My very first HO freight car kits were made by Megow, which had established a reputation for balsa wood airplane and ship models. At fifty cents each they were well priced for a teenager and came with sprung trucks and automatic couplers. Those late 1930's kits used wood construction with printed cardboard sides and stamped detail parts. Their sprung trucks were also stamped metal, and the modeler fastened the sideframes to the bolster with small rivets. For fifty cents you wanted detail in those side frames? Idle dreamer! Megow couplers were a variation of the LaNal basketball hoop design on top of which was placed a stamped hook. A small screw underneath was used for uncoupling over a ramp between the rails. I soon found in that pre-World War II world there were other brands of HO freight car kits, kits with such names as Ideal, Charlen, Varney, and Walthers. I also discovered that each brand had its own coupler. Most were cast lead dummy couplers. Some almost resembled the real thing, while others, such as the one made by Varney, were oversized and coupled only with themselves. These were actually better than their scale couplers.
