N Scale - Con-Cor - 0001-004301 - Passenger Train, Diesel, North American, Transition Era - Union Pacific - 8-Unit

Specific Item Information: Union Pacific passenger car set: 2 diesel locomotives and 6 streamline smoothside cars.
- Diesel Locomotive E8A #926 (powered) and E8B (dummy)
- 6 Rowa cars: Coach, Pullman, Slumber sleeper (x2), Dome, Observation

324 sets produced (according to Con-Cor pamphlet)

Additional cars were available at the price of $10.98 each:
- Coach #0001-4301N
- Pullman #0001-4311N
- Dome #0001-4321N

Series Information: Con-Cor "Special Edition Sets" or "Special Limited Edition Sets" were the result of Con-Cor using the last of their stock of cars. Several new molds had to be made to accomplish this project as the original molds by Röwa had been destroyed in a fire. Several Röwa passenger cars in these sets were delivered unnumbered.
There has been two subseries:
First subseries - mid to end 1980s: These sets are furnished with usual wood-grained cardboard box that was used for the "Limited Edition sets'. The label does not have any mention of "Special" or "Limited" set. They contain locomotives and cars.
Second subseries - early 2000s: These sets were delivered in the colorful packaging 'Great American Trains' that was also used for the latest of the "Limited Edition Sets". They are marked " Special Edition Set" on the side label. They contain only cars; the matching locomotives were sold as separate items.

In this series, we have also listed sets that were delivered in the "Limited Edition Set" packaging, though not necessarily being 'Limited' in the sense that the locomotive and cars were generally available from open stock.

Prototype History: The transition era (1939 - 1957) was the heyday for passenger rail. The industrial boom triggered by the second world war created tremendous capacity for production which was no longer needed for war production. The North American factories turned to consumer goods and services and the rail system was a major recipient of this ouput.

The interstate highways system as we know it now was still a thing of the future and long distance travel by highway was simply not practical and aircraft travel was still a luxury for the well-to-do. People traveled the country by rail and there was a huge variety of railroads and services available to the traveler. Innovation was constant, and the materials and machinery employed by the railroads was evolving as fast as the engineers could think of new things to entice the fickle consumer to ride a particular route or particular service.

This all came to an end when the automobile and airplane replaced the passenger train as the preferred vehicles of transportation in the 1960s.

Road Name History: The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark UP) is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and employs 42,600 people. It is also one of the world's largest transportation companies.

Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP); both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Over the years Union Pacific Corporation has grown by acquiring other railroads, notably the Missouri Pacific, Chicago & North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Southern Pacific (including the Denver & Rio Grande Western).

Union Pacific Corporation's main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the nation's second largest freight railroad, which also primarily services the Continental U.S. west of the Mississippi River. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the U.S.

Read more on Wikipedia and on Union Pacific official website.

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.