con-cor passenger cars

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I am looking at some passenger cars made by con-cor and was wondering if they were a very good car. They seem to be a pretty good price at Walthers

Thanks Billy 21

2

Are we talking HO or N scale?

3

They were good about 20 years ago. Fortunately, there are much, much better cars available today.

David B

4

Billy, I have 11 of them and for the money they are a great buy! I have 72 foot cars and they take tight turns well. I have a mix of old and new style, new style will be the ones that Walther’s is selling. I did some work on mine, added weight, Kadee coupler pockets and Kadee number 49’s. ( I will need to double check if you want part numbers, it was last year)

I have had 2 problems with them. 1 of the dinning cars was shipped with only one truck? There is quality control![:D] LHS gave me the car! Newer car trucks are held on with screws and goes in to the up right weight in the car. ( it is round and stands up right?) Screws like to back out, Lock tight fixed the problem.

Here are a few of mine.

I have around $190.00 in 11 cars, that is with the up grades. Details are not great, but I am have blind anyway. If you buy some, let me know and I will give tips on removing the roof’s so you can add weight. Pain the first few times, then I found a easier way.

Cuda Ken

5

If you’re talking about the HO scale ones, they’re pretty good but require a bit of upgrading. I have several of the Superliner cars and they need to have weight added, plus I converted mine to body mount couplers with the Walthers swing coupler mount. They seem to run fine mixed with my Walthers Superliners after this work. The coupler mount:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-997

One other thing I noticed, two of them are the lounge cars with the huge windows, and it’s REALLY obvious that you’re running an empty shell of a car because the windows have no tint to them. I fabricated an interior from the floor plans in an old Model Railroader magazine and lightly tinted the windows with Testors spray window tint.

6

I have about 25 Con-Cor corrugated, 85-foot passenger cars from the late 70s and early 80s. At the time, it was the only game in town as Rivarossi was all smooth sided as I recall.

In contrast with today’s offerings, they are course - no interiors or details such as grab irons. Like others, I had to make my own coupler mounts for Kadees but in the end they ran well. Now I use them mostly for background cars in the station and let the Walthers, Rapidos, and Broadway cars have the center stage.

7

Here’s a way to add an interior and weight to the Con-Cor cars:

Palace Car Company interior kits

8

You mean actually create a “model” interior from pieces of plastic??? Was thinking more of a plug and play type of scenario. Modifying an IHC interior at the most. I am tired just thinking about hyour suggestion…

9

Their interior kits are designed for each Con-cor car, so they come with different seats and such depending what car’s kit you buy. What looks like a gray plastic floorpiece is actually painted metal, and adds a surprising amount of weight.

They’re not that hard to do…and that’s coming from someone who started a family by marrying a widow with three kids so I could avoid all the hard work. [swg]