5 replies to this topic

[R. W. Merrihew]

Would like to know if anyone out there knows the location of the Atlas slot car manufacturing facility. I know Atlas isn't the most popular brand, but it's my sentimental favorite, having received a new Atlas track for Christmas 1963.

Also, any Atlas trivia would be appreciated.

Please check out my 4x10' race track pictures.

Thanks in advance,

Bob

[Horsepower]

Well, since Atlas no longer makes slot cars, I assume you mean back in the '60s?

[R. W. Merrihew]

Thanks for the response

Do you collect Atlas?

[Horsepower]

Back in the '60s a lot of us kids had Atlas cars and Atlas made the best trackside buildings.

Right now, I don't have any HO setup but I still have a fond spot in my heart for Atlas and Lionel cars!

By the way, that's a dream setup you have there. It looks teriffic and reminds me of George Siposs' and I think Ray Hoy's HO circuits.

[TSR]

A little help from my new book, of course it refers mostly to the larger scales as the book is not about HO cars:

ATLAS (USA)

]Atlas Model Railroad Company was originally established in 1924 as a Tool Shop by Stephan Schaffan Sr. His so-called shop was just situated in a small garage in Newark. In 1933, at the age of 16, his son joined him after graduating top in the class in a vocational school - thus making it a father and son collaboration. With his intelligence and superior tool making skills, he became an enormous aid towards the growth of their business. 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 30th, 1949, Atlas Tool Company Inc. was officially incorporated as a New Jersey company.

Now well-known for its HO-sized trains, Atlas also started their slot car venture by making HO slot racing sets and car kits in the early 60s. Atlas entered the larger-scale field in 1965, with a pair of cleverly engineered cars, a 1/32 Ford GT and Porsche 904. A Brabham and a Ferrari F1 followed. In fact they had been sourced from the Japanese Marusan toy company that issued most of the same models in virtually the same packaging. Several 1/24 scale models followed, using at first a larger Marusan frame motor with ball bearings and rear axle holder, and as on the 1/32 scale models, a simple folded brass stamping as front-axle and guide mount. Later issues featured a simple stamped brass, then zinc plated steel chassis and Hitachi "16D" sized motors. These later models had been designed with the technical help of noted specialist and author Jose Rodriguez Jr. Some of the models used bodies sourced from Tamiya (Lotus 30, McLaren-Elva) and Midori (Alfa-Romeo Canguro), along with a Lola T70 and a Ferrari 330P2 also of Japanese but unknown origin. Eventually, Atlas began tooling their own 1/24 bodies, but the market was rapidly declining, and tooling for a Lotus-Porsche and a Cheetah was never completed. The never-issued Ferrari Dino was to be sourced from Hasegawa. All were supposed to use a new sidewinder steel chassis, of which only a few hundreds were produced. The 1/24 -scale Atlas kits were some of the lowest-priced on the market, but the market had gone away. Atlas went back making model trains, selling their entire remaining slot car inventory to Faller of Germany, the balance to Auto World, of Scranton, PA. Auto World sold the remaining kits and made up their own, using Atlas parts well into the 1990s…The hand built prototype body of the Lotus-Porsche survived in the Jose Rodriguez Jr. estate. The few hundreds of Cheetah bodies (black, red and green) were sold in the early 1970s by Auto World in $3.95 “Grab Bags” with no windows or accessories as the molds for these had never been completed. Of course, the Dino kits were never produced either but one may assemble an Auto-World sourced chassis with a Hasegawa body kit as they mate perfectly.

[R. W. Merrihew]

Thanks for the responses.

Here's a few more pictures from my "toy box."