Atlas - 50 006 031 - Caboose, Cupola, Steel, C&O - Chicago & Illinois Midland - 70

Model Information: Atlas introduced this model in 2008. From the get-go, this has been a Trainman model with slightly less detail and a lower price point than Atlas' Master line products. The "39" Series caboose carries a cupola almost in the exact middle of the body. It does NOT have a raised roofwalk like the NE-6. Instead the rooflwalks are molded into the roof. It does have ladders which "loop over" the roof. It carries two large windows on each side as well as two separated smaller windows on each side of the cupola. The smokestack is taller than the one on the NE-6. This model has always featured body-mounted Accumate couplers. This model falls somewhere between 2nd and 3rd generation rolling stock models. It lacks metal wheels and elegant use of detail parts (no etched metal parts here), but the wheels can be user-upgraded and one could argue that the end platform detail and ladders are sufficient to qualify for 'detail parts' - enough to make this a 3gen model.

Prototype History: The first all-steel cabooses built for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad were produced in 1937 by the Magor Car Corporation in Clifton, N.J. Magor, along with St. Louis Car Company and ACF, ultimately built a total of 350 cabooses for the C&O using a similar design. The last were produced in 1949. Through subsequent rebuilding and modernization, many remained in service through the end of regular caboose usage in the 1980s. Cabooses of a similar design were also built for Pere Marquette, Missouri Pacific and Chicago & Eastern Illinois.

Road Name History: The Chicago & Illinois Midland ran from Peoria south to Springfield (the state capital) and Cimic, then east to Taylorville, Illinois. Total mileage was around 120 (7 miles longer than RF&P by comparison.) For much of its history, the C&IM was owned by utility giant Commonwealth Edison. Most of the traffic was coal. Over the years, coal has moved from mines along the south end of the line to Illinois River docks at Havana and to other carriers at Peoria. As Wyoming coal became more popular, coal moved from connections at Peoria to the docks at Havana.

C&IM was the last Class 1 railroad to order 4-4-0s. A trio of them were built by Baldwin in 1927 and ’28. Later in the steam era, C&IM bought second hand 2-10-2s from Wabash and Atlantic Coast Line as coal traffic increased. We tend to believe that the “Steam to Diesel Transition Era” unfolded over a long period with the first switchers and streamliners arriving in the late 1930s and the last steam road power retiring around 1957 or so. C&IM was unusual in that it remained all-steam through 1954. When they did switch, it was with a suddenness that could strike panic in the hearts of steam fans. The first EMD switchers arrived in early 1955. Then, in the third week of November, the first SD9 arrived on the property. Within FIVE DAYS steam was gone from the C&IM mainline, leaving a few 0-8-0’s in yard service. On December 5th, the 0-8-0’s were gone too.

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.