Con-Cor - 0001-041540 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Corrugated Mid-Train Dome - Southern

Model Information: This car is a bit of an odd-ball. It was apparently originally made in the 1970s by Kato for Con-Cor. Early examples are labeled Sekisui/Con-Cor Japan. Later examples have the label milled out and replaced with 'Con-Cor'. This would presume that the tooling was moved from Japan to the United states at some point.
Early versions came in kit form with Rapido couplers. Later versions are Ready-to-Run (RTR) and come with either dummy knuckle "Rigid Face" couplers or Micro-Trains couplers.
It is modeled after the 46-seat dome-coach built by Budd for the CB&Q (Burlington Route) in 1956 to run on the Denver Zephyr (DZ). It is very similar to the 46-seat dome-coach built by Budd for Great Northern’s 1955 Empire Builder, the latter having “slab panel” sides instead of corrugated sides.

Despite the model having corrugated sides, Con-Cor marketed and packaged it either as a 'Corrugated Dome' (stainless steel finish) or a 'Smoothside Dome' (painted finish). The Con-Cor literature refers to it as a 'mid-train dome', which means it is not a dedicated tail car and can be used between other passenger cars.

Yet, in spite of the Con-Cor labeling and manufacturing , the Con-Cor website sometimes refers to this model as a 'Rivarossi Corrugated Dome', with a stock number starting with 0003- or 003- that is the company prefix used by Con-Cor for Rivarossi products. This is actually to complement the Rivarossi lightweight corrugated range that is missing a dome car, in particular in the Con-Cor/Rivarossi 5-car corrugated passenger sets.

So, though the 'corrugated' and 'smoothside' versions are marketed with different denominations by Con-Cor, they are technically of the same model type, hence are all regrouped in this single body style.

Warning: Con-cor designed subsequently another mid-train corrugated dome, inspired by another Budd dome built for the California Zephyr, that is not to be confused with this one.

Prototype History: A dome car is a type of railway passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a coach, lounge car, dining car, sleeping car or observation. Beginning in 1945, dome cars were primarily used in the United States and Canada, though a small number were constructed in Europe for Trans Europ Express service, and similar panorama cars are in service on Alpine tourist railways like the Bernina Express.

In North America, dome cars were manufactured by the Budd Company, Pullman Standard and American Car & Foundry. Southern Pacific Railroad built its own dome cars in its Sacramento, California, shops. In the 1990s Colorado Railcar began producing dome cars. Generally, seats in the dome were considered "non-revenue" like lounge car seats. When dome cars operate today in excursion trains, the dome seats often command a premium fare.

Road Name History: The Southern Railway (reporting mark SOU) (also known as Southern Railway Company) was a US class 1 railroad that was based in the Southern United States. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.

At the end of 1970 Southern operated 6,026 miles (9,698 km) of railroad, not including its Class I subsidiaries AGS (528 miles or 850 km) CofG (1729 miles) S&A (167 miles) CNOTP (415 miles) GS&F (454 miles) and twelve Class II subsidiaries. That year Southern itself reported 26111 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 110 million passenger-miles; AGS reported 3854 and 11, CofG 3595 and 17, S&A 140 and 0, CNO&TP 4906 and 0.3, and GS&F 1431 and 0.3

The railroad joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) in 1982 to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The Norfolk Southern Corporation was created in response to the creation of the CSX Corporation (its rail system was later transformed to CSX Transportation in 1986). The Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway in 1990 and continued under that name ever since. Seven years later in 1997 the railroad absorbed the Norfolk and Western Railway, ending the Norfolk and Western's existence as an independent railroad.

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.