A Con-Cor comeback

[sirenwerks]

Isn't the goal to have things made in USA? 
This all seems fishy to me, but if it is for real, and they can pull it off - the more power to them.

Considering so much of the US once belonged to Mexico, what's the diff?


Also, potentially raising the quality of life for our southern neighbors might solve some problems, when you consider studies show most Americans don't want the sorts of jobs Con Cor manufacturing could offer. So you can either provide a job in a country that needs them and help those folks stay in their culture and home, or bring the job here, have it ignored by Americans, and attract migrants to leave their home and come to the US to be taken advantage of by their employers and provide fodder for people whose raison d'être is to complain about the backbone of America - immigrants - like is the frequent case here.

[Spades]

Considering so much of the US once belonged to Mexico, what's the diff?
.

Don't forget France, Spain, Great Britian, Russia. Canada and the people who arrived and first populated North America.

Mexico is the world's 9th largest manufacturer, US is number 2.  Also the US has something China does not export much of. Services.

The US economy is largely in the Americas.  That strip of land from Canada to the Straits of Magellan.

China runs huge trade surplus in order with Asia, than Europe, followed by the US.  Central and South America tend to run a trade surplus.  China has to import food and fuel just to survive. 

Manufacturing jobs.  With automation you need the skills of a programmer and a machinist and there won't be many.

As for the US Citizens not wanting that kind of work.  There is a video showing model trains being built in the US Northwest.  It shows people doing handwork.  In Shenzhen China the Foxconn plant, those are not shade awning on the side of the building.

The 22nd Amendment only allows for 8 years as POTUS.  We hold elections and are divided about evenly.  The winning party will get about 51 to 52 % tops on the national level.  The winning party rightly reads the result as not liking the policies of the party in power, but wrongly think its a call for social revolution of their policies.  Citizens just want good competent government. Still waiting all these years.

[nkalanaga]

I hope Con-Cor returns to the original trucks for their passenger cars.  If one has samples from the early Sekisui/Japan cars, and the later US-made ones, there's a small but noticeable difference.

The early trucks came with 36 inch, or close enough, wheels, and the top of the truck bolster was flush with the top of the sideframe.  So did the freight cars, as I suspect the factory used a Japanese wheelset.

The US-made cars soon had 33 inch wheels, the same as the freight cars should have.  That lowered the car about 0.01 inch, 1.5 scale inches, so they raised the truck bolster the same amount to compensate.  There is now a visible difference in the bolster and sideframe.

Making 36 inch wheels won't be a problem, starting from scratch with a new factory, so I hope they'll go back to the correct trucks.

[peteski]

Isn't the goal to have things made in USA? 
This all seems fishy to me, but if it is for real, and they can pull it off - the more power to them.

Considering so much of the US once belonged to Mexico, what's the diff?


Also, potentially raising the quality of life for our southern neighbors might solve some problems, when you consider studies show most Americans don't want the sorts of jobs Con Cor manufacturing could offer. So you can either provide a job in a country that needs them and help those folks stay in their culture and home, or bring the job here, have it ignored by Americans, and attract migrants to leave their home and come to the US to be taken advantage of by their employers and provide fodder for people whose raison d'être is to complain about the backbone of America - immigrants - like is the frequent case here.

Wow, I guess that you and others (since I got some down-votes) missed the point  indicating that I posted that in jest. I even used the emoji.  The second sentence also cemented my view that I was all for manufacturing done outside of Amurica. 

[Spades]

Considering so much of the US once belonged to Mexico, what's the diff?


Also, potentially raising the quality of life for our southern neighbors might solve some problems, when you consider studies show most Americans don't want the sorts of jobs Con Cor manufacturing could offer. So you can either provide a job in a country that needs them and help those folks stay in their culture and home, or bring the job here, have it ignored by Americans, and attract migrants to leave their home and come to the US to be taken advantage of by their employers and provide fodder for people whose raison d'être is to complain about the backbone of America - immigrants - like is the frequent case here.


Wow, I guess that you and others (since I got some down-votes) missed the point  indicating that I posted that in jest. I even used the emoji.  The second sentence also cemented my view that I was all for manufacturing done outside of Amurica.

Peteski

I will remove my anal cap in a moment.  The US 4th in Area 2nd in manufacturing, Canada 2nd largest country in area and 18th in manufacturing. Mexico14th in area 9 in manufacturing. all form North America, 

Humor is such a personal thing.  Combine that with a group of people who create their own miniature world  Well you can see how this ends.

Pete, your posts are well, prolific.  Especially your technical post and when you post photos of your modelling. I learn something I'll give you an up vote. 

The vote thing.  Seeking validation from a bunch of total strangers seems bound to dissappoint

[Mark5]

Concor has been staging a comeback (off and on) for decades it seems. 

They were a power house in N scale back in the 70s and 80s (I still have some of their old catalogs).

Mark

[Roger Holmes]

I haven't soldl on eBay in years but reading this thread makes me think that I ought to take my M-10000 out of the display case, put it back in its original box and raise some cash for the grandkid's college fund. 

[OldEastRR]

I haven't soldl on eBay in years but reading this thread makes me think that I ought to take my M-10000 out of the display case, put it back in its original box and raise some cash for the grandkid's college fund. 

Put up a set w/ a decoder in it and double your profit.

[thomasjmdavis]

Concor has been staging a comeback (off and on) for decades it seems. 

They were a power house in N scale back in the 70s and 80s (I still have some of their old catalogs).

Mark

My 70s era catalogs are long gone, but my  70s era PA is still running strong, if noisy.

[peteski]

My 70s era catalogs are long gone, but my  70s era PA is still running strong, if noisy.

Those are solidly built Katos after all. 

[Philip H]

Following that blog post back to their website I count 10-ish n scale items. 5 of which are BLI products. There’s only 1 genuine concor item there and it’s the 60foot boxcar in Chessie. Which was good in its day but now …

[MetroRedLine]

Meh. Con-Cor has always been on my "Do Not Buy" list. There's always something about a Con-Cor model that's just plain wrong. Like their 89' autoracks that are too short (height-wise) yet still have a ridiculously tall ride height. Or intermodal containers that have interconnecting pegs on the top and not the bottom (and are incompatible with any other containers). They were one of the last N scale manufacturers to ditch rapido couplers in the 2010s, and when they did, they were non-operating knuckle couplers (they marketed them as "Rigid-Jaw" couplers, which was totally laughable). Bachmann at least made some redeeming models, like the SC44 Charger, but I don't think Con-Cor will be able to do it, regardless of where their products are made. But hey, good luck to them.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I feel like Con-Cor is the embodiment of "you either die a hero or live long enough to seen as a villain".

[JMaurer1]

I used to fall for ConCors promises, but they have cured me of that. Most of the promises they made have now been done by a different company...cab forwards, GS-4s, UP Turbines. I waited for 15 years for the turbines and still haven't ever heard if they were finally cancelled or not.

Fool me once...

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I wonder how they got their tooling out of China? I thought that that was (supposedly) next to impossible.

-Mark

My guess is parts are still provided from China. Painting, assembly and packaging done in Mexico.

I also wonder what new management is in place. Jim Conway was there for the birth of N scale, but he also had a seriously flawed character. He may have built Con-Cor, but he also was the one who buried it.