Con-Cor - 1221 - Maintenance of Way, Snow Plow, Leslie - Maintenance of Way - X20

Model Information: This Con-Cor import is a model of a Japanese prototype made by Kato (I think). The Japanese prototype appears to be a knock-off of the Leslie model. The models run pretty poorly due to limited pickup but they look cool. They were imported during the early 1980s and they are fairly rare.

Prototype History: A rotary snowplow is a piece of railroad snow removal equipment with a large circular set of blades on its front end that rotate to cut through the snow on the track ahead of it. The precursor to the rotary snowplow was the wedge snowplow.

The rotary was invented in Toronto, Canada, by dentist J.W. Elliot in 1869. He never built a working model or prototype, although he wanted to.[1] Orange Jull of Orangeville, Ontario, expanded on Elliot's design, building working models he tested with sand. During the winter of 1883–1884, Jull contracted with the Leslie Brothers of Toronto to build a full-size prototype that proved successful. Jull later sold his design rights to Leslie Brothers, who formed the Rotary Steam Shovel Manufacturing Company in Paterson, New Jersey. Leslie Brothers contracted with Cooke Locomotive & Machine Works in Paterson to do the actual construction.

From Wikipedia

Road Name History: Maintenance of Way is a generic term that encompasses all activities and equipment related to maintaining railroad tracks in good condition.
Equipment is highly specialized and diversified. A non exhaustive list below:

• Ballast cleaner
• Ballast regulator
• Clearance car
• Crane
• Dynamometer car
• Grinder
• Road–rail vehicle (Hi-Rail)
• Rotary snowplow
• Scale test car
• Stoneblower
• Tamping machine
• Track geometry car

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.