Has anyone got any ConCor passenger cars? Are they any good? The price isn’t bad.
I have some in N scale. Add MT (Kadee) trucks and couplers. I replace the plastic wheels with Atlas metal wheel sets (My option). Put lead weight to bring the car up to NMRA standards and they are not bad at all.
I too have some n scale concors, not that bad, I use them as is.
Hi!
I am wondering the same thing (quality of con cor passenger cars), only for the HO cars. I have a nice set of Walther’s Illinois Central lightweight cars, but they do not have a baggage or RPO model. Yes, I know that Rapido has a baggage car “coming soon”, but the money is more than I want to spend.
My add on to your question is… Has anyone had experience with Con-Cors HO passenger cars?
Thanks,
Mobilman44
I have one Con-Cor HO scale passenger car and would rate it about equal to IHC’s products. Not as good as Athearn or a more expensive brand.
There are some of the Con-Cor 85 foot passenger cars in my collection. Right out of the box they are way too light in weight. I add lead shot to all the cavities inside the car and fix it with epoxy poured over the shot. Sheet .015 styrene is then added as a floor and an interior added.
The trucks are modified by replacing the wheels with Kadee 522 wheel sets. Couplers are body mounted Kadee 46 couplers set in from the end to reesult in the correct location of the knuckle. Using the long shank coupler gives some extra swing for curves.
The cars are based on ATSF and “California Zephyr” prototypes The CZ cars are the Budd Dome coach 10/6 Budd Pullman and the Dome Obs. The other streamlined cars are loosly based on ATSF prototypes.
With some work the cars can be made to operate properly and become excellent models.
I have 10 of them and with a little work they run great! I added around 4 oz’s of lead weights to the inside of the car’s. Most now have Kadee pockets and couplers. Some have metal wheel sets, some came with plastic wheels and metal axles. I have yet needed to replaces any wheels or trucks.
Hard part is removing the roof’s so weight can be added. If you get some I will walk you through the up grades. Guessing I have around 60 hours on the set so far.
Cuda Ken
Con Cor made HO streamline cars that were a scale 85ft. long. I think they were loosely based on Pullman Standard. I had several back in the 1980s. Appearance- wise they were a slight step up from the Athearn shorties. The one-piece roof on these cars had the “windows” attached to it, which were actually clear plastic running the length of the entire car.
I sold them once I became hooked on the Rivorossi’s which, for that time period, were the nicest looking plastic streamliners on the market.
The new Con-Cor shorties look decent. Hard for me to tell but they appear to be Pullman Standard styled “shorties”. Are they?.
Antonio,
I think that the Con-Cor shorties were based on P/S cars built for the C&NW. That’s what my flawed memory dredged up, anyway. [:)]
An alternate to this is to use the Walthers swing coupler adaptor. Item number 933-997. It was designed for the Athearn 85 foot high cube and trailer train flat, but I’ve always said, just because it’s made for a certain job doesn’t mean that’s the only thing you can do with it.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-997
I have three of the Con-Cor Superliner Cafe-Lounge cars with these installed and they handle curves well with the rest of the consist being the Walthers Superliners. Of course I’ve added weight and changed the wheelsets in addition to the coupler conversion.
I got over about a dozen+ in the North Pole Southern. I love them. There is work to be done though. Generally, people downplay horn hooks on grades. I had a shelf collapse on me, leavign the temporary track at a 30 degree angle, and they hung together just fine. Weight is good to add, but if you do, decide whether ror not you want interiors. These tend to add more weight than you imagine, and may cause a car to develop “fat passengers sitting on the side” syndrome in an otrherwise waitd car. you might want to change the way the trucks are mounted. The older models, some stuill in the LHS sales systems, used a plastic plug that (hopefully) snug fit to the car. These need to be replaced with a screw. Newer cars have the screw. You might change the railroad wheels, depending on your preferences. What they come with are great plastic wheels on a metal axle, they could be converted to all metals. Not a major point.
Cuda Ken has done all the work I listed, but that;s the basics. Beware of rivet counter posters who will downplay the effects of a well worked Con-Cor. Any car needs a little TLC to maximize it’s potential. Some need more than others; none not worth effort.
Thanks for the replies guys.
The coaches are definitely C&NW, the baggage car is CN/VIA. The others, I’m not so sure about.
Decent little cars for shorties.
I’ve got one, a dome car, and it took work. But the result is a rather nice car, smooth rolling and reliable. The only reason I bought it was because it was a Pullman dome that had a lower dome on it that kinda/sorta represented an ex C&O dome car that was sold to the Rio Grande in the late 'forties for use on their “Royal Gorge” as it was being revised and was a train that I was modeling. I have not converted it yet to the ‘dome-observation-mid-train’ car that the Rio Grande re-built it to, but I replaced the wheelsets with 36" Intermountains, added a little weight, put in a jerry-built interior (Palace Car Co. offers interiors for just about ALL of the Con-Cor cars), changed out the couplers to medium-shank McHenry’s with spring knuckles, added diaphraghms (working) to it, and it’s quite happy in my 1950 ROYAL GORGE.
Definitely not as ‘detailed’ as my Walthers Rio Grande cars, but it does not look out of place.
Nice car.
Tom [:)]
Arjay, fmilhaupt
Yes, I do see the strong resemblence to the Pullman Standard C&NW cars.
Thanks for that info
[:)]
YES. Their full length corregated cars are right up there with Rivarossi but not as good as Walthers’, - but better than IHC.
They used cheap Couplers, Talgo trucks, & patterned after (1) 85’ ACF & Pullman stylel corregateds (2) smooth side ‘Generic’ smooth sided 72 footers.
I replaced the horn hooks with Kadee #38’s, Jay Bee body mounts, and metal trucks for adding unsprung weight. NOW they operate as good as they look.
Late production upgraded cars had metal wheels and emphasis on accurate, prototype colors. 85’ PASSENGER CARS may be prototype length, but 72 footers work better on most layouts.(22"r.curves).
I have one (a gift) but it feels a bit lightweight. i ahven’t used it much to see if it affects performace.
85’ CARS NMRA recommended weight is 5.75 oz + .25 oz.