My sentiments exactly. The same thing goes for Microtrains and all the collector cars. A healthy company means more stuff for me down the road. Someday those folks having fun with the fantasy trainsets may evolve into prototype modelers too. And if they don't, they are still having fun.
To acsxfan, Glad to see someone else seeing through the "bull" on the A forum. Yep your right, its a few individuals that spearhead the personal insults. Thus no one could have a debate or what I consider discussions over such items as track standards, or slow speed motors for that matter. Rob
Concors kinda hit and miss with the fantasy schemes. The BNSF U-50 is pretty neat looking, while the little switcher in warbonnet is horribly funny.
If you need a Con-Con 4-8-4 in ATSF, UP, PRR or undecorated they are available in the owners sale at half price of $144. I bought one and it ran so well, that I bought two more. They aren't returns or rejects. BTW,all the wheels were in gauge as measured correctly with a NMRA gauge. They are a great value for $144. There are three road numbers in ATSF. Stay cool and run steam.....
The fantasy schemes are bad enough, but some of the correct paint jobs don't even have the right numbers. The UP probably has more MP15's than anyone, but they are numbered from the high 1200's to the low 1400's so where did C-C get 1004 and 1007? I found that UP bought some from P&LE and for a very short time they were numbered in the low 1000's but not that low. And the BNSF MP15's are numbered 3700-3704, not 4002-3. A friend of mine used to work for UP and had the necessary password to view the car tracker database. When C-C came out with their autoracks we looked them up and not one Trailer train flat car number had the correct RR owner on the rack. How could you do that? They had to have photos to do the RR logos right. What is so hard about getting the flat car number right if your working with a photo? And of course when they came out with the Budd cars, they named the ATSF 10-6 sleepers in the Palm series, which were ACF 10-6's and not the Pine series which were Budd 10-6's. They can produce a good product, but they just don't seem to care. I talked to Conway once at an MRIA convention and his response was that as long as it sold he did care if it was right or not.
Yeah, I used to let all that bother me too. Like the second number for the ATSF streamlined "Blue Goose" 4-6-4 (Santa Fe only had one). But Jim told me they got a lot of requests for it along with requests for passenger cars to match (there never were any). So he caters to the whims of the fantasy crowd and makes money doing it. I now just shrug it off and hope that nobody assumes that it is correct just because Con Cor sells it. You just have to know about it and take your chances. A very good friend of mine really got burned when he ordered a set of Frisco passenger cars sight unseen. We all assumed they would be the same paint colors as the previously sold Con Cor Texas Special but with FRISCO in the letter board. Wrong!! They were all silver with black lettering. Man, I had to hold him down next time Conway showed up at the same show. [ 09. February 2005, 22:37: Message edited by: r_i_straw ]
Well, I reserved those same Frisco cars too. When I got them I couldn't believe my eyes, I sent them back. It was just after they had come out with the KCS smooth side cars, which were beautifuly done. I couldn't believe the two products could come from the same company. Did you ever see the interiors they did for their Amtrack cars? They weren't even the same scale as the cars. There were wall ends showing in the windows. It looked like they used xeroxed plans and did not take into account that most copiers reproduce at about 95% (at least they used to). It looked like they had made the interiors by bashing old Rowa car interiors, made a mold and cast them in resin. You could even see blobs of glue at joints in the original reproduced in the castings. I'm not very good at that stuff but I am sure I could have done a better job. And this was right after they had come out with the Budd cars whose interiors are exquisite. Just mind boggling. Anymore I don't buy any C-C product 'til I see it.
I have never read the "A" list but I guess I'm lucky that way. I found this place first As for Con Cor Fantacy Schemes. does anyone else have pics of some. Here is mine: Aint she a beaut? Women definitely like that one.
OTOH, let me say about Jim Conway...he was an early N scale manufacturer in the 1970s that got Kato and the European guys to make some very nice items for Concor. The CC/K steam Hudson and the wonderful Kato freight cars. Those were the early low profile roofwalks. Kato finally did it again with the covered hoppers about 20 years later. Admittedly, CC had a lapse there, but not all of Concor was bad. (Not that anyone said it was all bad! ) In fact, I still run my B&O Kato boxcar as one of the nicest on the layout.
I still run a CC UP box car that I bought in the late 60's (made by Kato). I still have a Con Cor catalog from 1967. Jim has got a lot of my money over the years. When Charlie Vlk was still running the parts department at Con Cor, I must have been on the phone with him every other week ordering something.
Rivet counters are the minority in the market. Fantasy paint sells. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=19123&item=5955367970&rd=1 [ 10. February 2005, 01:08: Message edited by: Fluid Dynamics ]
