Introduced: 1981
Con-Cor imported these Japanese snow plows for a brief period of time during the early 1980s. I have no idea what prototype it professes to emulate, but presumably it's Japanese. These are very rare. And being pretty much the only "ready to run" rotary snow plow out there, they command premium prices on the secondary market - IE, expect to pay $100 or "more" (snicker) for the odd one that shows up on eBay (in good running condition, that is).
Apart from the absurd stack of "ala carte" weights, the chassis is entirely plastic. The motor is rectangular, open-sided and has five poles. Apart from the worm, all gearing is plastic. Pickup is provided solely by the six wheels on the forward truck (with current transferred to the motor via a wireless system of metallic contacts). Only the rear truck is powered (with all four wheels being geared). No traction tires. The tender has a truck-mounted Rapido-style coupler. There is no lighting. The wheel flanges are not overly huge, so these could conceivably be run on Code-55 track.
OK, I'll admit it, this is a very cool model. I mean, how many N scale snow plows are out there (with spinning plow blades no less)? And yeah, faced with a simple oval of track, it runs quite well. Smooth, responsive, etc. OK, it's a little noisy, but damn, it's a snow plow. What else would one expect? Unfortunately, given the extremely limited pickup situation (one six wheel truck, and that's it), it's pretty much useless outside of a "round the Xmas tree" style layout. IE, there's just no way to get this thing through a turnout without it stalling out. Now, if they'da figured out a way to get rail current from the tender into the motor they'da been in business... But as delivered, it's a neat toy and not much "more" (re-snicker).
To remove the plow shell, first remove the rear truck (it pulls off with a wee bit of brute force). This will reveal the screw that holds the chassis to the shell (unscrew it). Lastly, pull the plow blade off the driveshaft. At this point, the shell should lift right off (scarily complex, but there ya go).
Grade: C