Atlas - 21 000 053 - Boxcar, 40 Foot, AAR 1937 - Detroit & Mackinac - 2928

Body Style Information: Quick and easy assembly. Highly detailed body with molded ladders and grab irons. One-piece underframe with full brake detail. Quality painting/printing of prototypical paint schemes.

Prototype Information: The Association of American Railroads had been establishing design standards for freight cars since the early part of the century. Each new design standard meant higher capacity, lighter, more durable cars.

The Modified 1937 AAR boxcar design was a result of the industries continued search for more freight volume per carload. The real first attempt at a standardized design had been the 1932 ARA steel boxcar with an inside height of 9'-4" . In 1936 the board of the AAR approved the 1937 AAR design with a 10'-0" inside height. This became a standard throughout the industry.

Road/Company Information: First of all, Mackinac is pronounced “MACKinaw.” The Mackinac region is where Lake Superior and Lake Huron meet. Some towns in the region spell it with a W but not the D&M.

The D&M was established in 1894 as part of the reorganization of the Detroit Bay City & Alpena Railroad. The D&M ran from Cheboygan to Bay City and La Rocque plus branches, all in Michigan’s lower peninsula. The total mileage was 348, making it nearly as big as cross-lake neighbor Duluth Missabe & Iron Range. D&M had picked up some former Penn Central lines excluded from Conrail but service ended in 1990 on those routes. Traffic was primarily forest products and aggregates. In addition to connections on the southern end of the D&M, they interchanged with the Duluth South Shore & Atlantic (later SOO) on the Upper Peninsula via car ferry from Bay City across the Straights of Mackinac.

D&M’s diesel roster (around 12 units) was almost entirely Alco. They also had about 1200 freight cars. Their logo had a cartoon of an engineer named Mackinac Mac holding a wrench. The Detroit & Mackinac flag fell in 1992 when the owners sold it to a new railroad, Lake State Railway.

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".

Atlas has made a ton of wonderful products throughout the years and we often get questions one whether we have run a certain road name on a particular model. It should be noted that Atlas locomotives and rolling stock are greatly appreciated for their superior operating and running characteristics. Atlas products are also well known for their outstanding collectability not only due to their superior prototypical workmanship, details and decoration, but because there are relatively so few of them made. Each and every production run has been carefully built to market demand, meaning almost every piece in any given run is sold out by Atlas on arrival or shortly thereafter, thus creating a built in collectors market.