Atlas - 20 000 107 - Boxcar, 53 Foot, Evans Double Plug Door - Chicago Heights Terminal - 50371

Body Style Information: Features: 70-ton roller-bearing trucks; Blackened metal wheels; Two-piece underframe; Separate brake cylinder; Air reservoir; End platforms; AccuMate® couplers.

Prototype Information: This 53' boxcar was manufactured in the 1960s and '70s by Evans Company and was used primarily to haul produce, wood and paper products, and canned goods. This railcar is an insulated RBL (Railcar, Passenger Service, Insulated) featuring a 16 foot opening and double plug doors.

Road/Company Information: CHTT was established in 1898 by the Chicago Heights Land Association to be a neutral switching line for industries in the Chicago Heights area of Illinois. They operated (at the peak) 20 miles of track, seven of which were the mainline which forms an oval. Chicago & Eastern Illinois bought a controlling interest in the road in 1927 with the Kilgallen family retaining the remaining shares. Lettering locomotives for CHTT was discontinued after C&EI was acquired by Missouri Pacific in 1967. CHTT is still active, now under the Union Pacific flag and includes a Ford stamping plant among its customers. UP also still applies CHTT reporting marks to many freight cars depending on their lease/ownership arrangement.

Brand/Importer Information: In 1924 Stephan Schaffan, Sr. founded the Atlas Tool Company in Newark, New Jersey. In 1933 his son, Stephan Schaffan, Jr., came to work for his father at the age of sixteen. Steve Jr. built model airplanes as a hobby and frequented a local hobby shop. Being an enterprising young man, he would often ask the owner if there was anything he could do to earn some extra spending money. Tired of listening to his requests, the hobby-store owner threw some model railroad track parts his way and said, "Here, see if you can improve on this".

Atlas has made a ton of wonderful products throughout the years and we often get questions one whether we have run a certain road name on a particular model. It should be noted that Atlas locomotives and rolling stock are greatly appreciated for their superior operating and running characteristics. Atlas products are also well known for their outstanding collectability not only due to their superior prototypical workmanship, details and decoration, but because there are relatively so few of them made. Each and every production run has been carefully built to market demand, meaning almost every piece in any given run is sold out by Atlas on arrival or shortly thereafter, thus creating a built in collectors market.