The History of Atlas

Each issue, this two-part column will focus on an aspect of Atlas' past, (Part I), and take a peek into the Atlas Vault, (Part II), where countless treasures of Atlas lore are preserved for posterity.

I. Living History

Accountant Tallies Atlas Past, Present

Atlas Accountant of over 50 years, Lou Brief, checked his spread sheets the old fashioned way, circa 1950.

There are many constants linking the modern-day Atlas to its rich and storied past. Employees and visitors pass by them every day. We shared some in the first issue of The Atlas RR Report in the article, “The History of Atlas.” While most are inanimate objects, we’ve got one particular constant that walks and breathes through these halls today, just as he has for over 50 years. That would be our beloved accountant, Mr. Louis Brief, affectionately known as “Lou.”

Past the age when most businessmen are kicking back and enjoying retirement, Lou shows up like clockwork every Thursday, nattily dressed and ready for number-crunching. Jovial and friendly, Lou fits in as easily with the 20-somethings as with those who have come to know and love him over the decades. With a mind as sharp as a tack, he readily shares jokes and anecdotes, eschewing the computer for his trusty pencil and paper. Picking his brain gives one the opportunity to saunter down Atlas’ Memory Lane.

A Newark, New Jersey native, Lou attended public schools there through high school, graduating from Rutgers University with a business degree. He joined the Army, where he worked in transportation on shipping manifests. A six-year stint in the National Guard followed. He now resides in the N.J.’s Morris County, one county away from where he was raised.

“Uncle Willie” Karasek, a relative of the Schaffan family, in the wire drawing room in the 1950’s, when Lou Brief first became associated with Atlas. “This is how we used to do things,” Lou said. “Everything was done by hand.”

In the late 1930’s, the accounting firm Lou worked for was hired by the Atlas Tool & Die Company, the predecessor of the present-day Atlas Model Railroad Company. Lou began his regular visits to the company’s original Waverly Ave. site in Newark. He began doing Atlas’ tax returns, and soon became a friend to the owner, Stephan Schaffan Sr., as well as his son, Stephan Schaffan Jr., founder of the modern Atlas.

“Steve Sr. was a client back then,” Lou said during a recent interview. “Atlas made electrical panels and molds. Most business and manufacturing in the state was done in the Newark area at the time. I used to walk on cobblestones to a garage that Steve Sr. had converted into a tool shop. He was a very knowledgeable and intelligent man who trusted you. Steve Jr. was attending Irvington Vocational-Technical School, where he graduated Magna cum laude and became a toolmaker working with his father. Steve Sr. slowly left the picture as Steve Jr. assumed a greater role.

“Eventually, Steve Jr. started to manufacture HO Scale track. He was the originator of the track. He refined it.” Lou described how early Atlas employees, “made everything from scratch,” including soaking wire in a special solution and running track through machines. He and Steve Jr. regularly visited foreign vendors to add that personal touch. Back then, a man’s word was his contract, Lou said, adding that his relationship with Atlas was informal, but fully understood nonetheless.

“Steve Jr. always loved what he did,” Lou said. “He wasn’t interested in making money and was never impressed with the figures and profits. All he needed to hear from me was that the bank account was up to know things were going well. Steve had a great mind, and he knew how to talk to the distributors and vendors. The people at Roco Modelspiewaren in Austria and Rivarossi in Italy loved him. He had a great personality.”

During Atlas’ 50th Anniversary Gala in 1999, the Haedrich boys, Jesse, (left), and Jarrett, (right), presented Lou Brief with a Steuben glass plaque commemorating over 50 years of service to the company. “He’s like a member of the family,” said Diane Schaffan Haedrich, company president.

At Rivarossi in Lake Como, Italy, another family-owned business, the only person who would speak to “outsiders” was the owner’s wife. It was nice there, Lou related, but always dark, as they kept the lights down to save money! Lou became personal friends with the small group of men from around the country who, with Steve, started the mass market HO Scale American model railroad industry in the 1950’s. He particularly recalls Irv Athearn of Athearn Trains, who, “smoked a box of cigars everyday.” In fact, a photo of Steve greeting Irv at Atlas’ door circa 1950 does indeed show Mr. Athearn with his ever-present cigar!

“Steve was dedicated to Atlas,” Lou said. “Whatever he did was for the company. Once he took over, Atlas was always advancing. He loved the machines in the basement that made our products.” For many years, Atlas had its own in-house personnel whose job it was to work on the machines daily. Among Lou’s voluminous files is a yellowed copy of a magazine article from 1968 by Bernie Cohen of Allied Hobbies. In it, Mr. Cohen called 1967, “The year N gauge surprised us all, by selling, and selling, and selling. The year Steve Schaffan of Atlas threw the dice…and laughed all the way to the bank.” Prior to his death, Steve donated $50,000 to Newark’s Beth Israel Hospital to help build a cardiac care center.

But that was then, and this is now. Lou has much the same feelings for the company’s current Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas W. Haedrich, Steve’s son-in-law. (Steve Schaffan Jr. passed away in 1983, leaving one daughter, Diane. Tom is Diane’s husband. Their older son, Jarrett, serves as Atlas’ Marketing Coordinator, while their other son, Jesse, is an engineering student at Penn State University. Tom has been with Atlas since 1984.)

