Atlas - 50 006 021 - Covered Hopper, 4-Bay, ACF 5701 Grain - Interstate Seed Co. - 1060

Specific Item Information:

• Eight or nine full-width panel body as appropriate
• Etched metal roof walks
• Ten 20” hatches or two continuous hatch designs as appropriate
• Pneumatic or gravity outlets as appropriate
• Blackened metal wheels
• Accurate painting and printing
• 100-ton roller-bearing trucks and body mounted AccuMate® couplers with screw-attached coupler pockets.

Road Name History: Started in 1917 by the Wilk and Gunkelman Families, Interstate Seed served America's Upper Midwest for more than half a century as a farm-seed and car-lot trading company. Interstate Seed remained a family-owned corporation until purchased in 1983 by Vanderhave B.V., a Netherlands company with the ability through its international network to better expand Interstate's sales and expertise throughout the world.

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.