Con-Cor - Limited Edition Set # 6 - Passenger Train, Diesel, North American, Transition Era - Northern Pacific - 9-Unit

Specific Item Information: Limited Edition Set #6 "Vista Dome - North Coast Limited": 3 diesel locomotives with 6 smoothside cars.

- F3A Powered unit #6000A, with mention "Main Street of the Northwest" on each side
- F3B dummy unit #6000B, with mention "Northern Pacific"
- F3A dummy unit #6000D, with head light working and same mention than powered unit
- Baggage/RPO combine car #291
- Pullman coach SP&S #366
- Vista Dome "North Coast Limited" #310
- Vista Dome "North Coast Limited" #551
- Diner coach #450
- Observation car CB&Q #483

The set also includes:
- a map of Northern Pacific Railway / Vista Dome pamphlet
- a Northern Pacific circular cloth patch

Extra cars were offered exclusively to the owners of this set:
- Dome: $9.98
- Pullman Coach: $5.98

Series Information: Con-Cor "Limited Edition Sets" or "Limited Edition Collector's Sets" were started after requests to 'custom paint' replicas of great passenger trains of the past. As these sets were very limited in quantity, many were sold out before they got to the retailer. While the quality of painting varied from time to time, they are a handsome addition to any collection and impressive on a layout.
With the exception of the first set, all were furnished in a wood-grained cardboard box with colored foam storage insert. For some sets, the manufacturer furnished additional cars or add-on sets.
The number of the set in the series is not printed on the box, but a listing was kept by Con-Cor and available as print-out in the most recent sets or on the (former) Con-Cor website.
Sets #1 to #13 were without stock number; stock numbers have been assigned and printed on the side label starting with set #14.

The wood-grained cardboard box has been used for other sets called "Special Edition Set" by Con-Cor, that only received a regular stock number, but were not accounted in the "Limited Edition Set" collection.

Prototype History: The transition era (1939 - 1957) was the heyday for passenger rail. The industrial boom triggered by the second world war created tremendous capacity for production which was no longer needed for war production. The North American factories turned to consumer goods and services and the rail system was a major recipient of this ouput.

The interstate highways system as we know it now was still a thing of the future and long distance travel by highway was simply not practical and aircraft travel was still a luxury for the well-to-do. People traveled the country by rail and there was a huge variety of railroads and services available to the traveler. Innovation was constant, and the materials and machinery employed by the railroads was evolving as fast as the engineers could think of new things to entice the fickle consumer to ride a particular route or particular service.

This all came to an end when the automobile and airplane replaced the passenger train as the preferred vehicles of transportation in the 1960s.

Road Name History: The Northern Pacific Railway (reporting mark NP) was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States from Minnesota to the Pacific Coast. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly 40 million acres (160,000 km2) of land grants, which it used to raise money in Europe for construction. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in western Montana on Sept. 8, 1883.

The railroad had about 6800 miles of track and served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. In addition the company had an international branch to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The main activities were shipping wheat and other farm products, cattle, timber and minerals; bringing in consumer goods, transporting passengers; and selling land.

The company was headquartered first in Brainerd, Minnesota, then in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It had a tumultuous financial history, and in 1970 it merged with other lines to form the Burlington Northern Railroad.

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.