Atlas - 43651 - Tank Car, Single Dome, ACF 11K LPG - Hooker Chemical - 1280

Model Information: Atlas first released this model in April of 2002. It is a replica of American Car and Foundry's specialized tank car designed primarily for transporting liquefied petroleum gas. Built in the 1940's and 1950's, these tank cars became a familiar sight on many of the railroads across the country.

The first release featured eight paint schemes with examples of both versions (with and without platforms). This Atlas model reproduces this late steam/early diesel era tank car. The cars with top platform rails were used where there was no elevated loading/unloading facility. The cars without the top platform rails were often specified for customers that had access to elevated loading and unloading facilities. These models feature: Finely molded handrails; Tank fittings and safety placards; 50-ton friction-bearing trucks with AccuMate® couplers; Accurate painting and lettering; Platform where appropriate.

Prototype History: American Car and Foundry's 11,000 gallon specialized LPG tank car was designed for transporting Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG). American Car & Foundry built the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) 105A-300W tank car from 1947 through the 1950s in many similar versions. It is an insulated, fusion-welded, high-pressure steel tank with top loading and unloading valves for liquified petroleum gases (LPG). Drawings appear in the Car Builder's Cyclopedias published in the late 1940s and 1950s. The design of ACF's 11,000 gallon ICC-105A tank car changed during the early part of 1951 to mid-1952 whereby the number of jacket sheets changed from 6 to 5. Generally, cars with the 89-1/4" inside diameter tank built from about March 1947 (Lots 3080 & 3083 are earliest I can document) through early 1951 (with some built as late as 1952) had 6 pieces of sheet metal welded together to form the jacket. Most of the ACF-design cars built from mid-1952 through 1954 came with 5 panels. The period from early 1952 through mid-1952 was a transition period where at least three jacket versions were produced. While there are a few exceptions to this general rule, these 6-panel and 5-panel jacket arrangements represented the vast majority of cars built from March 1947 through 1954 (after which time the tank design changed considerably).

LPG cars first began to be produced in modest numbers in the 1930s and by the late 1940s, they were being produced in relatively large numbers. describes flammable hydrocarbon gases including propane, butane and mixtures of these gases. LPG, liquefied through pressurization, comes from natural gas processing and oil refining. LPG is used as heating, cooking and auto fuel. In different countries, what is supplied can be propane, butane or propane-butane blends.

Road Name History: 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".

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.