I happened across a couple of really ancient PSC items at the local scratch and dent this week. I had seen them before and as things there often do, they “circulate.” This time I realized they had what looked like HOn3 wheelsets. Score! Buck each.[:D]
PSC #31280 is a tiny plastic 20"wheel, 4-wheeled flatcar. My <15 year old PSC catalog lists them at $4.25, Wlathers shows no stock at $8, so I did pretty good. Turns out you can perch couplers on top the frame with a little work. I used a piece of channel as a space to provide a coupler mount . Then I trimmed a 1/4 oz stick-on lead weight to rest between the couplers to supply some weight.
I made sideboards for one with some gon sides that came with the old MDC/Roundhouse 30’ flatcar kit, of which I am narrowing several to HOn3. This pic shows both projects mixed up together, with the assembled but unmodified PSC flatcars in the upper right corner. You can see them in relation to the gon sideboards, as well as the chopped 30’ flatcar parts.
So after some magic, glue, and paint, here’s a very short train in front of the Durango station, powered by #49 a little GE 25-tonner that’s used around Durango and at special MOW projects out on the line.
Here’s this less than 6" long train loaded with gear.
#49 and her train are dwarfed by some of the bigger power used on the line.
Even Goose #5 is about an inch longer than Work Extra 49 East[:O]
