M. Dale Newton

M. Dale Newton was a designer and manufacturer model railroads and accessories.

Companies Founded & Owned

Red Ball was a company that, among other things, had a line of kits using printed cardboard sides with metal castings and basswood insides. While this type of kit was typical for its day, the line was started in the late 1930s by M. Dale Newton, who was a printer in the Los Angeles area. Newton later moved to Oregon.

In 1955, he sold the line to Howell Day of New Jersey. In 1976, Howell Day sold the Red Ball line to MMRWarehouse. Howell Day died December 19, 2005, at his summer home in Florida.

Red Ball's printed cardboard sides were well-done (although cardboard is hard to keep from warping). The castings were made in brass dies and used typesetter's metal. The castings as a result were crisp.

Today, a very limited selection of the line is produced under two names. Wabash Valley has the soft-metal castings, while Cannonball Car Shops uses the same dies to produce plastic castings. The truck dies are being produced by Capeline.

Red Ball has been owned by Wabash Valley Lines, Inc.(Huntington, IN) since 1975. MRRW's Merle Rice has managed Red Ball production and kit/tooling design for Wabash Valley during that time. Car sides by Wabash Valley have been produced on scribed wood by silk screening and, a few late editions of the 1980s, by pad printing.

The printed cars were produced by M. Dale Newton until 1955 and by Howell Day (Dunellen, NJ) 1955-75. They utilized heavy cardstock, which was 'scribed" by impression with a rule die on the letterpress. Mr. Day made a few laminated paper/wood sided cars and some specialty cars used a paper wrap. In addition to the printed side cars, the Red Ball line has featured about 300 unique prototypes requiring their own crisply die cast metal parts since World War II. Few printed side cars (boxcars & reefers) were identical in size, doors, ends etc as the extensive Red Ball part line has always emphasized prototype fidelity.

The rare pre-war Red Ball line is mostly unknown to today's collectors but it included many cars with plastic castings. Mr. Newton re-established the line after a devastating fire at his Medford, Oregon plant. Mr. Day was an early importer of Japanese brass models that were also marketed under the Red Ball brand. He also sold the very first HO styrene car kits, Kurtz Kraft's PS1 boxcars and steel reefers, under the Red Ball brand for a period of time. M Dale Newton, Howell Day and Merle Rice continually added unique kits to the line over the years with well over a thousand DIFFERENT PROTOTYPE CARS (not just different paint schemes) having been offered by Red Ball. The extensive line of Red Ball freight and passenger trucks was sold to 'Cape Line" by Mr Day. The car sides and kits are now highly prized in the collector market.

Books
Pioneer Rogue River Valley Railroads: An Album of Old Photos (Paperback)
by M. Dale Newton, 1980 - ISBN B000FCQLVA.

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