First attempt at a Menards flatcar load

It is refreshing to see a father and children having FUN with TOY trains. JLC would approve.

enjoy your trains...

I think this is one of the things that makes these Menards cars so wonderful.  They are inexpensive enough that average folks are not afraid to have some fun with them.  Hopefully your sons have a good time as well.  

JGL

Flats, box, gons and hoppers were meant for that kind of play value.

Very nice. How about a place to put the boards? Or build something?

ALDOVAR,

   Real nice job, very impressed that you take the time to make sure your boy has something to play with as he runs his trains.  He will remember you built this for him, for the rest of his life.

PCRR/Dave

Father, Son and toy trains, that's as good as it gets. Have fun and enjoy your day.

That is so very excellent!!

I like it , enjoy!!

Brent

A crane car would be a great addition!

ChiTown Steve posted:

Very nice. How about a place to put the boards? Or build something?

I'm going to build..... Something... haha I don't know yet. We do have a barn that they could be headed to. Our layout is in disrepair right now. In the process of building a new one we just have the little loop upstairs.

Thank you all for the nice and encouraging comments. My son really liked it when he woke up this morning. I'm going to do a few more of them I think. I also have a Marx Crane car that I picked up cheap. It doesn't have any trucks on it. I think I'm going to find a way to mount one end to a flat so that it can swing out to either side, and have legs that swing down to stabilize it. If I get that ambitious, I'll take some pictures.

Looks Great. I bought 24 of those flat cars and split them with my friend at work.

So update for the suggestion of a crane. A few days ago I bought a pop flat box full of old Marx stuff. Most of it is pretty beat up so I figured I'd use it for projects. In the box was an old Marx Wrecker that had the trucks removed a and replaced with a wooden block.

On to bottom of the Menards Flatcars, there is a hole just big enough to put a woodscrew through. So I attached the block of wood just tight enough to not go anywhere, but still swivel. On the other end, I drilled out two typewriter strikers a bit larger to put  a screw through and attached them for stabilizer feet.

Don't mind the miss match roadname... this is umm.. right after Penn Central?

Showing the wrecker swung out with Stabilizer Legs

 The Minion was acting as foreman tonight.