I was wondering if anyone could give me their thoughts & or opinions on ConCor Passenger cars?
How well do they run, go together, paint etc etc etc.
Thanks in advance
Gordon
PS, the 85’ cars! [:D]
Terrible. I made the mistake of purchasing a set of Con-Cor SP Daylight passenger cars. I have replaced the wheelsets with metal, had to change the couplers (only McHenry makes a replacement), and add weights, and they still won’t stay on the track. Athearn, Bachmann Spectrum, IHC, Walthers, and even Rivarossi, to name just a few, are much better quality.
My last attempt to salvage something from these will be to change from truck mounted to body mounted Kadee couplers and see if that helps them stay on the track.
I’ve used Intermountain wheelsets, which are supposed to be some of the best you can get, and the cars derail all over the club layout. No other brand has this problem.
Gordon,
What scale are you modeling? Con-Cors are available in HO and N.
I had a fleet of streamlined HO Con-Cor passenger cars. They were light in weight and needed weighing down. Appearance-wise they looked decent but had one slight problem…the corrugation pattern was reversed. This becomes evident when you compare them to Rivorossi or Walthers passenger cars.
Just as in Rivorossis, adding weight, metal wheels and interior lighting makes Con-Cor passenger cars look quite attractive and track well. Best to use flat weight over the entire car floor and an additional flat weight over each trucks.
The IHC interior kit can then be put right on top of the weights.
Hope this helps!
Cacole
Most of those use Talgo trucks. Body mounting should cure your problems:
My 30 CONCOR 85’ cars ALL have:
#36 or #46 KD’s
Jaybee 36" wheels
Jaybee coupler pad’s
A Line weight’s
They roll, stay on the track, and traverse a #6 Crossover at speed. Your’s?
Hello CP5415,
the following info is by comparison. I have a set of five, superliner cars by concor in N-scale (don’t know if we’re in the same scale), they came with lead weights attached to them and they run OK. BUT! In comparison to kato set ( I proudly boast qutie a number of these fine cars) they’re stone age.
The kato set by far out class them in look, finish, flawless running and I could go on and on. If it’s any consolation though I think the details on the outside are quite good but the buck stops there.
The kato superliner ca is at rear.
verse2damax
See more at http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=343309110
I’ve got the Rio Grande 72’ Con-Cor smooth-side streamlined passenger cars that I use for my ficticious “Prospector DeLuxe” and they’re fine. No problems. Replaced the horn-hooks with McHenry’s, am planning on putting body-mounted Kadees in in the future. I also have an SP set in the “Lark” two-tone gray paint scheme, and same thing there. No problems. I like them. They’re not detailed down to the last rivet, but they look pretty good behind my passenger power. No complaints from this end.
Tom [^]
Antonio, HO scale sorry!!! OOPS!
So If I bought some they would be extremely noticable in the same consist as a Walthers car?
Gordon
Forgive me if this observation isn’t accurate but are the windows on the fluted side cars too small? I don’t own any Con-Cor as, for a few bucks more, I can do a lot better. Just another opinion.
I don’t own any ConCor cars either.
I have 11 Walthers, 1 Older Rivarossi, 2 IHC & 3 Athearn Bombardier that I plan on using in my passenger car pool.
I was only inquiring about ConCor as they have a model of a CP car that no one else makes.
Gordon
I looked at buying the Con-Cor N Scale Superliner Cars, but was turned off when I saw that they put a window in the dining car that does not exist in the prototype. They do their HO Superliners properly; I guess they just went cheap on the N Scale cars and made the Dining Car window layout the same as on the Coach -Baggage.
[:)]
Edited to add: I ended up buying the Kato Superliners, and I just love them!
Roadtrp,
the main reason that I bought the concor version was to practise weathering and super detailing but to date I haven’t figured out how to open these cars, to add interior details, without damaging them. Since I’ve read your reply I’ve looked even closer at them and you’re correct.
verse2damax
Overall the Con-Cors are not great. On the HO VIA ones the detail is far from correct (window arrangements, etc), and they do not run that well either. What I don’t get is why they chose to put the truck mounts at the end of the truck closest to the coach end. This means that when ever I hit a slight grade drop on even the slightest curve they derail. They don’t couple well either, with my walther’s F40 and Athearn P42, the coaches uncouple on any increase or drop in grade that comes abruptly, such as a slight hump.
