Station Carts for 356 Operating Freight Station

There are rubber sleeves, 356-47 and 356-6, that get hard with age. Replacing these with fresh soft rubber will help in adjusting the vibration.

Thanks @David Johnston.  Actually the fingers on my unit are surprisingly soft IMHO.  While the unit was labeled c8 as per Stout, I think it had been used since the signs were documented as being repros.  So perhaps the sleeves were replaced and the fingers are new and soft, I don't know.

Just today I took delivery of a NOS cart for the 356, but haven't looked at it yet.  I will open it up on Tuesday and see how it compares to the ones I currently have.  I'm thinking if I can't solve the speed differences, I can have 3 carts on the track, with 2 being in the station and the third one coming into it to release one of the two.

I received the NOS cart, and its performance around the track was similar to one of my original carts, so the entry/exit cycle to the shed for both those carts is perfect.  The feet on the new cart are relatively soft, but a bit firmer than the original carts, so I ordered replacement pads.  I'll post an update on this thread after I test them out.

I said I thought 3 carts would work, but it didn't work so well in my initial attempt.  After I moved on from that I found that my release mechanism (which I had greased at the start) was still sticking a bit.  That may have been why the 3 cart cycling didn't work.  I'll check that out and post an update on that with the above info.

Final update.  I got the replacement pads installed on the 2 original carts, and now the slow one moves faster than the fast one.  It turns out that I couldn't get any 2 of the 3 to sequence correctly due to the speed variations.  However, I did get the 3 cart configuration to work successfully.  Cart 3 would come into the shed with carts 1 and 2 in there already, release 1, and then 1 does its thing around the track, releases cart 2, and so on.  I ran that for over 5 minutes without a hitch, so it's ready for display.

I spent some time customizing the carts.  I detailed some suitcases (painting the handles and latches), added some unit numbers to the back of the cart, added a much needed 'Keep Off' sign on the sides of the cart, painted the exposed axles, and then gave the little guys some eyes.

I know, kinda lame, but it gave me something to do.