Atlas/Rivarossi
In 1968, when I started buying model trains, the N-scale market in Italy was very narrow, and only one brand was available: Rivarossi - then a leading company in H0 - had licensed some Atlas N-scale models (mostly US trains) and was selling them under the joint brand Atlas/Rivarossi.
Thus, after my first passenger car, I started some sort of purchasing rush - I had already developed the collector’s attitude, probably -, and in a couple of years I’d succeeded in getting all the American-style items described in the Rivarossi catalog, which at that time was my main source of information about US railways and N-scale modeling.
Among my discoveries while searching the Italian shops for the few items I still missed, I realized that the models in my catalog were a second run only, and they followed a previous, older Atlas/rivarossi series made in Yugoslavia, which was mostly sold out. But I was able to find some of those older models too.
And then, I started moving through different locations in Italy, changing jobs and houses as frequently as my career was asking. I developed new hobbies and felt in love with cars and personal computers (both expensive mates), and model trains were temporarily left in the background.
But they were never forgotten…
