The newest issue (June, 2008) of The OO Road (the publication of the NMRA American OO SIG) contains an article by Edward Morlok on the Hawk OO gondola, with information on the unusual wood sided prototype (it is a sulfur car) and a photo of a nicely built up car.

The Hawk Model Company was located at 3521 Fullerton Ave. in Chicago. A producer of model airplanes, they advertised their line of OO gauge freight cars little. I have never seen a catalog and at present (2008) only have this one complete kit for the gondola, a nearly complete caboose kit, parts for an automobile boxcar that could be rebuilt, and a few extra frames. The most recognizable feature of the cars is the die casting for the frame. Note also the original glue and paint which is in a glass vial with a cork stopper. These were included in the kit which sold in 1941 for 50 cents. They also sold O gauge kits that sold for $1.

Hawk seems to have produced the OO line only for a short while before and into WWII. The instruction sheet is dated 11/26/40. I believe this is the first advertisement for Hawk OO, reproduced from the February, 1941 issue of Model Railroader with photos of four of these five cars:

No. 500 Gondola (wood)
No. 501 Box car (outside braced)
No. 502 Steel caboose
No. 503 Auto car ( 50’ double door box car, steel)
No. 504 Flat car

Also as this is the general article on Hawk OO, a few more general notes. The company itself dates back to 1928 and they produced a wide range of products. One of their best known products for me was their line of “Weird-Ohs” as my brother made several–a nice profile on the company and the production of these models may be found here. According to the Wikipedia Hawk was purchased by Testors in the 1970s.