Help with info on MB Austin kit

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D

Daelith

New Member
I have an M. B. Austin kit. Not assembled. On the end of the box it says - Sterling Pickle Car Kit No. P-2 Heinz Type.
Distributed by M. B. Austin, Jr. Winnetka, Ill.

I think this is an HO scale kit. Not 100% certain.

Can any give me any information of the model brand?
Even just the year this kit was released would be helpful.

Thank you.
 
I did some searching yesterday, and came up with nothing. A couple of kits referenced in ebay feedback, but auctions so old I couldn't see their sale price.

From what I could tell, MB Austin was primarily a brass importer into the mid 70's (?), but dabbled in kits a little. Most I saw were brass based kits, but the one you show looks more along the lines of the old Silver Streak or Varney kits. It does look HO, and currently available for $.75 ;)
 


My husband and I had done the searches as well and found nothing either. I think I found that old Ebay listing too. There is a small printed date of 1940 in the lower left corner of the instructions that we saw last night. I appreciate you trying to help.

I'm going to have a number of others to identify as I continue to slowly go through the boxes.
 
I can tell you a little about the kit. The company was based at 538 Meadow RD, Winnetka, Ill. The first mention I see of your kit is in an add in the Sept. 1940 Model Railroader mag. It sold for $0.75 and included paint and glue but no couplers or trucks. The company sold railroad signs, billboards, a few car kits(3 to be exact)at the time and transformers. everything is HO scale. The only adds I found were all in 1940 so it may be the company was short lived or just quit advertising in MMR.
 
Thank you CBCNSfan and rlundy90. Every little bit of information helps. We figured this one was probably before the 70's. Even before seeing the date, I had it pegged for about the 40's or 50's. What's left of the glue and paint are still in the vials in the box. There had been another price sticker over the hand written .75

Thank you again for all your help on this.
 
I can perhaps add a little further general information re M.B.Austin and this kit.

M.B.Austin is best known, and in fact well known, as an importer of both RTR brass locomotives/kits and rollingstock kits from the 1950's into about the 1970's. The company's rollingstock kits often turn up on eBay today. In the 1950's they were regarded as well above other kits by such as Varney and Mantua in quality and detail.

Looking at the kit itself, the car sides and roof are clearly stamped metal (tin?) but seemingly a bit crudely done and much in the way of add-on detail seems lacking, as often was the case with WWII era kits. The car in the box-end illustration has Mantua couplers, suggesting that the kit dates from the pre-1955 era and could well be from pre, or immediately post, WWII. The 1940 ad date cited by a poster previously could be accurate in that many model railroad manufactures who arose at the very end of the 1930's suspended production during the war years, some re-surfacing in the very late 40's. This might explain the single ad from 1940 and the same company name re-appearing and becoming a hobby staple in the 1950's.

NYW&B
 


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