Atlas - 20 005 779 - Covered Hopper, 6-Bay, ACF Cylindrical - Hooker Chemical - 32031

Body Style Information: Introduced in 1961 by ACF® to haul sand, clay, salt, grain and bulk plastics, the Cylindrical Hopper was the first commercially successful tank-type covered hopper car design. A few of the more than 4,000 cars of this type built through 1966 can still be seen in service today across the United States.

Prototype Information: ACF introduced their roundish cylindrical hoppers in the early 1960s. The cars differed greatly from the ribbed sided hoppers of the era. They have been made in 3-bay and 6-bay variations. These cylindrical hoppers were superseded on ACF’s production line by the Centerflow in 1964, a revolutionary design that influenced later covered hopper types. In the late 60s or early 70s Canada came out with 4-bay covered hoppers that appear to be derived from ACF’s pre-Centerflow cylindrical hoppers. These cars were used by CN, CP and various smaller Canadian shippers. There is some question as to why the Canadian builder based their design off the older cylindrical and not ACF’s newer Centerflow. It was likely a patent issue and copying it could have triggered legal action against the Canadian builders. There are also certain structural design differences between the cylindrical and centerflow cars and perhaps the decision to copy the cylindrical was based on the greater volume capacity of the cylindrical design.

Road/Company Information: Hooker Chemical Company was an American chemical company that produced chlor-alkali products from 1903 to 1968. In 1922, Hooker bought the S. Wander & Sons company for the retail sales of lye and chlorinated lime. Hooker Chemical is best known for the chemical waste site Love Canal, which it sold in 1953, and led to a lengthy lawsuit several decades later.

The company was founded in 1903 as "The Development and Funding Company" by Elon Huntington Hooker, of Rochester, NY. Hooker created a company that used the Townsend cell to elecrolyse salt into chlorine and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as "caustic soda" and "lye," in a chloralkali process. Elmer Sperry, founder of Sperry Electric, and Leo Baekeland, inventor of Bakelite and Velox photographic paper consulted for Hooker to improve the design of the cell.

The company was originally sited in Niagara Falls, NY because of the low cost electricity from the Niagara Falls power project (completed in 1895), the abundance of salt from nearby mines, and availability of water from the Niagara River. However, in 1929 Hooker built a new chloralkali plant in Tacoma Washington. Hooker also owned factories in Albany, NY.

Hooker Chemical Company was purchased by Occidental Petroleum Corporation in 1968.

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.