Con-Cor - 0001-176100 - Open Hopper, 3-Bay, Longitudinal - Undecorated

Model Information: The earliest I have found this model is in the 1968 Aurora Postage Stamp catalog so it dates back to the late 1960s. It has been imported by Minitrix, Model Power and Con-Cor as well as by Aurora. It models a Santa Fe Ga-123 Hopper. The model features truck-mounted Rapido couplers with blackened metal deep flange wheels. With the early runs of this car, the print quality is typical 1st generation rolling stock pad-quality - which means not very good.

Prototype History: Longitudinal hoppers were made by Santa Fe's Topeka shops in the early 1960s. They feature a unique dump-door design with the doors powered by air-pressure. This design permits the doors to be closed in 12 seconds or less and opened in 6 seconds or less. Unfortunately the structural design of these hoppers was not sound and they had to be modified with additional structural elements at the ends to keep them in service. Less than 100 of these oddball hoppers were made.

Road Name History: Although they may be molded in color, unpainted and unlettered, undecorated products are marketed to modelers who seek to custom decorate their models for private roads and/or road and/or company names that were not commercially produced by any of the major manufacturers.

Undecorated models are frequently also unassembled or only partially assembled and required modelers to be comfortable with glue, paint and sometimes solder in order to prepare their models for display. Materials for these models can vary but often include plastic, pewter and resin. Models may or may not come with decals or other decorations such as plastic signage, railings and ladders to enhance the appearance of the final product.

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