Schaffan built model airplanes as a hobby and frequented a local hobby shop. Being an enterprising young man, he would often ask the owner if there was anything he could do to earn some extra spending money. One day the store owner threw some model railroad track parts his way (back then everything was built from scratch) and said, "Here, see if you can improve this."

Steve subsequently created the first "switch kit" which sold so well that the entire family worked on them in the basement at night, while doing business as usual in the machine shop during the day.

This first venture led Schaffan to improve on the connections required to hold two sections of track together. At that time modelers had to solder track rails together, a long and tedious process required when building a model railroad layout. Schaffan's invention of the first practical rail joiner was certainly a blessing to the model railroading community. The detachable connector in conjunction with the switch kits they were producing led Schaffan and his father to open their first factory at 413 Florence Avenue in Hillside, New Jersey.

Today, Atlas sells approximately 5 million pieces of HO and N-scale model track each year. The company also sells model trains, buildings, electrical components and miniature people and animals to populate railroad layouts. In 1998 Atlas launched a sister company to manufacture and sell tracks O-gauge track, freight cars and building kits.

During his lifetime as an innovator in the model railroad hobby, Schaffan is credited with other inventions including the patented Super-Flex Track, Snap-Switches and Custom-Line turnouts. With a global customer base estimated at 600,000 model railroaders throughout the world, Atlas continues to grow. The company's manufacturing site in Hillside has more than 100 die and molding machines running daily to produce all of Atlas' tracks, structures and electrical components.