Atlas - 50 003 835 - Container, 45 Foot - Maersk - 3-Pack

Specific Item Information: Set #2

Prototype History: An intermodal container is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship to rail to truck – without unloading and reloading their cargo. Intermodal containers are primarily used to store and transport materials and products efficiently and securely in the global containerized intermodal freight transport system, but smaller numbers are in regional use as well. These containers are known under a number of names, such as simply container, cargo or freight container, ISO container, shipping, sea or ocean container, container van or (Conex) box, sea or c can.

The 45' containers are the largest permitted on most international routes. From Wikipedia

Road Name History: (From Wikipedia) A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, also known as Maersk, is a Danish business conglomerate. A.P. Moller-Maersk Group has activities in a variety of business sectors, primarily within the transportation and energy sectors. It has been the largest container ship operator and supply vessel operator in the world since 1996.

A.P. Moller-Maersk Group is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, with subsidiaries and offices in more than 135 countries worldwide and around 89,000 employees. It ranked 148 on the Forbes Global 2000 list for 2015.

The largest operating unit in A.P. Moller-Maersk by revenue and staff (around 25,000 employees in 2012) is Maersk Line. In 2013 the company described itself as the world's largest overseas cargo carrier and operated over 600 vessels with 3.8 million Twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container capacity. As per September 2015, being still the largest container fleet, it holds 15.1% of the global TEU.

In 2006, the largest container ship in the world to that date, the E-class vessel Emma Maersk, was delivered to Maersk Line from Odense Steel Shipyard. Seven other sisterships have since been built, and on 21 February 2011, Maersk ordered 10 even larger container ships from Daewoo, the Triple E class, each with a capacity of 18,000 containers. The first were delivered in 2013. It held options for 10-20 more, and in June 2011 placed follow-on orders for a second batch of ten sisterships (to the same design) with the same shipyard, but cancelled its option for a third batch of ten.

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.