H & H Sales Model 10 Vacation Cottage - White w-Red Roof

H&H Sales and Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania founded in 1883 was primarily a manufacturer of flashlights, but way back in 1943 Harry Hipwell, son of the firm’s founder had a chance encounter with a railroad engineer. It seems that one day, while taking his kids for a walk, they came upon an engineer doing some small maintenance on his locomotive. The engineer offered to take the kids for a ride in the cab of the locomotive and that made a lasting impression on both the kids and dad. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Hipwell designed a street lamp to go with his son’s Lionel trains as he felt the Lionel lamp cost too much (sound familiar?). Eventually a girder bridge, a set of railroad signs, and five tin-litho cottages with lights would be added to the line. The cottages went by the name 'Twinkletown Houses' and came as kits with the walls and roof flattened out and requiring bending and assembly.

(Information for this post courtesy of the Train Collector’s Association (TCA), Train Collectors Quarterly article, Summer 1981, by Frank Jankowski. Additional information provided by Steve Eastman) 

If you've been a long time reader of Toys & Stuff today's post might give you a little feeling of deja vu' and that’s because I’ve posted similar buildings before. Back on Nov 23, 2010 Toys & Stuff posted the white cottage with green trim on the walls and a red roof. Not knowing any better at the time, I now know that it was a hybrid probably put together by a collector. Last year on Oct 1, I posted a cottage with white walls and red roof and trim. Both were missing their chimneys.  

Last year I had the good fortune to get all five cottages, complete with their light sockets. The H&H line-up and color combinations are as follows: 

No. 10 Vacation Cottage: White walls, red roof and trim 

No. 20 Oak Lodge: White walls, green roof and trim 

No. 30 Maple Bungalow: Yellow walls, red roof and trim 

No. 40 Hilltop House: Yellow walls, green roof and trim 

No. 50 Wayside Cabin: White walls, blue roof and trim 

So Enjoy it The Berg's :)

Photos below courtesy of Steve Eastman (many thanx Steve)

H & H Sales Model 10 Vacation Cottage - White w-Red Roof

Way back on Nov 23, 2010 I posted an H&H Sales house with white walls and green roof (H&H Sales Cottage White/Green). Don't know why it took me so long to feature another one but ya know, there's just been soooo many things to post that I'm glad to finally be able to feature another one of these. As a fatter-of-mact, these photos were taken back in 2010 with the intent to post them - then I just never did.

H&H Sales & Manufacturing Company was based in Philadelphia. Back in November of 2010, Dave Farquhar provided further insight into H&H Sales: "The parent company of H&H, Hipwell Manufacturing Co., was a flashlight maker. They survived into this century before foreign competition finally wiped them out. I think their factory in Pittsburgh is still standing, but sadly vacant."

Their production of tin-litho houses suitable for 3-rail O-gauge train layouts was quite small. They essentially used the same stampings and simply changed either the wall or roof colors and called each one by a different name. All the houses were shipped flat, just like Marx and T. Cohn, requiring the purchaser to assemble them and had a tab inside the wall which held a small light socket. The windows were already cut out so that the light from inside could be seen. So now, from H&H Sales, our Twinkletown Model 10 Vacation Cottage with white walls and red roof. Enjoy!

The following box photos are courtesy of Steve Eastman - Many Thanx Steve!!

This is what an unbuilt house looks like straight from the box



H & H Sales Cottage

*****UPDATE: 1 Oct 2012****

I've been meaning to do this for some time but just never got around to it.  This house, made by H&H Sales and Manufacturing of Pittsburgh, PA was part of a line called 'Twinkletown Houses'. There weren't that many in the series and were basically differentiated by different colored walls and roofs. The house posted here is the Model 20 Oak Lodge

When compared to the Big Guys in the field of tin-litho toys,  H & H Sales is not a very well known company and only had a small output.  Their small tin-litho houses, made for the 3-rail O-gauge market, all share the same stampings but with different color variations.   Typical of tinplate houses, the walls are made using one piece of metal, with stamped-out opening for the windows.  The sheet of metal is bent to form four walls and joined.  The roof is a one-piece construction bent in the middle to form the peak and joined to the walls using tab-and-slot joinery.  The artwork is nicely done however and they can stand proudly next to any Marx or Skyline house on the same train layout.  Many times they are missing the chimney and today's example, the white house with green roof, is no exception.  Enjoy!