Beautiful USA made scale boxcar with superb graphics. But arrived with a slight mechanical defect as shown...all I did was carefully open the box to see what was going on here.
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Looks like that one got a bit of rough treatment in shipping.
The other side is the Weaver 50ft cars did have a weakness of keeping the floor attached to the body. On my rehap 50ft cars I add strip plastic to secure the floor better. It looks fixable...is it??
Exact thing happened with the Rail Box 50' Modern Boxcar that I received from Charles Ro Today. Both trucks were broken where the screw attaches the bolster to the floor. The floor was pushed up into the body like your pictures. Graphics are nice though.
Mine also came "some assembly required". That was pretty common for Weaver. Part of the problem may have been the weights added to the floor. Nice that they just snap back together. Once they hit the layout they'll be fine. Love the new trucks. I want to be able to buy more!
Yeah the whole assembly is fixable. However the trucks scratched the body on mine as they were flopping all over inside the box. Looks assembled similar to the old Std O Lionel chassis for the boxcars and reefers developed by Pola (except those snapped on the ends and could not be pushed through. I am wondering why they pack these in such huge boxes. Use tougher cardboard and make them a bit more compact.
Mike W. posted:Beautiful USA made scale boxcar with superb graphics. But arrived with a slight mechanical defect as shown...all I did was carefully open the box to see what was going on here.
It looks like the truck retaining screw is still in the bolster. If it is, does this mean the truck broke, and can't be screwed back on??
Yes, after reading this thread I inspected further and the trucks are broken. The frame does pop out and in though on these cars. In other posts I read something about grease eating away at a truck...which products was that referring to?
I just opened my 6-pack of LionScale Railbox box cars that I received from Nassau Hobby. Every one of them has the floor wedged inside the box car. I looked at 2 of them more carefully, and they both have 1 damaged truck.
I am too upset to open my 6-pack of NS box cars tonight because I am sure I will find the same problem.
I guess "Made in USA" ain't like it used to be. 
I live about an hour from Concord. I'll be calling Lionel on Monday morning and then drive these box cars to Concord for repair.
This situation is an absolute travesty. Who did Lionel hire to do this assembly work? Some heads should roll at Lionel over this situation.
I never had this problem with any products that I bought from Weaver.
Did anyone receive undamaged LionScale box cars?
I ordered the 6 pack railbox cars from Charles Ro. Every one needed assembly, which was very easy. Two of them had broken trucks (Same as Jack posted above) and had two go back to Ro. Nice cars, could use better packaging, or sell them as assembly required.
I guess "Made in USA" ain't like it used to be.
No, "Made by Lionel" ain't like it used to be!
I have not received my 2 cars i ordered yet. This should not happen. One way i secured the floor to my Weaver box cars and big 4 Bay covered hopper was use clear or black silicon to keep in place. I was told about this trick by a long time ago by a 2 railer who had a huge fleet of Weaver cars. I did this to about 20 Weaver cars and the floor never came out again. of course i added the appropriate amount of weight and added diecast trucks and couplers first.
I will see what i get in a week or so.
If you have to attach the trucks on all the box cars then I guess it is assembled in USA .
Lionel may have to rethink how the box car floor is attached to rest of the car. If you look at how the Weaver PS2CD Covered hoppers were made there were four posts, one in each corner that had screws securing the rest of the car to the floor. I have a huge fleet of that type of Weaver car and never had a problem with the floor coming separated from the rest of the cars.
I hope some one from Lionel is reading this thread.
Mike W. posted:Yeah the whole assembly is fixable. However the trucks scratched the body on mine as they were flopping all over inside the box. Looks assembled similar to the old Std O Lionel chassis for the boxcars and reefers developed by Pola (except those snapped on the ends and could not be pushed through. I am wondering why they pack these in such huge boxes. Use tougher cardboard and make them a bit more compact.
Even before I opened the outer shipping box, I knew there was a problem. I do a shake test, and if the box rattles, I know something is not right.
Weaver did use much smaller boxes, but they were of similar weight as these. Earlier production didn't have the plastic clam shell inserts, but I can't remember how they were secured. I want to say they were tied down to a piece of cardboard to prevent shifting.
Part of the thinking may have been since there was no containreized shipping, that they could withstand the domestic travel. That is actually the roughest part of the journey because of the automated sorting, with its chutes.
It will be interesting to see how many damage complaints come in, and if they change the packaging for future runs.
The Dude posted:I ordered the 6 pack railbox cars from Charles Ro. Every one needed assembly, which was very easy. Two of them had broken trucks (Same as Jack posted above) and had two go back to Ro. Nice cars, could use better packaging, or sell them as assembly required.
