Thanks all for your replys and suggestions.
1. I too would like to hear how the modern hoppers work with the modern ramp. This could be an easy fix (but from the pictures I've seen of the "new" (made in 2000) ramp I doubt it).
2. Jeff, I did find that the modern hoppers don't couple to the ramp as easily as the postwar 3456 hopper, maybe because of the plastic used in the sprung truck couplers. I didn't mention this originally because I wasn't sure if it was the hopper or the nearly 70-year-old coupler on the ramp!
3.CSXJoe, you're correct that replacing the tack with a rectangular piece might work, but it wouldn't address the problem of the dumping magnet "pull[ing] the entire car down a bit, thus preventing the hopper doors from opening enough" to release the coal, that Dan pointed out. Replacing the sprung trucks with a set from a postwar hopper might be easier, and should also help with coupling the car to the ramp. Also, I have at least one modern hopper, a 6-19804 Wabash hopper from 1987, on which the tacks already hang so low that they won't clear the unloading magnetic!
John
