Con-Cor - 0001-001766 (2) - Covered Hopper, 3-Bay, PS-2 2893 - Food Machinery Corporation - 45077

Specific Item Information: Price listed in the 1988 Con-Cor Trainalog as a new item.

Model Information: This model was made by Roco starting in the late 1960s. It first appears in the 1967 Atlas catalog and is labeled '47 ft, Covered Hopper'. It was also imported by Minitrix and Con-Cor. Atlas started made their own similar version of this car starting in the 1970s. The Roco versions can easily be distinguished as they are stamped 'Austria' on the bottom, like the very similar model that Roco produced for Atlas, this tooling also loosely resembles a PS-2 2893 hopper.

Prototype History: Pullman-Standard dominated the covered hopper car market beginning in the 1950s, thanks to the design success of their PS-2 series of covered hoppers. Designed to carry bulk commodities, such as grain, cement and plastic pellets, these cars roamed the rails of North America for decades, attesting to their utilitarian functionality. The 2893 c.f. model has a capacity of 70 tons and has a 4-3-4 post arrangement. The roof hatches are not spaced evenly. These cars featured side ladders at the right hand end whereas later PS models used grab irons.

Road Name History: FMC Corporation is an American chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company was originally founded by chemist John Bean in 1883 as the Bean Spray Pump Company in Los Gatos, California, producing piston pumps for insecticides. In 1928, Bean Spray Pump purchased two companies: the Anderson-Barngrover Co. and Sprague-Sells Co. At this time the company changed its name to Food Machinery Corporation, and began using the initials FMC.

In 1941 the company FMC received a contract to design and build amphibious landing vehicles tracked vehicles for the United States War Department, and afterwards the company continued to diversify its products, including an extensive line of rail cars. The rail car production really kicked into high gear during the 1970s when FMC produced many models to take advantage of the Per Diem rules. Between 1965 and 1985 FMC was the owner of the Gunderson metal works in Springfield, Oregon, during that period it was known as the "Marine and Rail Equipment Division of FMC" (MRED), it was sold in 1985 to The Greenbrier Companies.
FMC employs 7,000 people worldwide, and had gross revenues of US$2.8 billion in 2017

From 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.

Manufacturer Information: The company was founded in 1960 by Ing. Heinz Rössler and started with a plastic Minitanks series of military vehicles. After export to the USA became successful, the model line was expanded with model trains in HO scale and the smaller N scale. TT scale was also subsequently added to the product line. The model rail product line covers many European countries including Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and also the USA.

On July 15, 2005 ROCO Modellspielwaren GmbH was declared bankrupt. From July 25 the company continues as Modelleisenbahn GmbH, but still uses the Roco brand and associated logo. On October 1, 2007, distribution of the 'Minitank' product series was assigned to the German model car manufacturer Herpa.

Since February 2008 Modelleisenbahn also owns Fleischmann, which like Roco had gone bankrupt. The two companies continue as separate brands under Modelleisenbahn GmbH, while benefiting from economies of scale through joined development projects, marketing and procurement.

From Wikipedia