Another recently completed project was this gondola, one that a Lionel collector might find amusing.

It was built using sides from a seller on eBay (in California) who prints new sides (on thin cardstock) and offers them for sale in multiple scales. In the case of this car, he scanned a Lionel O gauge model (this was an uncatalogued item from 1979) and reduced the size to OO. At best the result is a semi-scale model, but interesting to see running with other actual Lionel models.

Honestly, when first I got these sides on eBay I was a little disappointed (they were not usable for a scale model) and they sat around for a few years. Then the body of this car came in a lot purchase, in poor shape, and I realized the sides would fit it pretty well. I used pressed cardboard ends, a modified Nason flat car frame, and Johann roller bearing trucks to complete the model. The finished result does match the Hallmark-Lionel F3 models fairly well.