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 
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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 
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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.
