In a message dated 4/22/11 1:11:13 AM !!!First Boot!!!, bezetr75@...
writes:
Wow Doug
This is interesting and complex! The key seems to be when did Atlas stop
making anything with Rivarossi ?! Do you have an approximate date when
Atlas/Rivarossi severed their relationship? It would seem to be as soon as
Con-Cor took over marketing/distribution of Rivarossi N scale! This would be a
good date to back track on. It seems that Atlas/Rivarossi may have had a
longer relationship with each other than we first thought. If Atlas sent
unpainted shells back to Rivarossi to finish- how to identify them ect- if
Atlas stamped their name on them. We need some sample ore cars to evaluate
from this batch. It may be very difficult to identify them! A neat mystery
to follow. Thanks Doug.
sincerely
Randy B.
I believe the last of the relationship between Atlas and Rivarossi to be
the very early seventies like 1971 or 1972.
The last locomotive Rivarossi made for Atlas was the Cow and Calf (SW1500
but really SW1200 with the wrong roof profile). These were probably all built
within the years mentioned.
The latest date on any of my Rivarossi-built Atlas passenger cars is
September of 1971 for my Santa Fe combine and diner cars. The paper inserts on
these have the blockier logo which was the same as the blockier Rivarossi logo
they started using at the same time.
The latest date on any of my Rivarossi-built Atlas freight cars is October
of 1968! This is when the transistion began for Atlas to build their own
freight cars here in the US as demonstrated by the latter half of some of the
car series being built here and the first half, a little earlier, in Italy.
You can read about this on George's site.
Some cars after this were, once again, made by RoCo in Austria (the more
unusual log flats, container flats, giant 96' tankers and Hi-cubes,etc) into
the seventies.
All of this conspires to indicate the ore cars were NOT made by Rivarossi
as the 1968 date is about when the first kits appeared and the "ATLAS USA"
molded into the carbody doesn't follow them being made in Italy either.
I realize my data may not be completely definitive as I am basing it
strictly on my own collection and my memory of what happened back then but I
believe it to be fairly accurate.
There was so much "mixing and matching" between European manufacturers and
US importers, though, that you can never be absolutely certain.
US importers grabbing any manufacturers output, no matter how small, just
to be able to have something a little different than the other importers for
a sales edge, was rampant.
Doug
