Con-Cor - 0001-040249-2 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Corrugated Mid-Train Dome - Illinois Central - 434

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 It was apparently originally made in the 1970s by Kato for Con-Cor.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 Illinois Central Railroad (reporting mark IC), sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa (1870). There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska (1899), west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1877), starting from Cherokee, Iowa. The Sioux Falls branch has been abandoned in its entirety.

The IC is one of the early Class I railroads in the US. Its roots go back to abortive attempts by the Illinois General Assembly to charter a railroad linking the northern and southern parts of the state of Illinois. In 1850 U.S. President Millard Fillmore signed a land grant for the construction of the railroad, making the Illinois Central the first land-grant railroad in the United States.

The Illinois Central was chartered by the Illinois General Assembly on February 10, 1851. Senator Stephen Douglas and later President Abraham Lincoln were both Illinois Central men who lobbied for it. Douglas owned land near the terminal in Chicago. Lincoln was a lawyer for the railroad. Upon its completion in 1856 the IC was the longest railroad in the world. Its main line went from Cairo, Illinois, at the southern tip of the state, to Galena, in the northwest corner. A branch line went from Centralia, (named for the railroad) to the rapidly growing city of Chicago. In Chicago its tracks were laid along the shore of Lake Michigan and on an offshore causeway downtown, but land-filling and natural deposition have moved the present-day shore to the east.

In 1867 the Illinois Central extended its track into Iowa, and during the 1870s and 1880s the IC acquired and expanded railroads in the southern United States. IC lines crisscrossed the state of Mississippi and went as far as New Orleans, Louisiana, to the south and Louisville, Kentucky, in the east. In the 1880s, northern lines were built to Dodgeville, Wisconsin, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Omaha, Nebraska. Further expansion continued into the early twentieth century.

The Illinois Central, and the other "Harriman lines" owned by E.H. Harriman, was the target of the Illinois Central shopmen's strike of 1911. Although marked by violence and sabotage in the south, midwest, and western states, the strike was effectively over in a few months. The railroads simply hired replacements and withstood diminishing union pressure. The strike was eventually called off in 1915.

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.