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@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 9:44 PM

With the main body casting cleaned up, we are ready for the most dangerous game: drilling the holes for the many grabirons with a tiny (and breakable!) #79 drill bit. #ProjectHarlow #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #Frisco

The most dangerous game: drilling grab iron holes with a tiny #79 drill bit in an HO scale resin casting.

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 9:44 PM

Next comes the fine detail filing with a jeweler's file, where you have to be a bit careful about getting the angles straight and not over-doing it. #ProjectHarlow #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #Frisco

HO scale resin box car body being wet filed with a fine jeweler's file.

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 1:31 PM

After trimming most of it off with nippers, wet filing made quick work of the rest and prevented toxic resin dust from forming. #ProjectHarlow #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #Frisco

HO scale resin box car body being wet-filed in a sink.

Still-wet HO scale resin box car body after the first round of filing.

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 1:31 PM

One of the nice features of more recent Westerfield kits is a one-piece body, saving the effort of squaring it up right. The trade-off is that flash on the body tends to be thicker and more of a chore to remove. #ProjectHarlow #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #Frisco

One-piece resin body of the HO scale Frisco sawtooth box car model.

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:37 AM

Builder's photos show the two versions originally produced: one with a single sheath end, one with a steel end. This is thought to be one of the earliest steel end box cars made, but we will depict the more common wood single sheath end. #ProjectHarlow #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #Frisco

Builder's photo, Frisco sawtooth box car 126999 with single sheath end.

Builder's photo, Frisco sawtooth box car 126998 with corrugated steel end.

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:37 AM

Photos of this series are rare. One thread in the RealSTMFC mail list has collected them: realstmfc.groups.io/g/main/topic... Here is the closest to how #ProjectHarlow will look. The main difference is the second grabiron on the left side, which was added later. #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway

Frisco box car 126237, thought to be taken in St. Louis around 1940. From Ray Breyer

SLSF 104058 (104050-104099 series)
Converted from 12600-126999 series for Stores Dept service in 1946 (reweigh 10-46) detail from Arthur Johnson's photo of a 4200 class near Commercial + National, Springfield, MO 5-16-47. From John Sanders.

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:21 AM

The St. Louis and San Francisco, using its Frisco Construction Company subsidiary, ordered 1000 single sheathed, forty-foot box cars from American Car & Foundry on June 12, 1912. See the attached history from the Westerfield instructions. #ProjectHarlow #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #Frisco

FRISCO SAWTOOTH
VARIATIONS

Installations

The St. Louis and San Francisco, using its Frisco Construction Company
subsidiary, ordered one thousand single sheathed, forty-foot box cars from
American Car & Foundry on June 12, 1912. Assigned AC&F lot 6709, the
cars were produced at the St. Louis plant in December 1912 and January
1913. The cars were described in extensive detail including general
arrangement and photos in the October 3, 1913 issue of Railway Age
Gazette. "In designing the......cars that road has given special attention to
making the cars burglar, water and grain leakage proof, as well as providing
a smooth style of interior construction,..... with a view to reducing to a
minimum the destruction or injury to package freight in paper bags, boxes or
other insecure packages. The cars are of the outside steel frame or
Canadian Pacific type construction.” The cars featured Murphy XLA roofs,
Andrews trucks and a heavy "sawtooth” underframe with twenty-six inch
center sill. Although most of the cars used single sheathed ends,
experimental steel outward-corrugated ends supplied by the Standard
Railway Equipment Company were applied to twenty-seven cars for test
purposes. Diagonal straps on the sides held the ends in place. To our
knowledge, these were the first such ends used on any car. They were
assigned series 126973-126999. The builder's photos show steel end car
126998 and SS end car 126999. After the photo the latter must have been
re-numbered

INSTALLATION OF SL&SF BOX CARS
Series Builder Lot Date Place No. Of Cars
126000-126999 AC&F 6709 12/12-1/13 St.Louis 1,000

Rebuildings
The cars were re-sheathed and re-roofed in 1926. Although the car diagram
specifies a Murphy roof, the new roofs appear to be identical to the standard
Hutchins design of the period. A brace was added to the door. In the early
1940s a second grab iron was added to the left end ofthe side, 21" above the
first. Probably at the same time bulge plates were added to the side sill as
added protection against grain leakage. Beginning about 1946 some of the
cars were converted to maintenance of way cars. Those converted for stores
had no physical changes but the stores cars were renumbered to the 104050-
104099 series. Cars were also converted for tools, frog repair, dining and
sleeping cars among others by cutting windows and doors in the sides and
in some cases, the ends. These were renumbered to the 102950-102999
series. As shown in the longevity chart the cars were scrapped out in the late
1940s with only eight left in 1950 and three in 1953. The last cars were gone
from interchange service by January 1950. MOW cars ran into the 1970s.

LONGEVITY OF SL-SF BOX CARS
ORIG. 10/19 12/30 1/40 1/45 7/50 1/55
1,000 987 953 819 637 8 0

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:21 AM

I have named #ProjectHarlow after Jean Harlow (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ha...), born in Missouri in the 1910s like this box car. I will build it as it would have appeared in ~1937 at the time of her unfortunate early passing. bsky.app/profile/fake... #HOScale #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #Frisco

@jcjray.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:21 AM

It's time to start a new #HOScale kit: project Harlow will be a St. Louis & San Francisco sawtooth box car of the 126000-126999 series from Westerfield, kit number 11251: FRISCO SS BOX CAR, SS END, MODERNIZED. #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway #ProjectHarlow #Frisco