has varied over the years. The GN Diner is a mirror image, the windows should be on opposite sides. The NP Lowey scheme was first done on one of those Limited Addition sets, it was OK and the only Lowey painted cars at the time except for Arnold Rapido. Con Cor upgraded the printing on all their smooth side cars GN cars now have car names and numbers, DK green truck side frames (not correct). NP cars were released not in a set (taking away the collector value of the set) but the colors are now close to spot on and there are car numbers and "Pullman" as per some NP cars. Yes I know most of these cars except for the dome coach are not correct, the duplex sleeper sort of resembles N P duplex cars. IC which was done as a Foob Panama Limited set with coaches named for sleepers, has been re done as very nice open stock no trainset cars with car names and numbers . The best paint scheme I have seen from Con Cor was/is? their Pennsylvania Lowey 1930's scheme, but unfortunately being Con Cor their 5 car sets included a dome car. After replacing their pale yellow UP paint used for awhile after KATO no longer was supplying cars they announced they were now useing Scale Coat Paint and the UP color was closer to correct and hey began adding car numbers and names. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[nkalanaga]

Thank you!  I haven't bought any CC smoothside cars since the early 80s, having enough of them, and with decals and paint readily available now, have repainted most of mine.  It's nice to know that CC did upgrade them.

[MetroRedLine]

I see BLW has a few of these things up for sale --- of course they're all foobs.

Isn't churning out foobs Con-Cor's specialty in the first place? 

[Jbub]

Isn't churning out foobs Con-Cor's specialty in the first place? 

Whenever I read that word this scene always comes to mind.

[Missaberoad]

Isn't churning out foobs Con-Cor's specialty in the first place? 

Even back when nobody in N scale was making prototypical models Concor took it next level...  CSX verandas anyone?

[JMaurer1]

...Pennsy GS-4's, anyone?

[Sharky_McSharknose]

...Pennsy GS-4's, anyone?

Amtrak Bo-Bo-Bo JNR Electric?

Or, *GASP* a Pennsy J-3a Hudson! HERESSSSSYYYYYY!!!!! 

Back on topic, I have an old Great American Train set decorated for the 1938 NYC 20th Century Ltd. The set came with seven smooth-side cars (single-level at least, no domes) and one NYC 40' Early Bird box car. I assume that's supposed to represent an express boxcar despite the different eras and the fact the box car would break up the train's silhouette, which is déclassé for the private jet of its day. Unfortunately, the white pad printing used for the passenger car lettering is rather weak and coming off in places. I've run the set once or twice but it's not a regular part of the roster and will likely end up for sale soon.

[nkalanaga]

In defense of CC's early efforts, they also made some very nice prototypical schemes, and their "foobs" were often the only things available for those roads.  There simply wasn't much available in the 60s and 70s.

As for the boxcar in the passenger train, a lot of roads did use standard boxcars in express service.   They had steam an communication lines, usually buffers to batch the diaphragms, and often express trucks (or at least roller bearings), but they were still boxcars, not express boxes.

[bbussey]

The vintage Con-Cor Limited sets from that time period were well-done and utilized equipment available that was closest to the prototype. Including, using other manufacturers’ models on occasion. They were top notch for what was possible and practical during that N scale era.