Cheap On30 cars -

[lvrr325]

Bought a couple of Gilbert American Flyer S gondola bodies for a buck each.  Grind the ladders off, cut the steps off, replace with O, mill down the truck bolster, insert a piece of tube in the outer most set of holes, drop on a set of the steel frame trucks, add couplers, paint, and bingo.  Width is fine, length isn't overpowering, particularly if you run the larger engines like the 2-6-0, 2-8-0 and 4-6-0. 

You can do it with the hopper car body, also, although they work out to kind of a wierd length and could stand some rivet detail.  Also, they'd look better changing the brace the ladder mounts on so they still match up. 

Some of the 600-series link coupler Flyer cars have virtually no value, worth $5-$10 in mint condition, so there's no worries about cutting one up. 

The Lionel Scout boxcar might also work, it's similarly proportioned and doesnt have the lettering strip on the side the Flyer boxcar does.  Again nearly worthless.   

[glennk28]

take a look at RMC January 1977--I did the same fir On3 cars--gj

[kcsivils1]

I purchased some S scale American Flyer Gulf tank cars that were damaged. I removed the brake wheel and the steps were what was broken. Replaced the steps with O scale stirrup steps and added San Juan Andrews trucks with NWSL On30 wheelsets and mounted KD-803 couplers (On3) at the On3 coupler height (my standard - poor man's On3). They look fine as "operating rolling stock" that just rolls by.

I liked the Gulf logo because my grandfather, who is responsible for my passion for trains, always bought his gas from a Gulf station - remember those? when I was a kid and we were on our train hunting trips.

[lvrr325]

The hopper actually is the same length as the Bachmann On30 boxcar.  They're not hard to re-detail, the biggest issue with them is the molded on grabs on the end - you might have to cut the support beam out and move it over when you add a wider ladder (or new grabs) to the shell.  But it's a good basic body which doesn't have too many overpowering crude or poorly sized detail issues.   You do have to make up a bolster to get them to sit at the right height.  Once painted they don't look bad at all. 

The Flyer boxcar suffers from the issue of the gap in the ribs for the roadname to be screened on.  The tank car may be okay, I think some would want to smooth the end pieces and redo all the brake parts on the underframe with better detail. 

The flatcars are hit and miss, some are really plain crude castings, some are even a pressed wood material (Korean War era), others are cast and have decent detail but can be harder to come by as a cheap junker.  I would check the number on the side of any AF car by a value guide before I painted it up. 

[glennk28]

as I remember building the cars--the Flyer hoppers are very close in dimensions to the EBT's 2-bay hoppers.difference is the offset side panels.

The tanks are good on flat cars. 

gj