Concor U-50

what can people tell me about the U-50 units??

era or anything,?

thanks

 

As far as the prototype U50's, I believe there were 2 main styles: a "B+B" truck and and "C" truck. The original units had 4 B axle trucks; UP bought a couple dozen and SP tried a few. They had a standard GE radiator configuration (at the rear). GE also produced a U50C for UP that rode on the massive trucks from their turbine trade ins, but I think the radiators were located in the middle of the unit (U50's were basically a double engined U25). [Sorry, I am not 100% on my West Coast roads....as you'd expect from someone named "Chessie"].

As far as the models, I think ConCor has two different versions (if it follows most of their practices) the original done by Kato for them and their newer versions from China or wherever. The old Kato versions were strong and dependable... I don't know about the newer versions. They were the B+B truck design and only one set of trucks on each end of the loco was powered. They also had pilot mounted trucks. But best of all, being ConCOr, you could choose from a variety of roadnames, including Chessie System, because it didn't matter to them whether or not the prototype had them!

Chessie

 

As far as prototypical era, the original B+B units were produced in the early to mid 60's, while the U50C's didn't show up until the late 60's/early 70's.

Chessie

 

The U50C were short lived on UP because of problems with aluminum wiring. The U50 with dual B+B had radators on both behind the cab and at the very end of the unit. U50 are esentually 2 U25 on one chassis. nether owner (UP and SP) liked the units too much because they were unreliable and ate alot of fuel.

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Theres no such thing as having to many coal hoppers or GP40-2 when you model Chessie System
LONG LIVE THE KITTEN!!!
LONG LIVE BIG BLUE!!!

 

If I remember correctly, the original U50s were built utilizing the running gear from traded in UP GE Veranda Gas Turbines.

 

Con Cor U 50 Coming Back to an LHS near you

I've spoken to Donna the Secretary from Con Cor and the U50 is making a comeback around the end of this year or beginning of next year. I had to verify what was mentioned and shown at the NMRA train Convention; and it's true.
So standby it's on it's way. Maybe our thread asking about it helped spur this comeback.

:thumbs_up::tb-wink:

 

i hope i hope i hope it not a rehash of the old loco!!!


con cor would make me a very happy boy if they used this set up
for the drive

 

I'm guessing that's the brass U50 mechanism from Samhongsa. Any idea how well this runs?

 

there was a u-tube vid that looked like it was pulling 100 cars.
but for almost $500 it better!!!

 

Since the blower areas are cut out of the shell, I hope it'll be see-through like the Samhongsa model. That's my favorite feature of the real locomotive, and a real disappointment with the old Con-Cor model.

 

I'm with you Triplex, that is one of my favorite models and nice to see it coming back & retooled according to Con Cor. I would hope the fan grates and Handrails would be amongst that retooling. Should see the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

 

Back when I was a kid, I vaguely remember watching a pair of these haul a very long train around the old Elmherst N-scale model railroad layout (back in the mid 70's). I always thought they were one of the coolest loco's.

I hope ConCor updates these brutes to, well, perform like brutes.

 

I thought the black tooling sample shell was HO scale.

 

Where did you see a black tooling sample? The only shots of the U50 and the veranda turbine I've seen so far appeared to simply be photos of the old model in UP paint.

 

That is the Athearn U50 they're doing for HO scale, not the N scale one Con-Cor will be releasing.

 

U50 Pilots

I want to make you aware of an oddity about the U-50. Con-Cor did these very close to correct, including the pilot. The prototype U-50 had moving pilots, a true oddity in the 1:1 realm.

I have many of the U-50's from both runs, and they run and pull equally well.

 

I wasn't aware of this fact; actually I thought it was a mistake when I read the comments from the NMRA Convention. That will be nice, presently there is only a couple of Brass offerings out there.
I 'm sure Athearn will do a fine job on this model. Maybe even better than CC:thumbs_up:

 

I have such three, made in Japan. They are good enough for our time. And I think they were perfect for 70-80 years. Though I consider as their out-of-date technologies, and I do not use in my layout. Only for a collection. Modern models of locomotives operate trains more smoothly.

 

EP thanks for sharing your collection of these awesome models.

 

Hi

Possibly bad manners to revive an old thread, but this one started in 2000 and was revived in 2010 so it's 'par for the course' here.

I am hoping someone may be able to tell me the the U50 truck wheelbase ( I know it ought to be a scale 9'4" (but these things vary) and the distances between bogie centres on the powered trucks, which I think are the two outermost ones.

Also, I am wondering if the axles have the same construction as the Kato PA and the likes of the Atlas/Kato RS3, that is wheels with stub axles of 3/32" (2.38mm) outer diameter tubing, sleeving a 1/16" (1.6mm) plastic gear muff.

I am aware that there were two runs, one by kato in 1973 and one in 1997 by Con Cor itself (mostly made in China, I think) so I am hoping someone may be able to say whether there were any variations between the two.

These interest me as a TT modeller because they are very big locos for N and may have application for TT if they can be regauged.

I am also interested in whether the Atlas/Kato RSD4/5 and RSD 12 had axles like this - I assume they did?

Ben