Atlas - 50 005 732 - Covered Hopper, 3-Bay, PS-2-CD 4000 - Burlington Northern - 450066

Specific Item Information: • Ready to run • Injection-molded plastic body • Fine-scale detail • Chemically etched roof walk and brake platform • Prototypical ride height • Accurately painted and printed • BLMA 100-ton trucks • BLMA 36” metal wheels • Brown knuckle couplers

Model Information: BLMA first released this model in October of 2009. This was the first appearance of this prototype in N Scale. This model is an excellent example of the company's willingness to push the boundaries of N Scale rolling stock. The brake detail, metal roofwalk and body-mount couplers along with the metal wheels helped set a new standard for N Scale when this model came out. The early BLMA releases feature MTL body-mount couplers whereas the Atlas releases use Accumate couplers. See a video of this model here on YouTube.

Features: Injection-molded plastic body; Fine-scale detail; Checmically etched roof walk and brake platform; Prototypical ride height; Accurately painted and printed; BLMA 100-ton trucks; BLMA 36" metal wheels; Brown knuckle couplers (MTL or Accumate - depending on Brand).

Prototype History: The PS-2CD 4000 cubic foot covered hopper was produced by Pullman-Standard between 1962 and 1964 in the company’s Butler PA shops. These cars led a very long service life, with some remaining in revenue service throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico until the early 2000s. One of the most distinctive Pullman covered hoppers, this common 90/100-ton car was mostly used in grain, malt, fertilizer, and similar bulk services. Here is a Pullman builder photo of a B&O PS4000.

These cars were built during a transitional period for covered hopper design. It was a time when customers were regularly using 40-foot boxcars for bulk commodity movements, and the inefficiencies of hand-loading and unloading boxcars were becoming issues for customers and railroads alike. Customers wanted faster loading and unloading processes, and railroads wanted the cars back sooner. The PS4000 was one of the first successful bulk commodity designs. The most common production version of these cars featured distinctive round hatches on the roof of the car.

Road Name History: The Burlington Northern Railroad (reporting mark BN) was a United States railroad. It was a product of a March 2, 1970, merger of four major railroads - the Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railway, Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad - as well as a few small jointly owned subsidiaries owned by the four.

Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996.

Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroading with the chartering in 1848 of the Chicago and Aurora Railroad, a direct ancestor line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which lends Burlington to the names of various merger-produced successors.

Burlington Northern purchased the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996 to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (later renamed BNSF Railway), which was owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.*

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.