Atlas - 50 005 140 - Boxcar, 50 Foot, Smoothside, RBL - Ashley Drew & Northern - 5100

Specific Item Information: Between 1963 and 1965, the Chicago Ridge plant of North American Car Company (NACC) produced nearly 750 of their first homegrown RBL, an inside post, or “smoothside” car. Effectively a transitional design between the Pacific Car and Foundry offset door cars, and the later, and more commercially successful, outside post RBLs, this car featured a centered plug door and was only available in a single 50’ 1” interior length. Though not as numerous as the outside post variations, as lease cars, they could be found sporting numerous colorful paint schemes throughout their long lifetimes from the 60’s through the early 2000’s.

Road Name History: This 41 mile Arkansas shortline is familiar to most because of their numerous green and white boxcars. The line was finished in 1913 between Monticello and Crossett, Arkansas, specifically to serve the timber business. In 1963, Georgia Pacific (the forest products company) bought the AD&N and neighboring Fordyce & Princeton railroads. By 1990, the AD&N diesel fleet included 8 units (one switcher and 7 hood units.) Three of these were the relatively rare EMD GP28 model. In 1996, Georgia Pacific's purchase of another area shortline, the Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri, followed by a sudden shift in source material for their on line mill, diverted most of the traffic off the AD&N and onto other area lines. The Ashley Drew & Northern was abandoned that year after 83 years of service.

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.