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INDUSTRIAL & TERMINAL RAILROADS & RAIL-MARINE OPERATIONS
OF BROOKLYN, QUEENS, STATEN ISLAND, BRONX & MANHATTAN:

Atlas Terminal & Railroad ATCO

Glendale, Queens

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Property & History

   Atlas Terminal was a small industrial park located at Cooper Avenue and 80th Street, in Glendale, Queens. 

   As of November 2022, and with many thanks to Bob Rickey, we are now able to ascertain some earlier history of the property. In his research, he located a 1902 article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a catalog and a 1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map within the archives of the Library of Congress. The Prairie Grass Furniture Company as well as the V & O Press & Die Manufacturing and Beeb & Dinkins Sash Door & Blind Warehouse.

contributed by B. Rickey
added 05 November 2022

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1903 American Prairie Grass Catalog
Note the steam locomotive on the industrial siding. It must now be asked if Long Island Rail Road switched the customer, or whether  American Grass & Twine had their own.
contributed by B. Rickey
added 05 November 2022

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1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
Note that these buildings would become part of the future Atlas Terminal as the terminal developed around them:
V & O Press would become Triangle Conduit, Beeb & Dinkins would become Flower Waste Packaging and Prairie Grass Furniture would become Richardson & Boynton Warehouse.
contributed by B. Rickey
added 05 November 2022

   Around 1922, one of the original tenants: Henry Hemmerdinger; began purchasing the surrounding properties adjoining his own and eventually the property would come to be expanded to over 16 buildings. Eventually, it would be conglomerated and organized into a rather modest industrial park.

   I cannot recall where I located the following blueprint, but it defines the simple track structure in the earlier days of the Atlas Terminal.

(please contact the author, if this image belongs to you, so I can give you credit.)
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   The following image, is an E. Belcher Hyde property map from 1929. In this map, the occupants of the various structures are noted. We also see, that the proposed through streets (Rutledge Avenue, 81st Street, 82nd Street, 83rd Street) were drawn in. These through streets would not be constructed and remain unbuilt to this day.

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E. Belcher Hyde - 1929

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   The following image, is the Pequot Manufacturing Company (Pequot Box), located at the Atlas Terminal. It is one the few images of the Atlas Terminal that has been found online in digital archives.

   This structure is seen in the above Belcher Hyde Property Map. It appears that by 1940, a rail siding was installed north of the LIRR Montauk tracks to serve the south face of the building, as evidenced by the two boxcars seen  below the Atlas Terminal water tower.

   
Pequot Box Co. - October 26, 1940 - Atlas Terminal, Queens (looking west northwest)
Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photo
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
added 19 May 2009

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   By the 1950's, Atlas Terminal would be one of the premiere industrial parks in New York City (oft used as a prototype) encompassing 45 buildings spread out over 25 acres. Over 75 percent of the structures are of one story height, most of them brick construction. A few of the tenants throughout the years were: Kraft, General Electric, Westinghouse and New York Telephone.

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Atlas Terminal - August 20,1968
F. G. Zahn photo
authors collection

Trackage

   Accurate track plans of the Atlas Terminal property could not be located. The following image is of a 1954 Fairchild Aerial Survey image with track overlay from several different line maps by the author. 

   According to a schematic track map from the the Art Huneke archive and seen on the Steve Lynch's LIRR website, the building in the center of the property was an engine house, with indoor storage for the locomotive and is duly labeled as such in the composite photo below.

   The gold lines represent the trackage of the Atlas Terminal, the blue and yellow lines along the bottom is the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, and the white lines signify the property outline of the Atlas Terminal complex. North is up. 

Fairchild Aerial Survey Photo - 1954
with authors track overlay in gold
original added 30 January 2009 / redo uploaded 03 November 2022

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   The Long Island Rail Road would place inbound freight cars on the lead track, and the Atlas Terminal crew would distribute those cars accordingly throughout the terminal. The absence of an run-around track leads one to postulate that the Atlas locomotive would be "trapped" on several of  the sidings, no matter which side the locomotive coupled to the freight cars from (east end or west end). Therefore, it is believed poling and / or slinging was used.

   At its peak, Atlas Terminal would switch over 60 carloads per day to the various tenants in the terminal, and would have rail access / interchange via the Montauk Division of the Long Island Rail Road.

   Customers listed are combined from both 1960's data as well as 1986 data from LIRR List of Freight Station and Private Sidings (via Jeff Erlitz / Steve Lynch - trainsarefun.com) composited on the photo.

   Railroad freight service at this facility concluded in 1982.

   What was not demolished of the Atlas Terminal, was converted to the esthetically fitting "Atlas Park Mall", with industrial style buildings, (arched windows, external "I" beams, and the original painted brick wall advertisements).  

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Locomotives

   Atlas Terminals, as we presently know of; had at least two locomotives over it's history, neither of which were steam. But, both were extremely small and industrial in nature, so I added this chapter to the website. The first locomotive (the older of the two known) was of Plymouth manufacture, and the other is from General Electric.

   The General Electric has been saved for posterity, and was on display outside the Atlas Terminal until most of the Atlas Terminal was demolished in 2004.

   On 19 June 2009, Ted Zach of Atlas Terminal Advisory Services, courteously contacted me with the current location of the GE locomotive:

"The GE locomotive is currently stored near the rear of Atlas Terminals Building #38. It can be seen from the parking lot entered from 88th Street."

   Thanks Mr. Zach!

   Both locomotives were equipped with extra long draft gear to facilitate car movements on the sharp radius trackage within the Atlas Terminal. The four tall vertical rods around the shank, were apparently spring loaded and some sort of automatic centering device for the coupler.

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   In June 2013, I received an email from Mr. Damon Hemmerdinger of Atlas Terminals:

Hi Philip –
I love your page. I am the owner of Atlas Terminals, and we would like to sell the locomotive to a collector. Do you know how I might go about this?

Damon J. Hemmerdinger
Co-President, ATCO

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   I informed him of his options and routes to take to, and that is where matters rested. That is, until I receive an email from Ernie Darrow of Shore Line Trolley Museum on 26 February 2014:
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Philip,
The Atlas Terminal GE 23 tonner is now at the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, CT.
Thanks go to ATCO the Hemmerdinger family for preserving the locomotive and donating it to the museum and to the NY Transit Museum for making the initial referral.
Pics attached from January 2014 of the locomotive at the Shore Line Trolley Museum.
The museum plans to have it operational during 2014
Ernie Darrow

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   So, I would like to thank Mr. Hemmerdinger as well for preserving the locomotive, and the Shore Line Trolley Museum for adopting the locomotive. It appears I have to plan on a trip to Connecticut in the near future!

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Plymouth - unknown date unknown photographer authors collection

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Plymouth - unknown date H. Fagerberg photo F. Zahn archives authors collection added 15 Nov 2008

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GE - August 20, 1968 F. G. Zahn photo authors collection added 15 Nov 2008

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GE - August 31, 1976 Note swivelling draft gear for coupler. W. J. Madden photo authors collection added 28 April 2012

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Atlas #13028 (GE) - September 21, 2002 - on display photo courtesy of S. Berliner

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Atlas #13028 (GE) - 2014 photo courtesy of E. Darrow - Shore Line Trolley Museum

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Atlas #13028 (GE) - 2014 photo courtesy of E. Darrow - Shore Line Trolley Museum

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Atlas #13028 (GE) - 2017 photo courtesy of E. Darrow - Shore Line Trolley Museum

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Atlas #13028 (GE) - 2017 photo courtesy of E. Darrow - Shore Line Trolley Museum

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Atlas Terminal Roster

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