The only reason I’ve been interected in them is because they are cheap (though now I see why) and they are the only ones I’ve found that offer the Budd rear end bullet observation car with dome, in VIA Rail. If anyone can prove me wrong please do.
Does any other manufacturer, other than Walthers, make 85’ Budd VIA coaches?
ConCor HO passenger car’s I would rate ‘equal’ or ‘better’ than Rivarossi cars. WHY?
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ConCor are corregated 40’s ACF built prototypes. Rivarossi are all 30’s smooth sided Pullman prototypes. BOTH are superior to IHC’S product’s.
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Walthers’ ‘Budd’ and newer $40+ cars have raised the bar considerably, along with price. I don’t know if ‘’ you get what you pay for’', but you will definitly pay for what you get!
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"Daylight’ cars HAD larger windows - (as ordered from Pullman). Mfg’rs using plastic mold’s, need to compromise design’s to lower cost’s. If you want your ‘Daylight’ cars with Protoypical windows, you’ll find them for $200 - $400 per car, not $25. I just sold my 3 unit Diner for $600.
I’ll say one more thing for ConCor. Their ‘Daylight’ cars came closer to correct prototype color’s than Rivarossi’s, Athearn’s. or Coach Yard’s. I live in Portland where 4449 is stored.
I used to have a fleet of ConCor cars. Because of the wheels I think that they run very good. I think that they are a little large in sizes. I only have one now on my railroad and thats the slumbercoach. I have a fleet of IHC cars that was made by rivarossi. The IHC look better but because of the wheels wear out.
I have some Con-Cor cars that run okay. I’ve replaced the Talgo couplers with body mounted ones with no problems. They are light and need weight though. The main problem with any lightweight passenger cars by Budd or Pullman-Standard it that each railroad ordered them with different options. Even though the fluting is inverted, the window arrangements for many of the Budd cars are correct for Burlington streamline cars.
The probelm is the same for all manufacturers. The Walthers car look great, but none of them are correct for my RR. I am anxiously awaiting the California Zephyr from BLI to get some accurate cars.
Bottom line, the Con-Cor cars need a little work to make them track properly but they are inexpensive.
Rick
Just about all of the passenger cars in my collection are ConCors. The only problems I’ve ever encountered with them was with the trucks being too tight, but solved that problem by loosening them up a bit.
trainluver1
IN A HOBBY
…'perfection is a goal,
…NOT a reality.
cp4515 i dont model passenger or in n scale but heres my penneis worth. get a walthers or kato n scale car like what you have from con-cor. take the floor out of the walthers or kato and see if it will match up with the con-cor, if it does get you drill bits ready for some work. you can line up the “good” floor with the “bad” floor and drill out new truck mountingholes that are set back a little bit further, then add body mounted couplers to the ends.
or another solution would be to see if the walthers or kato floors fit the con-cor shell, if so you can order some direct from the manufacterer, just have the part number handy when you do so.
hope this helps
tom
I am modeling VIA Rail in N-scale and have found only Con-cor makes the cars I want (and can afford). So far, I have: 1 baggage; 1 dining; 1 dome; 1 observation; 1 parlour and 1 coach (the last 2 I bought just this week).
Since my permanent layout is still in the designing stage, I have not had a chance to see them run much and, therefore, cannot really comment on the quality of their tracking abilities.
However, I did run a couple of the cars on my first layout (that was never abandoned when I moved from an apartment to a house last fall). I did not notice any car-related tracking problems. And they seemed to couple well with my Kato-made “Genesis” locomotive. I will say this, though, they do seem light, so I plan to add weights to them eventually.
I have come Con Cor passenger cars in HO mainly because they were the only things available at the time I made the purchases. They run ok but the superliner weights seem to be a bit light so I’ve added more.
Like any other aspect of this hobby, you can buy very expensive stuff and you can buy quite inexpensive equipment and end up with good and bad at both ends of the spending spectrum.