In comments to a June 4 post in the Facebook OO group, Drew M. revealed how to identify if a box was from one of the two train sets that Scale-Craft introduced in 1937. Photos of the train set as published in the Blow-Smoke newsletter in 1939 may be found here.

And there is more about them in my book, but in short there was a passenger train set and a freight train. Either one, it was a group of kits packed with their metal base sectional track in an overall master box.

These are extremely rare, but apparently there are a couple out there.

Back to the post by Drew M, the key thing is that this sticker is on any kit that is or was inside the master box for the set.

I was pretty sure I had noticed this sticker, but didn’t know what it was. A couple days ago I finally had time to dig in my “box of boxes” and I had actually saved this one out separately, in a sleeve, as I could see it was different.

What I have is a train set box for the locomotive, section 2. They don’t say which locomotive — because they only offered one in 1937, the 4-6-0.

Finally, below is a close up of the right end of the box. In the context of 1937 and offering a brand new product, a train set of scale models, I think the text is rather interesting. SCALE-CRAFT TRAIN MODELS ARE NOT TOYS.

By the standards of the day these were really impressive models for sure. No wonder they got the attention of Lionel!

Would also mention one old topic, Scale-Craft trains were at the time made by Scale Models Inc. of Chicago. Somewhat confusing branding that has confused a few collectors over the years.

In any case, the key thing to look for on this style of kit box is that sticker, “Do Not Accept Package If Seal Is Broken.” Thank you Drew M. for posting this info! Hopefully other OO fans can find a few more of these 1937 boxes.