This kit is the first one from InterMountain Railway Company I have built.  Having only built simple Athearn kits before I was pleasantly surprised to open the box and find a model of so many parts, all of which were crisply molded.  The sprues contained no flash  The multi-page assembly instructions and the included exploded diagrams made for easy identification and installation location of parts.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being worst, I would rate this kit as follows:

• Overall: 9
• Provided parts: 10
• Instructions: 10
• Value for price: 9
• Overall quality: 8

This was a fun kit, would not recommend for a first build due to the fragile parts, but an excellent kit for all the details included.

Once you have completed building the tool it is now time to use it.  To properly use the tool you put the car onto the track (the re-railer makes it much easier).  Hook the coupler into the Kadee tool and look at the markings at the opposite end of the car.  Look at the mark closest to the end of the car to find your weight, it will be the number marked plus 1 ounce.

For example, this uncompleted InterMountain car reaches the line marked 3 1/2, so I will need to make sure that the car weighs in at 4 1/2 ounces.

I measure my cars on a jewler’s scale, but any scale capable of measuring in ounces can be used.

Here is a picture showing the weights (available from Micro-Mark)  installed into the car, as you can see I needed to add 2 ounces.