Folks: Pat Moreland has a fine photo in his album on the Salem Branch Layout that I just stumbled across. http://www.frisco.org/vb/album.php?albumid=97&attachmentid=13674 Manny had included a question as follows: Pat's model is of a Pullman-Standard Howe Truss boxcar built in 1930 (161500-162499), which were delivered with Dreadnaught 4/4 ends. Even the earliest-delivered Howe Truss boxcars (ACF, 1926 #147000-148999) were delivered with Murphy 7/7 ends. See this link for additional information. http://steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/boxauto/slsf162854main.html As an aside, the Frisco's 145500-series boxcars were built in 1923, and included steel Murphy 7/8 ends, which "...were retained throughout all the rebuildings." http://steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/boxauto/slsf145910main.html Long story short, you could justify steel ends as early as 1923 on the Frisco! Best Regards,
Sorry to revive this thread, but a few comments: The car is an Accurail #7108: Accurail does make a version with wood ends, 7000 series, just not in Frisco: Accurail makes another Frisco car, #7203, which is pretty close to the 160000-160999 order: It has 4/4 dreadnought ends and a wood door. There were a few cars in this 343XXX numbered series, apparently. Not clear if they had wood doors, though. FWIW, the main issue is the fishbelly underframe, but that's an easy enough fix with some Evergreen strips and brass wire. Some models seem to have been rebuilt with steel sides: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=445889
Here's my Westerfield kit build of a Frisco wood sided boxcar with steel ends built in 1919. Pushes back the date for steel ends a little. I highly recommend these resin kits and they're a blast to build. I still have another one of these steel ended cars left to build and one more sawtooth(1912) left.
Here is a shot of one of the 160000 series cars I worked up from a Sunshine Models kit, it is from the second half of the order coming from Pullman. These Howe boxcars and their 147000 series cousins were the largest block of boxcars the Frisco had for many years and lasted a long time eventually being rebuilt into steel sides and lasted even longer. The Frisco Howe truss car kit was the first Sunshine kit I ever assembled and out of all that I have assembled probably my favorite. Brad Slone
Brad, that is an excellant example of top shelf modeling. I really like the brake detail and the chalk writing. Don't you just love resin kits? As a side note. During the 1912-1913 construction of the Frisco sawtooth boxcars, 27 of them were fitted with outside corrugated ends as test cars. That's going way back isn't it?
Jim, I appreciate the compliments, but I don't know if my efforts are top shelf. I see top shelf when I look at your USRA double sheath and see how straight and consistent your grab irons are, I can never seem to get mine to come out that nice. The chalk marks are easy, just a sharp white colored pencil and you can make them all day long. The biggest challenge is not writing the same mark to much. Yes I do enjoy assembling resin kits, although some are definitely more difficult than others. Steel ends back in the teens would have been considered pretty cutting edge at the time. Brad Brad
