Con-Cor - 0001-015068 - Boxcar, 40 Foot, Double Door Plywood - Pennsylvania - 67376

Prototype History: The plug-and-sliding-door or combo-door boxcar is a versatile car that can act as either a double door boxcar or a plug door boxcar. If you were loading 8' studs in the car, you would load the car just like any other double door boxcar. But if you are loading paper, you would seal the far doors with duct tape, load the car and close the slider. Seal the slider with duct tape, and then shut the plug door to seal the car.

The main reason all the large box cars today have mostly plug doors, is that large sliding doors just get too hard to move. Trying to open regular 8' sliding doors, unless the cars were fairly new, is quite challenging. After a sliding-door car was several years old, you'd see where the sliding door was getting all banged up from people using forklift blades to open and close the doors. Plug doors, however, run on wide runners and rollers, and are therefore easier to move. Also, since the doors are out away from the car side, there is no problem when a car side becomes bulged out due to wear and tear.

Road Name History: The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR) was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy," the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U.S. for the first half of the twentieth century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At the end of 1925, it operated 10,515 miles of rail line; in the 1920s, it carried nearly three times the traffic as other railroads of comparable length, such as the Union Pacific or Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads. Its only formidable rival was the New York Central (NYC), which carried around three-quarters of PRR's ton-miles.

At one time, the PRR was the largest publicly traded corporation in the world, with a budget larger than that of the U.S. government and a workforce of about 250,000 people. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history: it paid out annual dividends to shareholders for more than 100 years in a row.

In 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years. The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, which was itself broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), including nearly all of the former PRR. Amtrak received the electrified segment east of Harrisburg.

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.