Con-Cor - 0001-01601M - Tank Car, Single Dome, Taki 3000 - Southern - 381

Model Information: This tank car is a regular inclusion in Kato freight starter sets. It also appears in mixed freight box sets. It is a nice model and sports low-profile chemically blackened wheels. The roof detail is excellent and these are durable and nice looking runners. The model (as explained to me by the Kato USA rep at the last ARS show I attended in January 2018) is of a Japanese prototype. Further research proved this is correct and that it is in fact a model of a Taki 3000 car from the late 1950s.

Despite the fact that it is a model of a Japanese JNR fright car, it has been used both by Kato and by Con-Cor to stand in for various North American prototypes carrying livery for everything from Domino Sugar to Amoco Oil

Prototype History: The Taki 3000 Tank Car was built in the period of 1947-1964 with 1,594 cars and operated all over Japan. It is specialized for loading gasoline. It was not imported for use in North America.

Road Name History: The Southern Railway (reporting mark SOU) (also known as Southern Railway Company) was a US class 1 railroad that was based in the Southern United States. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.

At the end of 1970 Southern operated 6,026 miles (9,698 km) of railroad, not including its Class I subsidiaries AGS (528 miles or 850 km) CofG (1729 miles) S&A (167 miles) CNOTP (415 miles) GS&F (454 miles) and twelve Class II subsidiaries. That year Southern itself reported 26111 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 110 million passenger-miles; AGS reported 3854 and 11, CofG 3595 and 17, S&A 140 and 0, CNO&TP 4906 and 0.3, and GS&F 1431 and 0.3

The railroad joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) in 1982 to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The Norfolk Southern Corporation was created in response to the creation of the CSX Corporation (its rail system was later transformed to CSX Transportation in 1986). The Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway in 1990 and continued under that name ever since. Seven years later in 1997 the railroad absorbed the Norfolk and Western Railway, ending the Norfolk and Western's existence as an independent railroad.

Brand/Importer Information: Con-Cor has been in business since 1962. Many things have changed over time as originally they were a complete manufacturing operation in the USA and at one time had upwards of 45 employees. They not only designed the models,but they also built their own molds, did injection molding, painting, printing and packaging on their models.

Currently, most of their manufacturing has been moved overseas and now they import 90% of their products as totally finished goods, or in finished components. They only do some incidental manufacturing today within the USA.

Important Note: The Con-Cor product numbering can be very confusing. Please see here in the article how to properly enter Con-Cor stock numbers in the TroveStar database.