OK, so I'm a little slow to respond to this topic...
At one time, Atlas also had printed poster sized reproductions of the artwork found on the train set boxes. There were at least these three:
- Santa Fe E-unit locomotive in red and silver "warbonnet" paint pulling heavyweight passenger cars, while above it, emerging from a tunnel to a bridge is an IHB 0-8-0 with a train of freight cars, including the Great Northern boxcar in green with "waving goat" (and no, that boxcar was not an A1G release!). This is arguably the "classic" train set box cover art.
- Pennsylvania E-unit alongside a Santa Fe GP-series diesel with freight cars, with a Burlington Route SD-series loco on a bridge with a freight train, the first car of which is a Great Northern "loader scheme" boxcar (which was an A1G release!)
- Scene outside the downtown of a city; a lower track with a Santa Fe switcher in zebra stripe paint scheme with a couple of freight cars, and on upper tracks, a Pennsylvania F-unit with corrugated passenger train and just the nose of a Burlington E or F unit in gray with red stripe.
Much of the equipment depicted was never done as A1G items.
Atlas sent me these posters for some reason many years; I think they were door prizes or other complementary items for the railroad club that I was in (and I left that club around 1995). Interestingly, I regained possession of them some years later-- well, I am assuming that they are the same copies-- I'll never know! They were a bit the worse for wear, certainly no longer "mint condition." All three are now hanging proudly in the stairwell to the basement.
I would not be surprised if the original artwork were to be on display somewhere within the Atlas offices.
Cheers,
George
