Con-Cor - 0001-003863 - Locomotive, Steam, 4-8-4 GS-4 - American Freedom Train - 4449

Model Information: Con-Cor introduced this model in 1985. The locomotives were originally made by Kato under contract with Con-Cor. In 2001, Con-Cor moved the tooling to China and made some modifications. The early versions of this engine were an S-2 configuration. In 2002, Con-Cor used the same platform to develop a GS-4. The chassis is made of either brass or a zinc alloy and the shell is plastic. They have a fair amount of detail and they run pretty well. They handle surprisingly well on tight curves.

DCC Information: The original mechanism is DCC-Friendly at best. The redesigned version (2001+) is fully DCC-Ready and supports a 8 Pin NMRA Socket PC Board decoder.

Prototype History: The GS-4 is a streamlined 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive used on the Southern Pacific Company from 1941 to 1958. They were built by the Lima Locomotive Works and were numbered 4430 through 4457. "GS" stands for "Golden State" or "General Service."

Road Name History: The American Freedom Train (AFT) was a 26-car train led by one of three enormous steam engines restored just for the occasion. Over a 21 month period from April 1, 1975 to December 31, 1976 more than 7 million Americans visited the train during its tour of all 48 contiguous states. Tens of millions more stood trackside to see it go by. It was by far the greatest event on rails since the end of the steam era, and the uniquely magnificent vehicle that brought America's Bicentennial celebration to the people.

The first steam locomotive to pull the train was former Reading Company T-1 class 4-8-4 #2101. The second was former Southern Pacific GS-4 #4449, a large 4-8-4 steam locomotive that is still operating in special excursion service today. The third was former Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 #610, which pulled the train in Texas.

The train itself notably consisted of 10 display cars, converted from New York Central and Penn Central baggage cars. They carried more than 500 treasures of Americana (full roster on The Story of America's Freedom Trains).

Read more on Wikipedia
Read more on The Story of America's Freedom Trains.

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.