I actually wouldn't mind seeing these cars shipped without the trucks attached. It would be very similar to the old Athearn HO blue box line. Those just took a few minutes and a screwdriver to assemble.
Seems like they need better packaging. OR like stated....sell them as kit!!!!! Package the trucks in bubble wrap bag inside the box, place the frame inside, shrink wrap the middle of the car. Weaver did something like this back in the day and it worked.
I agree with Elliot, I would rather the trucks where not attached. I'm going to take them off anyway. Or use the same packaging Weaver used.
Today I opened my 6-pack of NS box cars. They are in just as bad condition as the Railbox box cars. Here are pictures of all 12 box cars:
There were 2 Railbox box cars and 1 NS box car that had no damage to either truck. So, I snapped the floor into place on them.
That leaves 9 out of 12 that I will be returning to Lionel. In addition to the damaged trucks, I have several rails for the doors that have come off, one door has bent clips to hold it to the bottom rail. And there is a piece broken off the bottom of one box car. I know I could salvage a couple more box cars by switching trucks and could snap the rails into the box cars. But, why should I do Lionel's job for them? I want Lionel to incur the time and cost to make these box cars right....maybe they will learn something about doing things right the first time.
I cannot believe the incompetence that Lionel has displayed in the production and packaging of these box cars.
Fortunately, I can drive them to Lionel. So, no risk of further shipping damage to them. Before I leave Lionel with the repaired/replaced box cars, I will give each one a thorough inspection.
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So, does USA stand for:
User Salvageable Assembly?
Alan
Wow this is really something !!
Lionel will never compete with Menards by putting out items like this. It's getting to the point where I am hesitant to recommend Lionel to someone interested in entering the Ogauge hobby. Quality simply is not there and it's extremely sad. It may be too late for a rebound.
Rod Miller
The floors of Weaver 50' Box Cars were always like this. They would have to revise or mill new attachments for the old injection molds for these box cars to be secure like an MTH 50' box car.
falconservice posted:The floors of Weaver 50' Box Cars were always like this. They would have to revise or mill new attachments for the old injection molds for these box cars to be secure like an MTH 50' box car.
True, but the difference with the Weaver cars was they didn't have the trucks attached to the floor. That made a big difference. Also, everything was typically taped in place to prevent stuff from shifting around. This situation is a bit disappointing.
They need to cut high density foam blocks to fit inside the boxcar. Put each foam block where the trucks are attached to the floor. That way the floor is less likely to move around during the rough handling of parcel delivery.
Andrew
Train Nut posted:Its funny how our resident "Lionel Rep/s" on this forum show up when there is a new piece of broken junk to promote, or in the rare case they have been given praise. But in the numerous cases like this, they are suddenly abscent....
It's obvious that Lionel would benefit if they had someone like "Mark the Train Guy from Menards"!
This is truly unacceptable by all means. How in the world does this happen in today's business model?? Seriously, how? Very disappointing.
Sure is disappointing with all the talk about improved QC, etc. You would think that it would start at home. This doesn't just hurt Lionel, it hurts the reputation of O scale trains in general.
Maybe it is a marketing play. Child shakes the present before he opens it. If he hears the rattle of parts, he says "Lionel, oh no."
Reminds me of the new Allegheny that we received. Not only rattled when we received it, it still rattled when we got it back from Concord repair... just a different screw.
I was told, "Maybe it fell off the repairer's bench."
Just curious but are we even positive that the damage was caused by shipping or could it have been some minimum wage worker who just threw the boxcars in the box without properly assembling them?
Hudson J1e posted:Just curious but are we even positive that the damage was caused by shipping or could it have been some minimum wage worker who just threw the boxcars in the box without properly assembling them?
Either way, it's a MAJOR QC issue.
Rusty
Before we all go nuts and burn this thread to the ground, I'd like to interject some first hand knowledge of the Lionscale build process. I know for a fact that each one of those cars are hand assembled by a VERY SMALL team in Concord. The team does their best to get the cars right. They had even eliminated the use of electric screw drivers to install the trucks because they could not produce the "feel" they wanted for how the trucks roll and turn. Every one of those trucks are hand installed and tightened.
I would bet this turns out to be a packaging issue that is exploited by the shipment of the cars. Lionel is still figuring out what they can do with the Weaver tooling and my guess is Weaver didn't volunteer the information that, " Oh by the way, the floors on these cars don't stay in place when shipped." This issue could have been compounded by the fact that Lionel has tried to make improvements such as the added weights, etc. which would increase the damage factor if a floor gets loose.
Bottom line is there is certainly a learning curve going on with these new cars and my guess is that Lionel is learning about the shipping issues created along with everyone else. I know that the Lionel group is working to get things right and I can also guarantee that those cars did not leave in that condition.
