Atlas Model Railroads & Trains

Atlas was founded as the Atlas Tool Company in 1924 by Stephen Schaffan Sr. The Czchoslovakian immigrant started the company as a machine shop in his garage in Newark, New Jersey. He was joined in the business by his son, Stephen Schaffan Jr. in 1933. Schaffan Jr. had an interest in model airplanes and often visited a local hobby shop. In an effort to make extra money, he took on a job of making items out of model railroad parts for the owner of the shop.

Schaffan Jr. used the parts to invent a switch kit, which became a huge seller. He then began innovating and pre- assembling model railroad track to make layouts easier for model railroad enthusiasts. The business outgrew the family’s basement and, in 1949, the Atlas Tool Company was incorporated and moved to a factory in Hillside, New Jersey.

Schaffan Jr. became one of the world’s leading innovators of model railroad track. After his death in 1983, he was inducted into the Model Railroad Industry Hall of Fame and the National Model Railroad Association Pioneers of Model Railroading. His only child, Diane, along with her husband Tom Haedrich, continues to run Atlas Model Railroad Company Inc. to the present day.

Quick Facts

• Stephen Scheffan Jr. began his model railroad career because he wasn’t satisfied working in his father’s machine shop. He bothered the owner of a local hobby shop for extra jobs, to the point that the owner tossed a model railroad set at him to work on, just to get rid of him
• Besides track, Atlas’ staple product, Atlas now produces train sets and accessories in HO and N scales. They also offer layout instruction books that contain over 60 layout designs
• Atlas formed a sister company Atlas O in 1997. This company offers model railroad sets and supplies in O and O27 gauges