Con-Cor NYC Hudson

[PRRThomas11]

Does anyone know where to find photos of the 20th Century Limited hudson made by Con-Cor. I am thinking of ordering one but my policy is "Don't ever buy something that you haven't seen before."

[brokemoto]

www.all-railroads.com/instock/nhudson.htm

It does not show the NYC hudson, but the black one is just that:  black with the Roman lettering.  They also have two shrouded bullet noses:  a 1938 and a post-war.  There is also a black shovel nosed, called Commodore Vanderbilt, although C-C spelled Commodore incorrectly on the latest release (they put Commadore insted of Commodore; the latter is correct, the former, incorrect).  Also, the number on the last release is not correct for Commodore Vanderbilt.

If you want a post 1938 black hudson, you must buy an undecorated and the MicroScale 'NYCS Medium Steam' sheet (assuming that MicroScale has not discontinued it, if so, you will have to look at shows for one) and apply the Century Gothic lettering.

[PRRThomas11]

The streamlined 20th century i'm looking for.

[brokemoto]

While there are no photographs, the link does show that the NYC bullet nose is in stock.  It shows one with spoked drivers (the post war dark grey) and one with Scullin disk drivers (the 1938 light grey/blue scheme).

The bullet nose is, in fact, based on the shrouded J3a.  The paint scheme on either one is pretty good.

You do not state which, if any cars that you have.  If you have the C-C lightweights (be they corrugated or smoothside) or the Kato smoothsides, you want the post war spoked driver version.

C-C did sell two different sets of its smoothsides in the 1938 scheme.  If you have that one, you want the 1938 version with the Scullin disk drivers.  The 1938 sets are difficult to find.  On occasion, one will hit e-Bay and teh bidding wars go crazy.  At one point, I had both sets and the 1938 hudson.  I sold both sets and the locomotives on e-Bay for prices that amazed me.

I still have my shrouded post-war hudson, but I have no intention of selling it.

[PRRThomas11]

Thanks brokemoto, you know a lot. No, I don't have any cars to go with it. I was thinking of doing my first custom project by painting smooth-side cars to match that engine. (If I can get it.)Maybe can you post a pic of your post-war hudson?

[brokemoto]

Walthers shows the hudsons and some passenger cars as in stock.  There is no photograph of the NYC smoothside hudsons, but page 62 of the listings for Con-Cor does show a photograph of the bullet nosed hudson painted in Union Pacific.  The UP is a phantasy scheme, as Uncle Pete did not have hudsons.  Still, you get an idea of what the locomotive looks like.  The NYC does have  fin on the nose (which was on the original Dreyfuss design), which the Tio Pedrito version lacks.

Pages 66-68 show the various NYC smoothsides as in stock, but again, no photographs.  They are in the two-tone grey scheme.

Type in 223 in the search box,  as that is the ID number that Walthers has assigned to C-C.  Walthers shows the corrugated as In stock , as well.  Sometimes the shrouded hudsons did pull corrugateds.  NYC also had some hudsons to which they gave corrugated shrouding to pull the Empire State Trains, which had corrugated cars.  To my knowledge, no one sells a corrugated shroud hudson in N scale.

The seven car 1938 set appears on page 20 and again on page 29.  Again, no photographs, but they show a price of one-hundred fifty dollars.  I do not know if the sets are different or the same.  There are two different seven car sets.  C-C also includes an Early Bird boxcar, but that is an anachronism, as Early Bird service did not appear on the NYCS until the mid-to-late 1950s.  The C-C 1938 set also includes coaches, which are not correct as the Century did not normally carry coaches.  During the war years, and for a biref time in the mid or late 1950s, it did, but coaches were not usually in 25/26's consist.  In the 1960s, the Century did finally get coaches assigned permanently, as NYCS had discontinued New York/Boston-Chicago trains.

The 1938 Century did not carry coaches.

[PRRThomas11]

Heres a photo of a custom made loco made by Max Magliaro. It was featured in N-Scale magazine. Not sure when. It won a couple awards.

[brokemoto]

The C-C post-war shrouded hudson does not look as good as does Max's.  The paint job is similar.  The C-C has spoked drivers instead of Scullin disk drivers.  Take a look at the link to the UP and imagine it with a fin on the nose, spoked drivers and a paint job that looks allright, but is not quite as good as the one on Mr. Magliaro's.

Also, the detailing on the C-C is not as good as it is on Mr. Magliaro's.