“Lou is more than a friend and co-worker, he is an integral part of the Atlas family and his wisdom enriches all our lives,” said Jarrett, who recently posed with Lou in the lobby at 378 Florence Avenue.

“With the Haedrichs, there’s new blood coming in,” Lou said. “Tom has expanded and advanced the product lines and Atlas has become bigger and better for it. When Tom stepped into the picture, he held more organizational meetings and got everybody involved. He delegated some of the executive duties to others. By bringing in new products and personnel, Atlas has thrived. It was Tom’s idea to go into O Scale, a product he knew was going to take off. There is a future for it. Who knows what an outsider would have done? As a family company, Atlas has done very well.”

“Lou’s been like a father to me and many others here at Atlas,” Tom said. “He’s always ready to talk about everything from trains, politics, religion and family. His one on one monitoring over the years has been invaluable to me.”

But Lou, why don’t you retire and just enjoy life? “It’s the people,” Lou responds. “We have a nice crew. They know what they are doing, and they work hard for the company. I like all these people. Also, the work is so organized today. By keeping my mind going, I feel better.”

And so do we, Lou, so do we.

II. From the Vault

We dusted off a couple of gems this issue to share with readers. One is a fondly remembered early product, while the other is a moment in time, captured for posterity.

O Scale Train Set – Circa 1970

This painting, and many others featuring Atlas products that can be seen throughout our headquarters, are the work of noted painter Scott Eidson. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1908, he attended the Chicago Art Institute and was a member of The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, California, where he lived and worked for many years, specializing in advertising illustrations.

“Mr. Eidson did all Atlas major product box art work, i.e. structures and train and slot car sets back in the 1960's and 70's,” said Tom Haedrich, Atlas’ Chairman of the Board. “He used tempera style poster inks and the newly framed originals, as can be seen throughout our headquarters building, are quite impressive. "

“The Atlas O scale sets from the early 1970’s were a collaboration between Atlas and the Austrian model-building firm of ROCO,” said Jim Weaver, vice-president of Atlas O. “The locomotives and rolling stock were American prototype but the track was a European prototype that was already in the ROCO product line. The only radius of curve that was offered was 24” plus a flex track, several straight sections and 24” radius switches. The trains were 2-Rail DC but featured an odd combination of tinplate-flanged wheels and Lionel-compatible couplers in an attempt for cross-over sales. Full scale couplers and wheel sets were available as separate sale items.”

Jim said there were two styles of the first Atlas O train sets, which only came in 2-Rail. The top-of-the-line set included the F-9 locomotive, and the lesser set featured the WDT switcher.

Original artwork by noted commercial artist Scott Eidson graced the cover of Atlas’ first O scale train set back in the 1970’s.

F-9 Sets included an EMD F-9 locomotive, boxcar, gondola and Extended Vision caboose, 12 curved and two straight track sections, a two-amp power pack, wire and instructions.

Four road names were available:
Set #6101-3 Santa Fe
Set #6102-3 Burlington Northern
Set #6103-3 Chesapeake & Ohio
Set #6104-3 Union Pacific

WDT Sets included a Plymouth WDT six-wheel industrial switcher, plug door box car, ore car and four-wheel “bobber” caboose, 12 curved and two straight track sections, a two amp power pack, wire and instructions.

Five road names were available:
Set #6121-3 Santa Fe
Set #6122-3 Illinois Central
Set #6123-3 Reading
Set #6124-3 Union Pacific
Set #6125-3 Midvale Steel

“The sets were probably available from 1972-76,” said Jim, who added the following “fun fact”: An F-9 set played a key role in the TV show “Banacek” starring the late actor George Peppard. He was an insurance investigator looking into a claim for a missing auto that was stolen from a moving train. He used the Atlas train set and a large oval with a siding to show how the auto was stolen from the train. Banacek was part of the NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie series that also included Columbo, MacMillian & Wife and McCloud.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Two titans of America’s model railroad industry, who together with a handful of others literally built the country’s modern model railroad industry from scratch, were more friends than competitors. Stephan Schaffan, Jr. of New Jersey and Irv Athearn of California may have worked on opposite sites of the nation, but they got together whenever they could and made a lifetime of memories and model railroad history. The companies they founded went on to become hallmarks of model railroading quality, standardization and innovation.

One of their earliest collaborations began in the late 1950’s, when an Atlas rubber band-driven version of a German Zeppelin was mounted on an Athearn Hustler chassis. It was just the beginning of a lifetime of collaboration and cooperation between Atlas and Athearn. In his book, 150 Years of Train Models, ©1999, Hal Carstens tells of the good times their little group of model railroad innovators enjoyed in the penthouse apartment Steve maintained over one of his Hillside, N.J. buildings, where Steve frequently hosted the Athearns and the Carstens.

Here, we are bystanders to a 1950 meeting of the two entrepreneurs, at the front door of Atlas’ first factory at 413 Florence Avenue, Hillside, just blocks from where Atlas’ headquarters sits today. With his ever present cigar and holder firmly in place, Irv extends a hand in greeting to a smiling Steve.