Vintage Atlas/Austria Train Set

[6axlepwr]

Looking into my past, I am trying to find information about my very first introduction to model trains. It was Christmas 1970 and my parents gave me my first electric trains.

This is not going to be easy I know. What I am trying to find out is what cars were in the set. I think I know, but not 100% sure. What I do know is the following.
1. It was offered by Atlas/ Austria.
2. The locomotive was a Santa Fe GP40. I still have it.
3. The caboose was the brown Santa Fe caboose #1981 which I still have.

I think it came with three freight cars. Now these are the freight cars I "think" it came with.
1. Santa Fe 40' boxcar. Brown with Ship and Travel Santa Fe All The Way slogan on the side.
2. NYC Green stock car.
3. Peabody 4 bay coal hopper.

If anyone can verify the freight cars or knows of this set. I sure would appreciate the information. If those are the freight cars, then I still have it all. Maybe there was a fourth car, but I do not know.

A few years ago, I actually saw a photo of this complete set on the web. I did not think at the time to copy the photo and save it.

Thanks.

Brian

[Albert in N]

If this GP-40 has only two axles (one truck) powered, most likely it was made in Yugoslavia, not Austria.  From memory, I did not see Atlas Austria trains until about 1975.   The Yugo N locomotives had open frames while the later Austria (Roco-made) had can motors.  All of the Roco/Atlas/Austria N diesel locomotives had all axles powered (at least on the F-units and GPs).

[randgust]

I bought one of those ATSF GP40's from the Whistle Stop Hobby Shop in Pasadena in July 1972.   Yes, it was a Yugo.

It was not in the set, sold separately - I think the cab number was 1347?   Shell had open radiator fans, which allowed the smoke from the motor to safely evacuate.   Lubrication instructions on the locomotive recommended vegetable oil, which at that heat range in the motor, proved to be combustible.   Only actual locomotive fire I've ever had in any scale.

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/yugogp40.html

Doug Gosha can probably ID every part number in that set from memory, as the Atlas 1G guy
http://www.irwinsjournal.com/a1g/a1glocos/

I'm glad its your sentimental collector favorite, because that locomotive almost drove me out of N scale.   Only the Trix F unit saved me.

I had the caboose, the Peabody hopper and the green ATSF stock car with my early sets as well.   They were very common as set equipment.  I think I still have that ATSF boxcar, heavily weathered, but in service on my layout today.  I keep looking at it as an etched roofwalk replacement because the weathering job came out so well.

[Mark5]

The Yugo N locomotives had open frames while the later Austria (Roco-made) had can motors.  All of the Roco/Atlas/Austria N diesel locomotives had all axles powered (at least on the F-units and GPs).

The Atlas era Mehanos had open 5 pole motors, while the Atlas/Roco GP9, GP30, etc had open frame 3 polers.

A few of the early sets are shown here: http://rossfink.com/Atlas%20First%20Generation%20Sets

Mark

[wazzou]

I would bet @DKS or @spookshow would be good references for this.

[6axlepwr]

It is the Yugo made model. It has the one truck drive on it.

It does look like it would have come with four freight cars. I can identify three of them now. The Santa Fe boxcar, NYC stock car and the NS wood side gondola. If I can just find out thata fourth car, I would be set.

Thanks all for the links. This will give me a good starting point.

Brian

[Albert in N]

   Mark5 is correct that both Atlas products (Yugoslav Mehano and Austria Roco) had open pole motors.  My memory banks recalled my Horribly Oversized (HO) Roco diesels with can motors.  For reasons unknown, I had dabbled in HO some in the 1980s. 

[drgw0579]

Sort of on a related topic.

At the Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley, CO we had a donation of that same era of Atlas train set.   It looks like it is mostly complete and the boxes are in good shape.   I forget exactly what rolling stock it was.

I'm curious, being a museum if this would make a good exhibit.   There might be some visitors that can understand how far our models have come.  But I don't know if the general public would understand, and more importantly, think that it was worth wild for them to look at. 

Bill Kepner

[nickelplate759]

  Mark5 is correct that both Atlas products (Yugoslav Mehano and Austria Roco) had open pole motors.  My memory banks recalled my Horribly Oversized (HO) Roco diesels with can motors.  For reasons unknown, I had dabbled in HO some in the 1980s.

The Atlas Roco FA1 had a can motor. And a flywheel!

[nkalanaga]

Yes, but at least on the one I bought, neither did it much good.  The trucks had enough friction that the motor still couldn't roll move it well.  I stuck with the Minitrix Fs, which, since I modeled the BN, were prototypical for the 1970s.

Randgust:  I've also heard that some of the plastics reacted with the vegetable oil, so even the ones that didn't catch fire were ruined.  I never tried it on mine, as I figured it wouldn't help anyway!

[Mark5]

The Atlas Roco FA1 had a can motor. And a flywheel!

True, but it came a few years after the GP9, GP30, and F9, which were open frame. I believe the flywheel was a first for N scale!

[randgust]

Randgust:  I've also heard that some of the plastics reacted with the vegetable oil, so even the ones that didn't catch fire were ruined.  I never tried it on mine, as I figured it wouldn't help anyway!

Mine got sticky, really sticky, which created additional friction.....  So of course you make a fresh application to loosen stuff up when you are 15 years old.   Pretty soon you have an N Scale deep fat fryer in there virtually dripping in vegetable oil.   And yes, when it overheated, it smelled like french fries.   Add fire rings, ignition, liftoff....the shell, to find a hole melted through it right by the commutator.   But the smoke pouring out of the radiator fan holes was a neat feature of that casting.

I've always wished somebody, anybody, would scan the original instruction set in the bottom of one of those old Atlas GP40 boxes as I'm not sure any modeler today would believe it.   Imagine a world...where synthetic lubricant's didn't exist.    Reminds me of the SNL skit where Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber (Steve Martin) looks at a deathly pale and anemic patient and says "She needs a good bleeding".

[Point353]

I've always wished somebody, anybody, would scan the original instruction set in the bottom of one of those old Atlas GP40 boxes as I'm not sure any modeler today would believe it.   Imagine a world...where synthetic lubricant's didn't exist.

Is this the instruction sheet to which you refer?

[randgust]

I distinctly remember mine actually recommending vegetable oil as the lubricant.   Which made sense to me, as even as a kid I'd discovered using '3 in 1 oil' on my injection molded model kits with moving parts resulted in broken parts in relatively short time.  My own box liner disappeared decades ago.

[peteski]

I was always under the impression that the plastic gears in even the early models, were made of some sort of tough slippery plastic which would not be affected by oily substances.  Maybe the problem was not dissolving gears but the vegetable oil thickening up over time, gumming up the gears, making it appear that the gears are melting?