Atlas - 50 006 978 - Tank Car, Single Dome, ACF 23,500 Gallon - AG Processing - 95777

Model Information: This model was introduced by Atlas in March of 2000. It features: Separately molded brake line plumbing; Ultra-thin handrails; Tank fittings and safety placards; 100-ton roller-bearing trucks; Brake wheel chain detail; Accurate painting and lettering; AccuMate magnetic knuckle couplers.

Prototype History: ACF® Industries built a general-purpose, single-compartment, 23,500 gallon, insulated, coiled, non-pressurized tank car from 1969 on. The cars are still in service today. A wide variety of products can be transported in this size and type of tank car. This includes asphalt, ethanol, fuel oil, metal sodium, molten phenol, paraffin wax, tallow, urethane polyol, and vegetable oil. They are mostly owned by the companies that produce the products carried, rather than the railroads themselves.

Road Name History: The history of Ag Processing Inc (AGP) begins in 1983. At that time, Land O’Lakes, Farmland Industries, and Boone Valley Cooperative Processing Association entered into a joint venture agreement to form one cooperative soybean processing company. The joint venture was formalized into an Iowa cooperative company and took the name Ag Processing Inc (AGP). Over thirty years later, AGP is the largest cooperative soybean processing company in the world. Today, AGP is a growing and successful company that employs approximately 1,100 people and markets U.S. agricultural products around the world.

Soy far, soy good for Ag Processing (AGP), the largest farmer-owned soybean processor in the world, and roughly the fourth-largest soybean processor in the US based on capacity. It purchases and processes more than 5.5 million acres of members' soybeans per year. The farmer-owned cooperative is also a leading supplier of refined vegetable oil in the US. It procures, processes, markets, and transports grains and grain products, ranging from human food ingredients to livestock feed to renewable fuels. AGP is owned by about 180 local and regional cooperatives and represents more than 250,000 farmers in 15 states throughout the US.

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.