Manufacturer: Hartford Products, Inc., 6523 Old Farm Lane, Rockville, MD 20852. Price: 1:24 scale custom built Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge boxcar with unplated steel wheels and Kadee® Number One scale couplers $267.50 each plus $5.00 shipping.

The original cars Hartford copied as the basis for the model came from Carter Brothers in 1890. They first went to the Oregonian Railroad. The Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge bought them from the Oregonian in 1899 and, in 1925, resold them to the Central Pacific. The CP rebuilt them to 20 ton capacity and replaced the trucks. An example of the series is now on display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

Hartford kits are accurate. Bob scaled his 1:24 scale model directly from that car in Sacramento along with the restoration drawings. The boxcar measures exactly 28 feet long over the end sills, 7 feet 8 inches wide across the ends, and 6 feet 9 inches high from the bottom of the side sills to the underside of the roof. The scale dimensions precisely match those of the full size car. Bob's superb metal castings also duplicate the dimensions of the hardware on the actual car. For example, his brass grab iron castings are a scale 3/4-inch in diameter-more accurate than nearly any other on the market. The close-up photo shows the quality of his underbody hardware castings.

The paint appears to be Floquil Boxcar Red. The dry transfers are from Larry Larsen. The builder applied both professionally. Nowhere was a paint run or sag evident. In one or two places the graphics transferred a little raggedly and in another spot or two, part of a transfer chipped off. That is no fault of the builder. It is a problem inherent in dry transfers themselves. Sometimes they fight back. I have had the same experience myself and empathize. Even so, the painting and lettering qualify as excellent and much better than that on some factory painted models. Moreover, the graphics are accurate.

Another imperfection was also unavoidable. Glue filled the joint between sections of scribed siding just enough to obscure the seam where they butt together. Again, I have encountered the same problem in building rolling stock with scribed siding. The problem lies with the width of the siding rather than with either the construction technique or the skill of the builder. Unless somebody were to manufacture scribed wood siding in 24 inch widths (and nobody ever has), glue joints will be perceptible.

For some reason the coupler lift bar is missing. Tsk tsk, Bob.

The final comment concerns the trucks. They are technically incorrect for SP boxcar number 42. The prototype has a different kind of archbar truck. Some used Thielson trucks, for example. To be fair to Bob Hartford, if he were to expend the time, money, and effort necessary to make patterns and produce the perfect truck for every car in his line, we would still be waiting for his third kit to appear and the price of each would be in the hundreds of dollars. Even models of comparable quality in the most popular small scales exhibit the same compromises.

On the other hand, it was feasible for Hartford to duplicate the brake, door, and underbody hardware of SP boxcars and each piece is virtually perfect, even down to the unique lower brake staff bracket. The underbody brake rigging is complete (though inoperable), the doors open to reveal scribed plank flooring, and the couplers sit at the proper height for flawless operation.

I have deliberately gone over the model as critically as possible on the assumption that anyone willing to spend $267.50 for a boxcar would demand virtual perfection. In the case of our Hartford Products built-up boxcar sample, that is pretty much what the buyer will get-and at a price extremely competitive with custom built cars from other companies. Dollar for dollar, scale inch for scale inch, and detail for detail, Bob Hartford's SP narrow gauge boxcar seems to be in a class by itself. It is a superb product.-RR