I’ve grabbed the files for these to see if I can upscale them.
Ok. Thanks Rooster. I’ve made up my mind. I’ll build a critter. 
This first one will be a Plymouth-ish critter.
I started working on the cars first to give me some sense of scale to aim for.
I’ll follow up with pics once I get something to show besides bits and pieces of wood all over the work bench. 
And thanks Bob. That might help me out.
Beautiful work Matt, and please keep posting!
http://www.azrymuseum.org/Projects/Plymouth/Journal.htm
Just a little more help for you !
Then when all else fails you can just buy one of these!!!
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Rooster, stop already . You are making me go down that Internet rabbit hole. If only I had more time…in all seriousness, Thank you. A lot of food for thought. (sometimes you have to be careful asking for advice 
).
Having the day off yesterday, I did my own design of a grape harvesting bin. I’m happy with myself. I think they came out good. I’m planning on using the ones on the right. The stacked ones are a bit smaller and not there for my eyes/scale. Yes, these are 3d printed. Had to use one of my tools.
Need to print more, but for now, on to the flat car to carry these around (then the Critter engine, of some sort - Rooster gave me a lot of homework. Might be a while 
).
I might be doing this all backwards. As I have time to work on these items, I’ll work on them. So updates may be a bit slow.
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Ok … Now that the export grape crates are inspected and covered by fat boy wearing the derby. Can we see the crew that will be stomping the grapes? I would like to know who currently owns the “Roving Rooster” which I believe Lou started (back in the day in the hood) cause you need him right now for grape stomping Matt!
I would buy a bunch of those bins,are they 4’x4’scale ?
I designed it based on dimensions I googled. 48"x40"x31" then scaled it to 4% to print. I figured the eye/mind would fill in the rest of the details.
Those came out great nice work.
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Thanks all for the encouraging words.
I might have something to show later today. Trying to finish up a ‘prototype’ of the mini-flat car. Since I’ll be making 10+ of these, I’m trying to stick with simple items so I can do a mass-production of them.
I might need some help with the coupling part. I figured I would do something very simple like a loop/hook set up. But then again, I have a lot of old Bachman/USA Train/AristoC couplers in a bin. But I’m thinking those might look TOO big on these mini-flat cars. But that is just the image I have in my head. I might be way off and it wouldn’t be too bad. I’ll see later today or tomorrow if I can get to that stage.
Nothing to show, just yet. It will be coming. Stay tuned.
Bruce, If you don’t mind telling me and measuring, approx. how far do those Kadee couplers stick out from the frame (when closed)? I might try to design my own sill mount pockets for my extra couplers (more than likely my Aristo Craft ones I have left).
For anyone interested in (what I thought was) a nice overview of coupler history, check this out:
Well, this is as far as I got today for prototype #1. It’s matching the image in my head .
Still have some thinking and planning to do.
If it helps in the idea process of desinging small agriculturally focused cars, the first post from our cane car project includes pictures of one of the last of Oahu’s cane cars as well as a small flat used in an industrial project during the last days of the OR&L: Have Locomotive, Need Cane Cars I may have measurements somewhere of both.
Also, member @Bill_Barnwell converted some HLW minis based on his memory of cane trains in the Philippines: Rosy’s sugar cane cars.
Looking forward to ripping off your ideas as you progress!
Aloha,
Eric
Eric,
Thanks. This did help. I didn’t read it all but some of those dimensions matched up with what I came up with so I now feel I’m on the right track. Haha pun just showed up.
I’ll read through that over the next day or two. Thanks for the links.
Glad to be of assistance! There is another user, @GAP , who works on actual cane trains “down under.” You may wish to peruse his posts or reach out to him directly. He, like Bill, builds to a greater level of detail than I do, so he would be a great resource.
Aloha,
Eric
And here we are… almost at Father’s Day. I’ve trying to get back to this. I don’t like my workbench filled with stuff. I like it cleared for a project. Oh yeah, I’m in the middle of one 
.
I was having some issues with my CNC. I think I have them all resolved now. So for now I have 5 mini-flat car bases. Time to make them into one’s that can roll on rails.
