Menards cars derailing

Have you tried check the trucks to make sure the trucks are inserted correctly.

I have the same problem so I've changed or will change all the trucks.

I'm happy to report that my 3 dozen or so Menards cars do not have issues on my traditional tubular track and switches O-31 to O-72 in size. They only flaw I have experienced with the trucks is that the bolsters were spaced too far apart allowing the axles to liberate themselves. I simply apply pressure with my fingers to close the gap.

I wish I could definitively tell you where to start looking for your issues besides the generic "check the track gauge" and "check the wheel gauge".

I only have 8 Menards cars.  Bought them as an 8 pack of Southern boxcars.   Then have made many laps around my layout. Through 036 switches, up and down inclines, 072 curves.   Not a single problem.   I did have one car that the wheels/axles were out of when I got them out of the boxes.   No problems since. 

Jim 

rattler21 posted:

Are they weighted to any standard?  John in Lansing, ILL

Stock right out of the box.  The trucks seen correct, wheels in trucks look the same as other brands.

One thing I also have trouble with in these cars are the couplers are hard to open and latch  another coupler up with.

Thanks for your input everyone. 

Take the little ty wraps off the trucks that keep the axles in place for shipping.  Or try turning the car around to run the other way.

Worked for me.

I have six Menards cars, and the only one that acts up is the Milwaukee boxcar. There seems to be a bolster height problem making the truck snag, but I haven't pinned it down yet. (Maybe a similar problem to posters above)

Also try laying the car on its side, trucks facing you. Take a look and see if the wheels sit parallel. Then flip the car onto its other side, trucks facing you to again check the wheels. If there's any wheel offset in any truck assembly, it might force the truck to "crab". That can cause derailments because the truck is looking for a place to go astray, like switch frogs for example.

Binding can happen inside coupler latches forcing one wheel set (minimum) off the track.  Look at the thickness of the coupler.  The thick ones need to be filed down.  Someone posted this info a while back... try a search.

I had a shipment of 16 Menards cars as I checked them over for resale I noticed that they wouldn’t set on the track properly as I looked closer I found the frame was not snapped into the body on one end. Make sure both tabs are snapped in on the ends that solved the issue,but you really have to look closely 

Jushavnfun posted:

rattler21 posted:

Are they weighted to any standard?  John in Lansing, ILL

Stock right out of the box.  The trucks seen correct, wheels in trucks look the same as other brands.

One thing I also have trouble with in these cars are the couplers are hard to open and latch  another coupler up with.

Thanks for your input everyone. 

Do the couplers open and close?   If so how? 

Jim 

if you contact menards they will make it right.

You should weigh each car and add weight to bring them up to NMRA standards.

Dennis

I have about 30 Menards cars and I had one that kept derailing. It was a easy fix. 

No need to add weight either in my case because they track very well and I use superO track that is O36 radius. No problem going thru the switches. 

When you get the cars you have to check the trucks, oil them and the couplers. 

Overall I give their cars a 8 out of ten, really good for the price.

Dave 

I looked at a Menards car last week at their store in Eau Claire Wisconsin. I was looking close at the box and noticed it didn't have a coupler on one end. The truck was on the car, but no coupler at all. That's the way it was shipped. I think they have QC issues too. I will pass on all of the Menards cars.

Well when I mentioned this problem before my thread got locked up.  Since you brought it up I'll give you my situation which is largely the same as yours.  

I have Menard's boxcars which work fine on O-72 and O-31.  I wanted a mortons salt hopper to compare to my old Lionel morton's salt hopper.  the Menard's cars arrived and looks great but can't make an 0-72 turn without coming off the rails.  Not knowing of other's discovery I sent it back to Menard's assuming it was a single defective car.  They sent me back another car with the exact same problem.  This is when I found out it's a design flaw in that the edges of the truck assembly hit the ladders at the edge of the car, even assuming the gauge is right on the wheels and the truck didn't get mashed out of shaped some how.  (Part of why I returned the first one is that the trucks are sloppy enough that the ends of the axles can come out of the hole in the truck assembly. ) 

Your only options are to swap out the truck to something else that doesn't hit the ladders or cut the ladders off, (or both).  Cutting the ladders off would ruin the look for me.  I still have the car disassembled months later because I was so disheartened I just never got back around to it with the holidays season in full swing.  

My solution has simply been to stop buying Menards rolling stock until the truck assembly is replaced with something that works.  Also, it is my opinion that in the Hopper they are selling a product that simply cannot perform as advertised because it can't go around a curve.  If Lionel or MTH tried to sell something like this the toy train community would be in an uproar.  I do not believe anything is worth price if it simply doesn't work.

I had to tinker with some of mine, I have around 60 of the boxcars.  One problem not mentioned is I had a couple that had wheelsets out of gauge, they were too narrow and would cause all sorts of issues.  I took the trucks apart and tapped the wheels into position on the bench and reassembled, job done.  Some of the earlier ones also had very tight couplers, I worked them over a bit with files and sometimes with a Dremel bit. 

Their cars definitely could use better trucks. I have read, a lot of threads on this forum pertaining to their poor performance. Too many problems. I realize most of them are small and a quick phone call to Menards will get you a new car or truck. I would rather be calling Menards, to tell them how happy I'm with their product. I know they are cheap but that doesn't excuse them from being built correctly.

jim sutter posted:

Their cars definitely could use better trucks. I have read, a lot of threads on this forum pertaining to their poor performance. Too many problems. I realize most of them are small and a quick phone call to Menards will get you a new car or truck. I would rather be calling Menards, to tell them how happy I'm with their product. I know they are cheap but that doesn't excuse them from being built correctly.

