Atlas Passenger Station

What is the prototype for the Atlas Passenger station?

I'm not at all sure that this model is based on a particular prototype.

When the Atlas station kit first came out, Model Railroader ran a review stating, correctly, that its windows looked much newer than the rest of the building.

I've never bought or built this station, but I've used something like eight of the matching platform shelters -- they're sold two to a box -- to form a much longer shelter adjacent to the dock used by a (nonexistent except in my imagination) lake passenger steamer on my layout. The station two tracks away is an AHM Rico (Rio Grande Southern, I think) kit slightly modified and painted yellow and green.

It probably doesn't have a specific prototype, considering the same basic kit pieces are used for the "Roadside Inn" Restaurant kit.
The 'Too modern' windows are definitely shared between the two kits.

I had thought South Amboy,NJ station,is a new jersey station

I thought it made for an extremely convincing replica of the former Erie's Suffern, NY train station:

Not the best photo for comparison purposes but if you search I bet there are better ones out there.

OK...

Vastly different roof pitch and height, wrong chimney location and orientation, wrong roof 'footprint', no dormers, no operator's bay, window type and locations, door type and locations, floor plan, platform shelter location, roofs, columns, etc., etc...

Other than that, it's spot-on dead ringer match.

Marty Feldner wrote:OK...

Vastly different roof pitch and height, wrong chimney location and orientation, wrong roof 'footprint', no dormers, no operator's bay, window type and locations, door type and locations, floor plan, platform shelter location, roofs, columns, etc., etc...

Other than that, it's spot-on dead ringer match.

Ouch! Touche', Marty! I'm an n scaler and had planned on removing the dormers and painting it in the current brown scheme. Now I feel embarrassed. Guess I will continue searching for stations for the NY Division.

Hey, it's your layout; you call the shots and make the rules.

I'm just sayin'...

The windows give rise to speculation that Atlas made the attempt to make a generic station, to please the populace from the Bangor and Aroostook to the Santa Fe.

Atlas was started by Stephan Schaffan and his family, and they lived in New Jersey. What railways did we have in Schaffan's backyard during the heyday of starting his company?

Central of New Jersey
Erie
Lackawanna
Baltimore & Ohio
Pennsylvania
New York Central
Pennsylvania/Reading Seashore Lines
Lehigh Valley
Reading

That's a lot of flavors to choose from in such a small State. Looking at shots of stations from these various roads, specifically in New Jersey, we can all agree the Atlas station is "Neither quite this nor that". As you crank on it in your head, you think;"It could be an Erie, but it looks like a Reading, it's not a Lackawanna nor a New York Central but it looks like...... "A lot of the stations in New Jersey were clearly Victorian in influence, with narrow, high windows to let in light, and help to keep the place warm in the winter months. There isn't any hint of Victorian in this structure.

When I first saw this station in the mid 60's, it was called "ROCKVILLE" but now I think you get signs for other places and Rockville isn't among the selection. Back then, the box had graphics of B&O locomotives and RDC's serving the place. OK, Rockville is in Maryland, it's on the B&O, and the dwarf signals Atlas had years ago were definately B&O in influence and not PRR nor anything else. There's just one problem; this kit has utterly NO resemblance to the Rockville MD Station, no matter how you cut it up with a saw. What do you think?



The Rockville Station was moved in 1978, a modern MARC facility shared with Amtrak has replaced it. Either the Schaffan's favored the B&O or thought they could sell more trains in the east, who knows. The modern windows give a hint of renovation, it's a great kit to represent a station in use for commuter rail, I LOVE the 60's phone booth, I don't know if it still comes with one. Several years ago a coworker was tossing his kid's train stuff, and he gave me his Atlas Rockville station. I bought two platforms to make it longer and plan on integrating it on the present layout.

Regardless where the prototype for this classic stands, it has been around long enough that if you've been into this hobby all your life, it's become a real piece of history for us all. If we can find out the genesis of the structure, the next question is WHY did they call the first release of it "ROCKVILLE"?

D/

HANG ON. Here's something close to the windows. Use this link, the image is too large for this format;

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Dec_08.JPG

Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. The Chesapeake Beach Railway was affiliated with the B&O. The structure is late - 1921, so there's your reason for squarish, more modern windows. I think we're closing in....

D/

Marty Feldner wrote:Hey, it's your layout; you call the shots and make the rules.

I'm just sayin'...

Sure, but every time I look at the model, I'm going to hear your voice reminding me that it's no where close to being an adequate Suffern. LOL! Back to the drawing board. :D

There was a cartoon in Model Railroader around 1970 on the first article I ever saw about Freelancing and Nitpicking.

It had a bigmouth pointing out a potential mistake by sarcastically calling out; "WHAT'S THIS GAY 90'S SANTA FE STATION DOING ON A PENNSYLVANIA LAYOUT???" The owner looked embarrassed, but the point of the article was, as you're saying; It's your Toys, therefore it's YOUR RULES. Nuthin wrong with that!!

I rotate out a couple of different stations in the same location, they're all from FALLER, the location is Quebec. Do they fit? I THINK SO. There's even the modern Walther's AMTRAK station on a shelf waiting for some glue that will get a shift at that realty at some point.

You know guys, if you don't move things around and shake things up sometimes, IT GETS BORING, right??

D/

Dieter wrote:Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. The Chesapeake Beach Railway was affiliated with the B&O. The structure is late - 1921, so there's your reason for squarish, more modern windows. I think we're closing in....D/

Here's another view of the Chesapeake Beach station: http://cbrm.org/

Actually the Chesapeake Beach Railway was built in the late 1800s/early 1900s by Otto Mears of Colorado railroad fame as an outlet for Washingtonians to go to the Chesapeake Bay, long before the bay bridge was a figment of anyone's imagination.

The line was abandoned in 1935 (Except for a small portion near DC that became the East Washington Railway) and I believe the station predates 1921 by quite a few years, will check my Chesapeake Beach book when I get home.

Sorry to get this thread off topic, back to Otto's original question...

Dieter wrote:There was a cartoon in Model Railroader around 1970 on the first article I ever saw about Freelancing and Nitpicking.

It had a bigmouth pointing out a potential mistake by sarcastically calling out; "WHAT'S THIS GAY 90'S SANTA FE STATION DOING ON A PENNSYLVANIA LAYOUT???" The owner looked embarrassed, but the point of the article was, as you're saying; It's your Toys, therefore it's YOUR RULES. Nuthin wrong with that!!

I rotate out a couple of different stations in the same location, they're all from FALLER, the location is Quebec. Do they fit? I THINK SO. There's even the modern Walther's AMTRAK station on a shelf waiting for some glue that will get a shift at that realty at some point.

You know guys, if you don't move things around and shake things up sometimes, IT GETS BORING, right??

D/

I've known Marty for several years and he's a good guy. And in this case, he's absolutely correct. I have a tendency to see the world with Erie colored glasses. If I squint hard enough, the Atlas kit might be a workable Suffern. LOL! So... anybody have a suggestion for an n scale kit that could make a convincing Erie passenger station?

Aha- now I know who I'm talking to- sorry to give you agita

I don't know what your modeling skill level is (though I can surmise, given your other activities), but the Suffern station should be a fairly easy one to either kitbash or even scratchbuild. Relatively modern (early '40's) and a fairly straightforward box structure, it shouldn't be too tough to cobble together with Evergreen plastic and other available materials and details.

This plastic structure has made the rounds over many years; I have one in 'N' on the shelf from years ago, by Bachmann (less the platform canopy); in the 1990's Walther's listed the same station (as Malden) by Model Power. And Atlas, of course. All identical...