Walthers Merchants Row Series - Model Railroader Magazine

woodman

I checked all of the online retailers but found no mention of it, on the Walters site it stated it was sold out. I then went to ebay in search of it and found that it had been repackaged and renamed as Court House Square Series and the manufacturer was now Heljan

You have that the wrong way around.  It was originally a Heljan kit that was later incoporated into the Cornestone line.

"Courthouse Square" was Heljan's first serious attempt to make kits which were recognisably and essentially "American", rather than just tarted-up European kits.

"Merchant's Row" started as resin kits from Magnuson Moidels, and they did a I, II and III. MR I and II were later done in sytrene by Walthers, but the Magnuson MR III was never made in styrene.  Magnuson's MR III was three joined stores, somewhat similar to what Walthers did with their MR IV, but a not quite as long.

As for the Cornerstone MR III, it is basically an 1970s era kit, but it does built up into a very nice street corner model with a bit of effort - which is what everyone pretty much expected they'd have to do, back in the day!