I know it's not the box cars or the ACF hoppers but it happens that I have some surplus IM cylindrical hopper kits so it's as good a time as any to post on the Swap Meet forum. Here's the link: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...-or-Trade-Intermountain-Kits-4-by-cylindrical
Oh, and if you run across a tank car kit...keep running. Those kits are NOT easy to assemble. I have two tanks with broken hand rails (the one that goes all the way around the tank) that I mean to contact IM for replacements. Even with the flush cutting tweezers it's VERY easy to break the hand rails and the grabs and other items are all east to break.
I wound up selling off most of my tank car kits after I found a sufficient number of assembled versions for my Robeson Process Company (perfect since that is one of the actual industries on my layout). My 2 1/2 cents otherwise: - I drill/clean out the holes for the grab irons and then apply liquid cement from the back. I'm less likely to mar the paint that way. - 100 years ago when I bought a pile of kits, I destroyed enough of the grab irons that I asked Intermountain if I could buy more. They sent me a bunch of spares in several different colors. - I use 1/4 x 20 nuts for weight, available in big box hardware stores, a box of 100 is plenty for a while. I put one over each truck on the 40 foot boxcars and refrigerator cars, and three into the 50 foot cars, the third in the middle if I recall correctly which does make the 50 foot cars a bit overweight. I use Walthers Goo to attach these; they're not going anywhere after that. Patience is definitely required. I've also found that doing several cars at once was helpful.
