Founded by Stephan Schaffan Sr. in 1924, Atlas Tool Company began as a general machine shop in a small garage at 330 Waverly Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. Stephan Schaffan Sr. immigrated from Czechoslovakia around the turn of the century and brought his machine and toolmaking skills with him. In 1933, after graduating first in his class from Essex County Vocational School, Stephan Schaffan Jr. joined his father in the business at age 16. Atlas Tool Company became a father and son team.

Steve Jr. built model airplanes as a hobby and frequented a local hobby shop. Being an enterprising young man, he would often ask the owner if there was anything he could do to earn some extra spending money. Tired of listening to his requests, the hobby-store owner threw some model railroad track parts his way and said, "Here, see if you can improve on this".

In those days, railroad modelers had to assemble and build everything from scratch. Steve Jr. created a "switch kit" which sold so well, that the entire family worked on them in the basement at night, while doing business as usual in the machine shop during the day.

Subsequently, Steve Jr. engineered the stapling of rail to fiber track, along with inventing the first practical rail joiner and pre-assembled turnouts and flexible track. All of these products, and more, helped to popularize model railroading and assisted in the creation of a mass-market hobby. 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.

The Atlas O Trainman line is a completely new category of affordable, scale, prototypical locomotives and rolling stock, designed for compatibility with any O scale 3 rail layout. These fully assembled and ready to run are built for dependability and hours of smooth reliable performance. With new paint schemes and state of the art detailing and construction, as well as add on details and the same high quality die-cast couplers and trucks found on the Atlas O Master Motive Power and Rolling Stock lines. Atlas O scale Trainman rolling stock features: separately applied roof walks, ladder, brake wheel, brake lines, box car has sliding doors, see-through roof walks, true scale dimensions with accurate details, weighted detailed underframes, metal couplers and sprung die-cast trucks and accurate painting and lettering. Brand new in original Trainman box.

Atlas Steam Era Classics is a new series of model trains that salute rolling stock from the Golden Age of Steam. All Atlas cars feature the same prototypical accuracy and superior performance that is the hallmark of every Atlas O scale product.

Atlas Steam Era Classics feature outstanding painting and lettering making them so realistic that you will swear that you can smell the smoke and feel the cinders.

Trains and Toy Soldiers is pleased and proud to offer Atlas O Scale 2 and 3 rail rolling stock and locomotives for the railroad modeler, collector, and operator.  The quality of Atlas models is second to none. Shop our online store for the best selection of Atlas model railroad Trainman and Steam Era Classics.