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Every suggestion offered on this string so far is right on-suggest you get several cars from each of the manufacturers mentioned (as a min, and as your budget permits) for variety-esp. box cars, since there was, and still is, a considerable variety of heights, door and end styles, sill details, and to some extent walkways, ladders, brake wheels and freight trucks Depending on what era you are modeling). A couple of other pointers for you as you build a fleet of freight cars-and you will! -- pick an era (like 1940-1950, 1960-1970, or whatever. . . Suggest you confine your collection to that era as it would look silly to have a 36' wood billboard reefer on arch bar trucks mixed in w/ Gunderson cars more than twice as long and 60 or more years newer. If you're not sure at first look at the tiny markings on the sides of the kits referenced earlier in this string, and look specifically for a marking that reads 'new month - year' , for instance a car built in August 1945 would be indicated by: NEW 8-45. Sometimes, but rarer on prepainted kits, you will see RBT or RBLT month-year, indicating it was rebuilt at that later date, such as war-time emergency cars built with braced wooden sides (hoppers, box cars, gondolas, and even cabooses). By avoiding any cars with reporting marks w/ dates newer than the era you have chosen to model, you will quickly build a more realistic roster and you'll avoid replacing inappropriate cars later on. Familiarize yourself with what freight trucks were in use at what time (as some of them like arch bar trucks were outlawed for safety considerations back in the '30's) MR had an excellent article re: this a few months back. Other tidbits to spur the wheels to turn are to consider why your railroad exists-where does it go, what does it haul, what railroads would connect or interchange with it and why, etc. This will help you in selecting cars that fit in on your railroad. Do your homework and you'll get lots more out of this wonderful hobby. And avoid that nasty tube of glue-use liquid cement and CA (super glue). Good modeling to ya'
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