Atlas Car and Manufacturing Company

The Atlas Car and Manufacturing Company was a manufacturer of small railroad locomotives. The company was based in Cleveland, OH, building equipment from 1896 through the 1980s.

Overview

Atlas specialized in the building of small locomotives and purpose built rail borne equipment for industrial use. The equipment it manufactured seldom ran on the rails of Class I railroads, but were often used to shuttle freight cars around inside manufacturing plants. Atlas's products ranged from small 2-ton end cab switchers up to 65-ton center cab switchers. They also built a wide variety of equipment for the steel industry including blast furnace transfer cars, scale cars, coke quench cars, coke quench locomotives (to 75 tons), furnace cars and self-propelled flatcars. While most equipment was built for steel and coke plants within the United States, some equipment was shipped outside the country (for example 5 scale cars to Russia).

An Atlas-built electric switching locomotive is preserved at the Lake Shore Railway Museum.

References

• Reed, Jay, Critters, Dinkys & Centercabs

External links

• Media related to Atlas Car and Manufacturing Company at Wikimedia Commons
• Photos of several Atlas locomotives
• Jay Reed publishing