Con-Cor - 3301G - Locomotive, Diesel, GE U50 - Burlington Northern - 4809

Model Information: Originally, Con-cor contracted with Kato of Japan to produce this model. It was first released in 1973, though it does not appear in the 1973 JMC catalog. Con-Cor later moved this tooling to China and re-released the model in 1997 under their "Rail Baron Collection" branding. The mechanism is shared with the Kato-made Gas Turbine models introduced in 1975.
This locomotive was owned only by Union Pacific and Southern Pacific; Con-Cor however released it in several other paint schemes, that are pure fantasies.
This model has been re-run several times in different road names using the same stock number.

DCC Information: No provision for DCC in either release.

Prototype History: The GE U50 was an eight-axle, in B-B-B-B configuration, 5,000 hp (3,700 kW) road switcher diesel-electric locomotive built by General Electric. They were twin-engined locomotives, combining two 2,500 hp (1,900 kW) diesel engines.
The U50 was built in response to the Union Pacific Railroad's requirement, issued in the early 1960s, for a 15,000 hp (11,200 kW) 3-unit locomotive intended to replace the turbines. The design was effectively two U25B locomotives on a single frame; each diesel engine and generator powered only the two trucks at the same end.
26 U50 have been produced, 23 for UP and 3 for SP. They were all scrapped by 1977.

Read more on Wikipedia and American-Rails.com

Road Name History: The Burlington Northern Railroad (reporting mark BN) was a United States railroad. It was a product of a March 2, 1970, merger of four major railroads - the Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railway, Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad - as well as a few small jointly owned subsidiaries owned by the four.

Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996.

Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroading with the chartering in 1848 of the Chicago and Aurora Railroad, a direct ancestor line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which lends Burlington to the names of various merger-produced successors.

Burlington Northern purchased the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996 to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (later renamed BNSF Railway), which was owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.*

Read more on Wikipedia.

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.