My guess is that Lionel will make this right with the customers who have damaged cars and will make changes to future runs to prevent this from happening again.
It's called growing pains......'I want USA made trains'.......Lionel does so....has an issue.....and out come the torches. I feel it was someone not real familiar with the Weaver past and did not take the steps need in packaging. It's that simple.
Over the years i have bought 12 to 15 of the Weaver 50 ft Box Cars and do not recall the floor falling out in shipping. When it did fall out on me was when I added weight and changed to the diecast trucks and couplers if I did not pick them up correctly. That was when I used silicon to secure the floor to the shell as per a friend who was a 2 railer. Hopefully Lionel will change the packaging and solve this problem. When I get my cars I will see what I can do to fix the issue.
Wouldn't have made more sense just to reuse the original Weaver packaging and just change the graphics??
Despite Notch 6's apparent familiarity with the manufacturing process for these cars, I find it almost impossible to believe that the problem is due to rough handling during shipping. The outer shipping cartons for both of my sets look almost perfect (no dented corners, no cuts, no holes). The plastic shells that hold the box car inside the box showed no signs of stress from the box car being shifted due to a hard impact. About half of my boxcars have the floor wedged all the way up to the top of the box car. It was a major effort to pull the floor out for one of the box cars that had no damage to either truck. If you look closely of the pictures I posted, on the inside of the Railbox cars, you can see the black marks left by the pins the secure the floor; they run from the bottom of the box car to the top. These floors were slammed into the box cars.
I just had an email from the dealer from whom I purchased these sets. EVERY SET he has received from Lionel is damaged. 
I called Lionel customer service this morning. I was told I was the first person to call regarding this problem....so much for the credibility of Lionel's customer service. 
I was told I will receive a call back from them once they can find replacement sets for me (they don't have any in stock). Given the extent of this problem, I'm not holding my breath waiting for that call.
I've got to believe someone from Lionel has seen this thread. It's time for Lionel to put on their big boy pants, admit there is a problem, acknowledge the cause of the problem, and let customers know how they will rectify things (including when).
Every Weaver box car I ever bought and had shipped to my home arrived un-assembled. Unless they were 100% factory new with the tight shrink wrap around the center of the box car and foam around the trucks......if none...instant kit....the chassis/frame would pop out during shipping. And this was Weaver manufacture which means NO WEIGHTS and PLASTIC trucks.....unlike the upgrade Lionel has done with weights and die cast trucks.....adding to the unsupported weight hanging off the bottom of the car.
I understand......it should have NEVER happened. Lionel should have sent a case cross country as a test to see if their packaging was good enough to keep the cars safe. I think a simple and cost effective fix can be made and all will be well. AGAIN....growing pains!!!
I've got to believe someone from Lionel has seen this thread. It's time for Lionel to put on their big boy pants, admit there is a problem, acknowledge the cause of the problem, and let customers know how they will rectify things (including when).
If what customer service told you is true and that you are the first one to call them directly about this issue, then you are expecting a company to have a fix for you less than 8 hours after you called about it. Customer service did tell you the right thing in terms of them locating an undamaged set for you. Not sure how you would expect a company to roll out a fix for a problem in under a day....
Guys, try to remember that Weaver cars had plastic lightweight trucks, and no weights. There was no inertia to rip the floors out. Weaver's typical boxcar weighed around 6-7 oz, it was light as a feather!
Adding weights and metal trucks has greatly increased the possibility that the floor will snap out, and of course once it's bouncing around inside, all sorts of bad things can happen.
I've found Weaver cars with the floors loose, but not like the pictures here. The packaging I remember was a combination of cardboard and a couple of pieces of foam for the original Weaver boxes.
The consumer should not have to suffer and be inconvenienced while spending their hard-earned money while Lionel figures out how to produce undamaged products. And we shouldn't have to expect a 100 plus your old company to be on a learning curve and just "wing it" or "learn as they go" at the consumer's expense!
Train Nut posted:The consumer should not have to suffer and be inconvenienced while spending their hard-earned money while Lionel figures out how to produce undamaged products. And we shouldn't have to expect a 100 plus your old company to be on a learning curve and just "wing it" or "learn as they go" at the consumer's expense!
I AGREED it should not have happened........
But there is a learning curve here.......Before Lionel was a distributor of products manufactured by a outside vendor. NOW they are doing it in house.
I work in the hobby industry....things happen....I think I understand much better than most......until you manage a project in manufacturing and have an issue.....you'll never know.
YES.....consumer should not pay for thsi error....but it's TOY trains....not vital life sustaining medicine!!! thx
This is how Rapido Trains tests their packaging:
Rusty
