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Atlas - 50 004 529 - Maintenance of Way, Snow Plow, Russell - Boston & Maine - W3738

Collectors value this item at an average of 15.0015.00Collectors value this item at an average of 15.00
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N Scale - Atlas - 50 004 529   - Maintenance of Way, Snow Plow, Russell - Boston & Maine - W3738
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Production TypeAnnounced
Stock Number50 004 529
Original Retail Price$32.95
BrandAtlas
ManufacturerAtlas
Body StyleWalthers MOW Russell Snow Plow
Prototype VehicleMaintenance of Way, Snow Plow, Russell (Details)
Road or Company NameBoston & Maine (Details)
Reporting MarksBM
Road or Reporting NumberW3738
Paint Color(s)Blue with Black Panels
Print Color(s)White and Black
Coupler TypeAccuMate Magnetic Knuckle
Coupler MountTruck-Mount
Wheel TypeInjection Molded Plastic
Wheel ProfileStandard
DCC ReadinessFriendly
Announcement Date2018-11-01
Release Date2019-09-01
Item CategoryRolling Stock (Freight)
Model TypeMaintenance of Way
Model SubtypeSnow Plow
Model VarietyRussell
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era II: Late Steam (1901 - 1938)
Scale1/160



Specific Item Information: The Russell Snow Plow is a critical piece of MOW equipment for Northern railroads that have to deal with harsh winter storms. The Russell Snow Plow is most often used for clearing large snow drifts and snow embankments along the railroad right of way. In the summer months Russell Snow Plows can typically be spotted in yards and service facilities alongside other MOW equipment. The Russell Snow Plows have been a mainstay of Northern railroading since the 1920s and they don’t appear to be going anywhere soon.
Atlas has improved upon the original Walthers design to include:
  • Weighted, Detailed Underframe
  • Crisply Molded Body Detail
  • Knuckle Couplers
  • Window Glazing
Model Information: This tooling was originally produced by Walthers, but was acquired by Atlas in 2018.
Prototype History:
By the early 1900's, the Russell Car and Snow Plow Company of Ridgeway, Pennsylvania, was a leading supplier of wedge type plows. The design had been modernized with a cupola and seats for an operator, headlight for night operations and a pair of air activated side wings to push snow up and away from the side of the tracks. Wooden bodies were still common, but within a few years, all steel plows had proven to be more durable. Both single track (as depicted by this model) and double track (which had one side of the blade enclosed to prevent snow from being pushed on to an adjacent track) were offered. Russell continued supplying steel plows to virtually every railroad that fought snow until early 1950's.
Road Name History:
The Andover and Wilmington Railroad was incorporated March 15, 1833, to build a branch from the Boston and Lowell Railroad at Wilmington, Massachusetts, north to Andover, Massachusetts. The line opened to Andover on August 8, 1836. The name was changed to the Andover and Haverhill Railroad on April 18, 1837, reflecting plans to build further to Haverhill, Massachusetts (opened later that year), and yet further to Portland, Maine, with the renaming to the Boston and Portland Railroad on April 3, 1839, opening to the New Hampshire state line in 1840.

The Boston and Maine Railroad was chartered in New Hampshire on June 27, 1835, and the Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Railroad was incorporated March 12, 1839, in Maine, both companies continuing the proposed line to South Berwick, Maine. The railroad opened in 1840 to Exeter, New Hampshire, and on January 1, 1842, the two companies merged with the Boston and Portland to form a new Boston and Maine Railroad.

The B&M flourished with the growth of New England's mill towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but still faced financial struggles. It came under the control of J. P. Morgan and his New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad around 1910, but anti-trust forces wrested control back. Later it faced heavy debt problems from track construction and from the cost of acquiring the Fitchburg Railroad, causing a reorganization in 1919.

By 1980, though still a sick company, the B&M started turning around thanks to aggressive marketing and its purchase of a cluster of branch lines in Connecticut. The addition of coal traffic and piggyback service also helped. In 1983 the B&M emerged from bankruptcy when it was purchased by Timothy Mellon's Guilford Transportation Industries for $24 million. This was the beginning of the end of the Boston & Maine corporate image, and the start of major changes, such as the labor issues which caused the strikes of 1986 and 1987, and drastic cost cutting such as the 1990 closure of B&M's Mechanicville, New York, site, the largest rail yard and shop facilities on the B&M system.

Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Technically, Boston & Maine Corporation still exists today but only as a non-operating ward of PAR. Boston & Maine owns the property (and also employs its own railroad police), while Springfield Terminal Railway, a B&M subsidiary, operates the trains and performs maintenance. This complicated operation is mainly due to more favorable labor agreements under Springfield Terminal's rules.

Read more on Wikipedia.
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".

In those days, railroad modelers had to assemble and build everything from scratch. Steve Jr. created a "switch kit" which sold so well, that the entire family worked on them in the basement at night, while doing business as usual in the machine shop during the day.

Subsequently, Steve Jr. engineered the stapling of rail to fiber track, along with inventing the first practical rail joiner and pre-assembled turnouts and flexible track. All of these products, and more, helped to popularize model railroading and assisted in the creation of a mass-market hobby. The budding entrepreneur quickly outgrew the limitations of a basement and small garage operation. Realizing they could actually make a living selling track and related products, Steve and his father had the first factory built in Hillside, New Jersey at 413 Florence Avenue in 1947. On September 30, 1949, the Atlas Tool Company was officially incorporated as a New Jersey company.

In 1985, Steve was honored posthumously for his inventions by the Model Railroad Industry Association and was inducted into the Model Railroad Industry Hall of Fame in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition, Steve was nominated and entered into the National Model Railroad Association Pioneers of Model Railroading in 1995.

In the early 1990s, the Atlas Tool Company changed its name to Atlas Model Railroad Company, Inc.
Item created by: CNW400 on 2018-11-16 11:52:44. Last edited by gdm on 2021-08-13 08:25:55

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