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Atlas - 2632 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Smoothside - Union Pacific - 5907

8  of these sold for an average price of: 18.9318.938 of these sold for an average price of: 18.93
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Collectors value this item at an average of 15.5015.50Collectors value this item at an average of 15.50
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N Scale - Atlas - 2632 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Smoothside - Union Pacific - 5907 Image Courtesy of George Irwin
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Stock Number2632
Original Retail Price$4.00
BrandAtlas
ManufacturerRivarossi
Body StyleRivarossi Passenger Smoothside Combine
Prototype VehiclePassenger Car, Lightweight, Smoothside (Details)
Road or Company NameUnion Pacific (Details)
Reporting MarksUP
Road or Reporting Number5907
Paint Color(s)Yellow and Gray
Coupler TypeRapido Hook
Wheel TypeNickel-Silver Plated Metal
Wheel ProfileDeep Flange
Release Date1969-01-01
Item CategoryPassenger Cars
Model TypeLightweight/Streamlined
Model SubtypeSmoothside
Model VarietyCombine
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era III: Transition (1939 - 1957)
Scale1/160



Specific Item Information: Also cataloged as Rivarossi 9500
Model Information: The Atlas/Rivarossi smoothside baggage RPO prototype: It has always been rumored/assumed that the car was a modeled after a PRR heavyweight modernized to appear lightweight, probably because the other two lightweight cars were PRR. The actual key was the builder, ACF. I finally found a photo of the very car in "Trains We Remember" by Robert J, Wayner. This is a model of a Baggage, 30' Mail Car, based on a pair of ACF Army Hospital cars converted by the Monon. The cars were part of ACF lot number 2733, ordered 5/1944 and delivered 12/1944. These cars had wider than normal vestibule doors to facilitate stretchers. [Stretchers were also passed through opening windows and mid-car doors.] The Monon purchased 28 cars in 1947 (their entire lightweight fleet) and converted two to this configuration. The car, having what appears to be a vestibule on one end, looks fictitious. This is actually correct for the Monon cars. The under carriage detail is the same as that for Rivarossi's observation car and is thus totally wrong. The real cars were equipped with three axle passenger trucks even though they were considered lightweight (presumably to provide a smoother ride for wounded soldiers).
Prototype History:
In the post-war period, passenger rail service boomed. In order to increase efficiency, the railroads set to replacing their old wood, steel and concrete heavyweight passenger cars with newer lightweight, streamlined cars. The new cars were made from stainless steel, aluminum and Cor-Ten steel. These cars required less motive power to pull and were cheaper to manufacture. Production was also concentrated in a few manufacturers rather than each railroad making its own. This led to standardization which further reduced costs. The new "lightweight" cars were also given "streamlined" designs to make them more visually appealing. Budd, Pullman Standard and ACF were all well known manufacturers of these cars.

Smoothside cars are typically painted, unlike their corrugated brethren. This meant that they typically required more maintenance, but this also allowed the railroads to apply distinctive paint schemes to their fleets, typically matching the paintwork on their locomotives.
Road Name History:
The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark UP) is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and employs 42,600 people. It is also one of the world's largest transportation companies.

Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP); both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Over the years Union Pacific Corporation has grown by acquiring other railroads, notably the Missouri Pacific, Chicago & North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Southern Pacific (including the Denver & Rio Grande Western).

Union Pacific Corporation's main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the nation's second largest freight railroad, which also primarily services the Continental U.S. west of the Mississippi River. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the U.S.

Read more on Wikipedia and on Union Pacific official website.
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: gdm on 2016-03-03 09:55:11. Last edited by Alain LM on 2020-06-13 05:52:20

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