Con-Cor - 0001-04041C - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Pullman Observation Sleeper - Royal American Shows - 56

Prototype History: Pullman Standard, though initially famous as a manufacturer of luxury heavyweight cars, was also a prominent player in the post-war lightweight streamlined era. They produced many different models for most of the major players in the passenger space. Most of these cars were of the 'Smoothside' design. Being lightweight, they were equipped with 2-axle high-speed bogies. One example of this period is the 2-master room /1-double bedroom observation-buffet lounge. Two were built for the Pennsylvania RR in 1949 as the “View” series and used on the 1949 Broadway Limited.

Road Name History: Royal American Shows was founded by Carl J. Sedlmayr, who was born in Nebraska in 1886, Royal American Shows was one of the largest American carnivals throughout most of the twentieth century. Although Royal American's first contract with the Calgary Stampede was in 1934, the company was unable to travel to Canada from 1942 to 1945, during the Second World War, as it relied on a large train (up to 90 rail cars) for transportation. During the war, use of the rail system was restricted by the United States government to the movement of military personnel and equipment.

In 1967 Royal American Shows was at its pinnacle in terms of size, over 800 people along with livestock and equipment and over 80 railroad cars in 1971. Royal American Shows carried the greatest number of flatcars ever carried by any traveling amusement organization in the world. The show traveled with a full complement of carpenters, canvas men, electricians, painters, full working machine shops with mills, lathes, drills, welders, mechanics, cookhouse, portable showers, and mail department.

Royal American Shows faced the changing economy in the 1970's that would have a huge impact on continuing to stay in business. Towards the end of the 1970's there was a tremendous loss of revenue for Royal American Shows caused by greater distances traveled with ever increasing costs with railroad transportation just to move the show from place to place. In addition, Royal America Shows lost its Canadian route in 1977 during a tax issue causing Royal American to lose all of that revenue on top of mounting expenses.

The carnival equipment seized from the 1975 tax issue at Edmonton and Regina was held in storage until the mid-1990's, at which time the assets were sold at auction and the proceeds were used to pay the outstanding fines. Royal American Shows continued to operate in the United States for the next twenty years, diminishing in size over time; Royal American Show's last spot was in Lubbock, Texas, in October 1997.

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.