I'm with you Jim. Calling Menards would probably get the issue resolved. Except you cant call customer service any more. Email is what Menards wants nowadays. I emailed in an issue with a building 2 weeks ago. The response from Menards is that someone from the store where I made the purchase would reach out to me within 24 hrs. I still have not heard from anyone. I also have some derailing Menards cars. Guys, just live with it. At 19.95 a car, you got what you paid for.

jhz563 posted:

My solution has simply been to stop buying Menards rolling stock until the truck assembly is replaced with something that works. 

Ditto.

I've been a Menards customer since they first offered O gauge rolling stock.

I recently ordered one of those 4-car multipacks of box cars (matching livery). Every one of the cars arrived with defective trucks.

Nice prices? Yeah, but no more for me until this is resolved.

I ordered three boxcars a while back and all three had defective trucks.  I wasn’t happy.  It was the first time it happened and I’ve ordered well over fifty pieces of rolling stock from them.  Luckily I had four of the Goodyear freebee boxcars laying around to rob some parts from.  Judging by the slowdown of new releases from them and Mark not being as active on this board anymore, I’m drawing the conclusion that they are going to slowly exit the train business. 

Matt Kramer,

I am hoping Menards doesn't exit the train business because, I feel there is a place for them. I just want them to start doing a better job at building these freight cars. If they can't, then they should end it. Somebody, once told me, if you are not going to do it right, then don't do it. 

I highly doubt they are going to exit the hobby ..  At least I hope not.  I like their buildings and don't mind the freight cars.   Everybody makes mistakes!  And having things built on the other side of the world is part of the problem!  

Jim 

I found that the couplers do not fit together well.  A bit of filing was necessary to open them up and then they stopped derailing.  You can tell right away when you hook them together.  If one coupler rider higher than the one you are attempting to mate it with, then one or both of them need to be filed for greater internal clearances.  Then you can have the couplers that refuse to close and stay closed.  I break out the epoxy for these.  

Can someone show a picture and further explain these truck issues necessitating all this negative banter? Out of my many Meanrds rolling stock, I've never had an issue with a truck that I couldn't fix myself in a tool-less fashion. I've had reseat the axles and pinch the bolsters together and then they have been problem free. Heck, if we are unable to do those tweaks ourselves and are returning items and writing Menards off for that, what has the world come to?

I bought one of the 14" DOD flat cars to put a couple of WWll Army trucks on.  Got it out a couple about a month ago and noticed that one of the caps on the end one of the axles was missing.  Sent Menards two emails asking if I could buy some and haven't heard from them yet.  Not buying anything more until I hear from them.  

I have to agree with BMORAN4. I have upwards of 125 of Menards rolling stock and except for one, any problems were simple fixes without tools! The one problem was replaced within a week! Not saying there aren't problems, just that the very few problems i had were easily fixable where they occurred.

Matt Kramer posted:

 Judging by the slowdown of new releases from them and Mark not being as active on this board anymore, I’m drawing the conclusion that they are going to slowly exit the train business. 

Nothing like starting a baseless rumor.   If Mark's activity has been lower here, perhaps it was just due to the Christmas season.  Seems to me there have been a couple of buildings, & that nice, new Goodyear flat car released in the last month or so.  

RadioRon posted:

Matt Kramer posted:

 Judging by the slowdown of new releases from them and Mark not being as active on this board anymore, I’m drawing the conclusion that they are going to slowly exit the train business. 

Nothing like starting a baseless rumor.   If Mark's activity has been lower here, perhaps it was just due to the Christmas season.  Seems to me there have been a couple of buildings, & that nice, new Goodyear flat car released in the last month or so.  

I don’t think Menards is discontinuing train production, but in fairness to Matt I should note that Menards was a lot more active in new product announcements the past two Januarys and Februarys. So Christmas has little to do with it.

Mark the Menards Train Guy posted elsewhere on this forum that this production was being generated by a small but enthusiastic group of O gaugers within Menards. He said Menards was OK with that as long as it didn’t interfere with the company’s normal business operations. See this thread for his exact wording:

https://ogrforum.com/...07#77593417284847107

Since model trains are a very small part of Menards’ business, it’s reasonable to conclude that the crew is currently busy with other responsibilities or that train inventory has grown to the point where someone suggested the group ease up for a while. If you search for “train stuff from Menards” on the Menards website or app, you might be shocked about the amount of inventory available. The freight car list, in particular, is shockingly long.

New buildings are still being announced apparently, so it’s not like Menards has disappeared from this forum. And the company is sponsoring a toy and train show July 7-8 in Eau Claire, WI (its home base), so that’s something new as well.

What do you expect from $20 rolling stock. You get what you pay for.

I have RMT rolling stock with the same issue.

Tom Blevins posted:

What do you expect from $20 rolling stock. You get what you pay for.

If it is advertised as a functional toy I expect to be one, weather its $20 or $2000.00.  I expect any product that is sold as ready to use to actually be ready to use.  

Tom Blevins,

I believe RMT freight cars and Menard's freight cars are coming from the same manufacture. Also, I do not care what the consumer paid for a freight car. The least it could do is not derail or uncouple when its not suppose to do that.