A Rarer Kingsbury Milk Truck

Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Cloudy with Sunny Periods
8 C 46 F

A Rarer Kingsbury Milk Truck

       I received an interesting e-mail last week.  Mr. Bryan Westmoreland sent me photos of a Kingsbury Dairy Truck. The name on the truck was  Biltmore Dairy Farms.  Bryan had wanted to know if this particular truck was rare. I searched on the Internet for this truck, but could not find any yellow Biltmore Dairy Farms Kingsbury Trucks.  I wrote Bryan back to say that I found a white Kingsbury truck with a Borden's Dairy decal written on the side, a red Dairy truck, but no yellow Biltmore Dairy Farms Kingsbury truck.  I wrote Bryan also to ask if I might use his nice photos, and he replied yes. I did this in the hopes that perhaps someone out there might have information about this truck. I mentioned also to Bryan that perhaps, this yellow truck might have been customized for the Biltmore Dairy.

The photo above illustrates the unique wind-up mechanism that the Keene Toy Company of Keene, New Hampshire had for their toys.

"Company history and description of the company Kingsbury Mfg. Co., Keene New Hampshire, USA
In 1895 Harry T. Kingsbury bought the company Wilkins and with the Clipper Machine Works and led her long continue under the old name. At first cars were produced. The Wilkins line was abandoned during the First World War in favor of the Kingsbury models. They manufactured famous models of aircraft, trucks, and buses. 
1942 the toy production stopped during the Second World War and was no longer included. Everything was sold to Keystone in Boston. The company still exists as Kingsbury Machine Tool Division, as a supplier to IBM, General Motors and GE. "**

**Courtesy of  https://www.historytoy.com/

If anybody has any information  about this Keene (Kingsbury) yellow toy truck, would you please comment on this post at the bottom, or simply write to me at my e-mail address below.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

A Nice Kingsbury Fire Truck Identified

Thursday, November 20, 2014
Overcast (cloudy) with sprinkles of snow

A Nice Kingsbury Fire Truck Identified

   I've been getting a number of e-mails lately asking me to help identify toys. I'm not an expert by any means, but I try. My luck hasn't been  so goo lately, and the collectors have been providing g me with their information that they found before I did.It's great to see how enthusiastic people are about their collectibles. 

   Lisa C. Hall wrote me to me earlier in the week to ask if I could help provide her with the date that the toy she just acquired was made. Fortunately, I could, and I'll send her the answer after I add her post.  It's most interesting that she & her husband just moved to Keene, New Hampshire where the Kingsbury Toy Company was located. The company was  still in business as recently as 2011,,but stopped making toys long ago. I thought the new company still occupied the old company, but Lisa had written to say that where she lives is the abandoned one. She wrote asking if I'd like some photos of the old building, and I said yes, but asked her just be careful and not to trespass.

Kingsbury Fire Ladder Truck

Painted pressed steel, black rubber tires, wind-up mechanism, with a spring activated main ladder. The ladder gently opens to the vertical position when touched.

Circa 1930's

Length:  23"   584  mm

I removed some of the surrounding room to better focus on the toy. As you can plainly see, that ladder is certainly very high. It must be at least  38" or .965 M in height.
I've seen this toy before, but never realized how long that ladder was!

I like the contoured (gently rolled) silver grill on the front of the truck.

The wind-up movement can be seen at the back between the 2 rear wheels.

That wind-up mechanism was specifically patented and was used only by the Keene Company.

It must have been well engineered because it was on every one of their toys that moved, and they made lots of different toys. Mind you, I bought one, and its' wind-up didn't work!

When the toy hits something,the folded ladder springs open and rises to its fill extension.

Well at least I found an answer to Lisa's question. This toy was built in the 1930's.

I wrote to Lisa to say that her toy was missing the original driver, but she was 1 stop ahead of me. She already had ordered a replacement driver to complete the toy.

I just looked again, and there was another fireman on the ladder,
 that could move up or down with the pull of a string.

Thanjks for dropping by to visit, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey 

toysearcher@gmail.com