MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS

The tinplate era straddled one of the great experiments in American history. From 1920 through 1933, the federal government tried - unsuccessfully - to prevent Americans from drinking alcohol. The heyday of brightly painted tinplate toy trains coincided almost exactly with the heyday of rumrunners and Al Capone.

With the end of Prohibition on December 5, 1933, beer companies returned to the practice of advertising their products on "billboard" refrigerator cars, with paint schemes every bit as colorful as the most gaudy tinplate toys. Sadly, however, the prohibition of alcohol was soon replaced by the prohibition of the billboard reefer by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the brightly decorated cars were gone by 1937 - just a few years before tinplate trains also faded into history.

Relive the era of the billboard beer car with these two colorful O gauge sets. Each harks back to the years just after Prohibition when colorful beer ads roamed the rails.