Atlas - 50 001 659 - Open Hopper, 3-Bay PS-3 2750 - Boston & Maine - 10000

Model Information: Atlas first announced this model in 2013 with a target release data of 2nd quarter, 2014. It is part of the Atlas Master product group. Atlas uses this body style to model both 2750 and 2960 c.f. 3-bay open hoppers as made by the Pullman Standard company. Pullman produced over 16,000 prototype cars. The model features:

• Fifteen Panels;
• Sixteen Side Posts;
• Die-cast hopper and center sill construction;
• Late 20th century prototype (New cars were built from 1954-1971);
• Optional heap shields;
• Friction- or roller-bearing trucks.
  
  

This model features body-mount couplers and some nice detail in the end platforms and around the brake wheel. It does, however, lack metal wheels and much of the fine detail work we expect from higher-quality models. The ladders and grab-irons, for example, are molded details, which sets this model as squarely inferior to similar models from the BLMA product line.

Prototype History: During the 1950s, Pullman-Standard began to develop a “standardized” line of freight car product types that were marketed in “families”. Starting with the PS-1 boxcars and PS-2 covered hoppers, the PS-3 was rolled out with several offerings, the most prolific being this 70-ton, 3-outlet coal hopper with a cubic capacity of 2750 cubic feet. First purchased in 1957, Pullman-Standard not only had an effective marketing message with the “PS” series, but developed simultaneous production capability at both its Bessemer AL and Butler PA manufacturing plants, providing customers with a rapid response for coal hoppers that were produced at a rate of more than 13 cars per weekday during peak supply. Such rapid-production was made possible by new welding techniques that arose from the World War II period, although this was a relatively new innovation for open hoppers at the time.

Buyers for the PS-3 hoppers varied widely across US freight car buyers – in other words Class I railroads. The largest purchaser of the PS-3 was Louisville and Nashville, who settled on Pullman-Standard produced 2 and 3 bay hoppers as their fleet standard for coal originations prior to the 1970s. While they placed several orders for PS-3 hoppers, for a total of more than 8,000 cars(!), here is an example of one of the cars from the L&N 1959 order wearing fresh factory paint, where the cars from that period carried the “Dixie Line” paint that lasted into the 1980s.

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.