Atlas - 50 006 076 - Covered Hopper, 4-Bay, ACF Pressureaide - Grace - 59771

Model Information: Atlas first released this model in 2000. It features: Etched metal roof walks; Detailed brake gear with scale piping; AccuMate couplers; Accurate painting and printing; 100-ton roller-bearing trucks.

Prototype History: Pressureaide® covered hopper railcars are engineered to transport a wide variety of fluidizable dry bulk products. Our pressure differential railcars are designed and built to accept interior coatings compatible with the intended product service. Each railcar comes equipped with proprietary pressure differential pneumatic unloading system, which consists of all piping and fittings required to connect at the unloading facility, including air flow and product discharge valves, pressure gauges and pressure relief devices. The Pressureaide® railcar operates with internal air pressures up to 14.5 PSI allowing for safe, efficient product transfer.

Road Name History: W.R. Grace and Company is an American chemical conglomerate based in Columbia, Maryland. Grace is divided into three business segments—Grace Catalysts Technologies, Grace Materials Technologies, and Grace Construction Products. Grace is a specialty chemicals and materials company. It has more than 6,700 employees in nearly 40 countries, and annual sales of more than US $ 2.5 billion. The company's stock, listed in 1953, trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

W.R. Grace and Company was founded in 1854, in Peru, by William Russell Grace, who left Ireland due to the potato famine, and traveled to South America with his father and family. He went first to Peru to work as a ship's chandler for the firm of Bryce and Company, to the merchantmen harvesting guano (bird droppings), used as a fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen.

His brother Michael joined the business and in 1865 the company name was changed to Grace Brothers & Co. The company set up head office operations in New York City in 1865. Working in fertilizer and machinery, the company was formally chartered in 1872, and incorporated in 1895.

The Davison Chemical Divison of W.R. Grace is based in Chicago, Illinois.

From 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.