#ProjectHarlow
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jcjray.bsky.social
Finally back to the #HOScale #Frisco sawtooth box car, #ProjectHarlow. Carefully aligning end grabirons. Taking some time on it to be perfectionistic. #ModelRailroad #ModelRailway
Resin HO scale box car with wire grabirons installed on one end. Resin HO scale box car with wire grabirons installed on one end.
October 17, 2026 at 4:51 PM
jcjray.bsky.social
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.
October 3, 2026 at 9:44 PM
jcjray.bsky.social
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.
October 3, 2026 at 9:44 PM
jcjray.bsky.social
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
Fresh-out-of-the-box, unassembled Westerfield HO scale kit of the Frisco 126000-126999 series sawtooth box car.
October 2, 2026 at 11:21 AM
jcjray.bsky.social
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.
October 2, 2026 at 1:31 PM
jcjray.bsky.social
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.
October 2, 2026 at 1:31 PM
jcjray.bsky.social
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
October 2, 2026 at 11:21 AM
jcjray.bsky.social
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.
October 2, 2026 at 11:37 AM
jcjray.bsky.social
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.
October 2, 2026 at 11:37 AM
jcjray.bsky.social
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
October 2, 2026 at 11:21 AM