Con Cor n scale Empire Builder

[carmelmodelrr]

Does anyone have this set--by Con Cor?  How does it compare to the similar KATO set?

Thanks in advance.

Richard Wroblewski
Carmelmodelrr

[cjm413]

Does anyone have this set--by Con Cor?  How does it compare to the similar KATO set?

Thanks in advance.

Richard Wroblewski
Carmelmodelrr

http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/protopass5.htm

[Missaberoad]

The Kato set is based off UP cars so it is a less accurate version with nicer build quality.

The concor cars for the most part are closer to the prototype cars but it's 30+ year old tooling and shows it...

Im hoping someone makes an updated builder at some point.

[nkalanaga]

The Con-Cor cars are actually two different groups.  The first, Mail-Baggage, Coach, Dome, and Observation, were made by Kato (Sekisui), starting in the late 60s, and are quite accurate, for early N scale.  The windows are too tall, and the cars slightly shortened, so they don't compare to the later Kato models, but they are, at least, GN prototypes.  Also, unlike some dome cars, the dome glass and frame are a single clear casting, making it a little hard to paint the frame neatly, but also minimizing the visible thickness.

The second group, made by Con-Cor in the late 70s(?), aren't as accurate.  These include the Baggage, Diner, and Pullman, that I remember.  The diner is a mirror image of the GN car, making it look a little strange in a train.  Nothing WRONG with it, as a dining car, but it's not right for the GN.  The Pullman seems to also be a mirror image of the GN cars, and the vestibule doors seem to be shorter than they should be.  The baggage doesn't look "wrong", but I can't vouch for its accuracy for the GN.

[carmelmodelrr]

How do the locomotives run?

Richard Wroblewski
carmelmodelrr

[cjm413]

Rapido makes a nice duplex sleeper:

http://rapidotrains.com/n-scale-duplex-sleeper/#gn

The Con-Cor duplex is a steaming yard loaf.

[ncbqguy]

I was visiting JMC Con-Cor the day the molds were being sent to a Chicago toolmaker for the GN RPO, Diner, Duplex and CZ Observation new inserts.    The documentation sent for the new cars was slim.....diagram book drawings.   The Diner  and Duplex were reversed end for end and all of them were cruder than the Sekisui originals.   IIRC the RPO (the original RPO was called a Combine or vice versa; both were combination mail baggages just with different length RPO apartments) was okay.
The last car, the full baggage, was tooled in-house in Tucson and was the best car of the smoothside series. 
I think the Slumbercoach was tooled by Rowa as Con-Cor never had possession of the C&O Rowa ex-MRC tooling and that car was on that base.  Shortly after it was tooled Rowa went bankrupt and the tooling was "lost".
The later China-tooled cars were much better and had no relation to the previous ones except for the Seksui trucks.
Charlie Vlk

[nkalanaga]

Thank you!  I always wondered how they managed to reverse the diner and sleeper, and why they weren't as nicely done as the first four, when the rest of N scale was improving.

[Ike the BN Freak]

Im hoping someone makes an updated builder at some point.

Me too, really want the 1955 EB, have to get 2 sets, one to keep as the EB, and one to use a few of the cars as BN business cars.

[nkalanaga]

IF they're ever made, and IF I can afford them, I'd like three sets:  original green and orange, BSB, and one with the various experimental GN and BN schemes.  Since I model the early Amtrak era, I can use the entire range of colors, as well as Amtrak phase I on a few of the cars..

[jmlaboda - RIP]

For the more ambitious modelers there are brass car sides for accurately modeling many of the cars that GN used on the EB.  The link below will take you to the GN page at the N-scale Varnish User's Guide:

http://n-scalevarnish.info/index/varnish/UsersGuide/GN.htm

(I badly need to update that page...)

[OldEastRR]

For the more ambitious modelers there are brass car sides for accurately modeling many of the cars that GN used on the EB.  The link below will take you to the GN page at the N-scale Varnish User's Guide:

Yep, brass sides (many of the older versions were sized for ConCor cars originally) are the way to go.  And the ONLY way to go if you want to convert the Bachmann Superdome into a correct GN one:

Buying multiples of the same car sides allows you to cut out and layer them (soldering) to make really spectacular 3D prototypes.

[nkalanaga]

Jerry:  I have quite a few of the Brass Car Sides kits, some built, some still in the packages.  They do make nice cars.

And that isn't the ONLY way to get a Great Dome Lounge.  Many years ago, MR had an article on kitbashing one from the Bachmann HO model, and the same techniques work fin in N scale.  Of my three in service, two were done that way, and one is a BCS conversion.