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INDUSTRIAL & OFFLINE TERMINAL RAILROADS
OF BROOKLYN, QUEENS, STATEN ISLAND, BRONX & MANHATTAN:

ATLAS TERMINAL
Glendale, Queens

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Visitors please take note ! The collection of images on this website, which continues to grow; is due to the unprecedented and selfless contributions of the current owners of photo archives. These people made their generous contributions to this website in good will, and allowed me to post their images online for the entire railroading community to view and appreciate, in admiration if these Fallen Flag Railroads. In return, I strongly request that you please respect the ownership copyrights on those said images. Other than that, please enjoy the history, thanks for taking the time to visit, and don't forget to sign the guestbook on the main page!  ~ Phil

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

   Atlas Terminal was a small industrial park located at Cooper Avenue and 80th Street, in Glendale, Queens. It started out around 1904, and possibly earlier; as an industrial area.

   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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Trackage

   Accurate track plans of the Atlas Terminal property could not be located. The following aerial image with track overlay is circa 1954.

   The red lines represent the trackage of the Atlas Terminal, the maroon lines at the bottom represents the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, and the brown lines signify the property outline of the Atlas Terminal complex.

Fairchild Aerial Survey Photo - 1954
with authors track overlay in red
added 30 Jan 2009

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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.

   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.

   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 enginehouse, with indoor storage for the locomotive. This structure and indoor track (represented by the segmented line) is noted in the aerial photo above.

   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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Atlas Terminal Roster

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