Price: $139.95
Manufacturer
Atlas O
378 Florence Ave.
Hillside, NJ 07205
www.atlasrr.com
Era: 1950 to 1968 (as decorated)
Road names: New York, New Haven & Hartford; Boston & Maine; Kansas City Southern; Long Island Rail Road; and Southern Pacific. Four road numbers per scheme. Also available painted dark green with black roof but unlettered.
Comments: A Pullman-Bradley 10-paired-window lightweight coach has been added to Atlas O’s Trainman line. The model features a cleverly designed three-piece plastic body, factory-installed and painted wire grab irons, and sprung side vestibule doors.
The Atlas O model is based on a car built by Pullman-Standard’s Osgood Bradley shops in Worcester, Mass. Our sample is decorated as New York, New Haven & Hartford coach no. 8267, part of a 20-car order built in 1936. The NH cars originally had full skirting, but it was removed by 1950. The Atlas model depicts a deskirted car.
The plastic body is attached to a metal frame with screws. Inside is a plastic interior painted medium gray with seating for 84 passengers. The window glazing is simulated with thin clear acetate attached to the car’s interior. A light board is secured to the underside of the roof with screws. The lighting is track powered.
Car no. 8267 is equipped with die-cast metal two-axle solid-bearing truck sideframes. This is accurate for coaches 8250-8269 and 8500-8529 from their build date through the late 1940s, when the solid bearings were replaced with Fafnir roller bearings.
The model closely follows prototype drawings published in the 1940 Simmons-Boardman Car Builders’ Cyclopedia of American Practice and data published in the Jan. 5, 1935, Railway Age magazine.
Though the coach will operate on a 36″ radius, it will look better on broader curves. At 2 pounds, the coach is 6.5 ounces too heavy per National Model Railroad Association Recommended Practice 20.1. The 36″-diameter metal wheelsets are correctly gauged. The A-end coupler is .040″ too low; the B-end coupler is at the correct height.
Fans of early streamlined passenger cars will certainly enjoy the Atlas O Trainman line Pullman-Bradley coach. The car has a lot of great details straight out of the box, but it leaves room for modelers to add their own enhancements, like seated passengers and extra underbody equipment.
