I was able to transplant the OS with Microlite - though it took a few hours to get it to work. Had to create a rescue boot CD using Microlite from a fresh SCO6 install in VMware and use that to boot and bring up networking, so we can access the master backup.
Trying to use the Microlite rescue media created within the hardware we're migrating off did not work when booted in VMware - it was not able to bring up network interface.
I suspect a driver issue going on but my workaround worked.
Issue now is my legacy app that uses Thoroughbred BASIC - it is asking for production activation - which is likely tied to hardware and since that has changed it thinks its a new install.
I wonder what my chances are at getting the activation code from the vendor, tbred.com is still around but this is a end of life OS