Menards improved flatcars

CabinetBob you are such a tease.  

Yes it is nice to see they do a lot of reading and listening to people. Their product is evolving from feedback. The Santa Fe flat car shows that. To be quite honest I have not bought any of their cars so far, buildings yes. Had I not been so aggressive over the years buying freight cars I would of had some of Menards cars already. But I am always waiting for the right road name to come along. I think I can squeeze in a  few more into the layouts. Cabinet Bob ....a question. With no holes showing for the screws does the wood bed pop or come off..................Paul

Bob,

Is this a scale car or traditional?  It looks like scale, but shorter than the 11" flat.  I like the look!

Tom

paul 2 posted:

Yes it is nice to see they do a lot of reading and listening to people. Their product is evolving from feedback. The Santa Fe flat car shows that. To be quite honest I have not bought any of their cars so far, buildings yes. Had I not been so aggressive over the years buying freight cars I would of had some of Menards cars already. But I am always waiting for the right road name to come along. I think I can squeeze in a  few more into the layouts. Cabinet Bob ....a question. With no holes showing for the screws does the wood bed pop or come off..................Paul

That's a good question.I looked and couldn't  see anything that came apart. I will buy another  one  to take apart to satisfy  my thoughts.

Tom Densel posted:

Bob,

Is this a scale car or traditional?  It looks like scale, but shorter than the 11" flat.  I like the look!

Tom

I'm  sure Mark can answer this.

So Bob, here is the real question, When are you going to take the tanker, put it on a larger car with a tractor in front of it, then paint it green?

How do the couplers work. Bought a boxcar with those couplers. My coupler design has no manual uncoupling lever. One coupler on one end of the car will not open the nuckle on my uncoupling tracks no mater what I tried. The other coupler works fine. They also do not close very easy. You have to slam the car almost to get the nuckle to close. Still a good by though. Just my two cents. 

Wow, these look nice! Now if they could just focus on more contemporary loads of the 40's and 50's I would have my credit card number ready!

I do not think ATSF used that kind of script or font ton their cars.

Some more Friendly roadnames:  SP, SSW, T&NO.

Older cars and trucks like 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's......

The car without the load would make a good boom tender for a big hook.

I wonder if people read the posts that Mark from Menards makes? He recently posted the dimensions of this 11-1/2 flat car as approximately: "11-1/2"L (coupler to coupler), deck measures 10-3/8"L x 2-1/2"W."

If that's not scale, not to worry. There are other companies that are making precise scale products, but you'll pay 3 or 4 times more for them.

We all know Menards is listening to the feedback here. But I kind of suspect that Menards is noticing some of this stuff regardless. With the typical scenario of new product in the production pipeline anywhere from a year to 18 months in advance of it being received stateside, I would guess some of the improvements on Menards products are being made long before folks here are making their suggestions (and judgements).

I understand that accurate R&D, new tooling and then small production runs add to cost of a product. What I don't understand is how the Lionel traditional cars now cost nearly as much (and sometimes more) than a scale car from new tooling?

I applaud Menards for taking the initial risk to make train products at all. And then to respond to the much larger traditional market out there and to make products more attractively priced for us. Thank you.

Thanks for the pictures and review. Menard's is making some nice improvements.

Taking into consideration that they started from scratch I think their products are very nice and they seem to be making little improvements along the way. I've been very happy with everything I have bought from them.  

While I can definitely appreciate the highly detailed scaled rolling stock from Lionel and company,  the prices are just not worth it for me.   The Mennard's line fills a big gap for people like me looking for more affordable quality trains.

Thanks,

Ed

Ed,

  I agree and the Military Nose Art Box Cars are some my favorite Menard's rolling stock, and with the up grades to their trucks and couplers I have purchased many other Military rolling stock pieces, in fact I have yet to unbox the new Military Flat Car with Bus load, I am sure I will get around to it shortly.  I now have quite a few of the Menard's Military rolling stock, great stuff at reasonable prices, even put one of the new Menards Military Ambulance vehicles on one of my old Lionel flat Cars, came out like a million bucks.  These Menard's original Military rolling stock pieces are way cool, I plan on purchasing more of their Military rolling stock as they come out.  Mixed in with my own military originals and the old K-Line and Lionel, I now have a real nice Military Train.  I especially like the wood look Military flat Cars with their original Menard's loads.   Keep'em coming Menard's, we love'em.

PCRR/Dave

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

Ed,

  I agree and the Military Nose Art Box Cars are some my favorite Menard's rolling stock, and with the up grades to their trucks and couplers I have purchased many other Military rolling stock pieces, in fact I have yet to unbox the new Military Flat Car with Bus load, I ams sure I will get around to it shortly.  I now have quite a few of the Menard's Military rolling stock, great stuff at reasonable prices, even put one of he new Menards military vehicles on one of my old Lionel flat Cars, came out like a million bucks.

PCRR/Dave

Is your Chopper a Menards item ?  I would love to find a few !

TSHEARER,

   You bet it's a Menard's original, one of the 1st to come out on the retro-wood look flat Cars, I do believe they are still available, check out their on line store.

PCRR/Dave

Mark the Menard's guy,

   Here is something you guys might want to consider adding to your military line!  Mounted on one of your new retro-wood Military Flat Cars, it would look like fantastic.  You might also consider a WWII Military Motor Cycle Flat Car, with side cars included.  Another consideration would be a Rat Patrol Military Flat Car with Military Jeeps equipped with 30 Cal Machine Gun & Utility Trailers.  All these would be big time sellers.

PCRR/Dave

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

TSHEARER,

   You bet it's a Menard's original, one of the 1st to come out on the retro-wood look flat Cars, I do believe they are still available, check out their on line store.

PCRR/Dave

Sorry to say, but the Army helos  were sold out.. Maybe Menards will bring more out soon?

Yes, it appears that ship has sailed, however, it did not stop a Coast Guard as well as CN Chopper from being my lunchtime purchase.

CB,

   Now that is a real bummer, glad I ordered mine when they 1st came out!  Hope they reissue them, I want another one!  The CG chopper would be a good addition to my Military Train, I will have to check that out.  Thanks of the update.

PCRR/Dave

mike g. posted:

So Bob, here is the real question, When are you going to take the tanker, put it on a larger car with a tractor in front of it, then paint it green?

My question is what will CabinetBob do with all that Veneer Banding no longer needed to upgrade the flats ?!?

TShearer posted:

mike g. posted:

So Bob, here is the real question, When are you going to take the tanker, put it on a larger car with a tractor in front of it, then paint it green?

My question is what will CabinetBob do with all that Veneer Banding no longer needed to upgrade the flats ?!?

LOL   I use it everyday for banding the front side of shelves.

When Menards first sold out of the individual military copters, all they had for awhile was the set of 4! I wanted one badly because I had the Canadian and the coast guard and loved them! So I bought the set of 4 feeling dumb at the time, but now, very ,very happy I did!

The 21st Century Army train is evolving.  Louis Marx would be chuckling. "heh, heh, I was so right!"  Somebody mentioned trucks on the new flats....no chance they are backdated into Bettendorfs?  If Menard's offers non-Rolls-Royce priced drop bottom gons, I will buy a train of  'em, even if I have to change out the trucks.  (western roadnames would be helpful)

I'm always a little befuddled by certain "is it scale length/width?" questions.

Sorry to repeat, but: N.American O-scale is 1/4" to the foot - 1:48, in another form. That means that every standard ruler is a scale ruler for us - each actual 1/4" = 1 O-scale foot.

So 1" = 4 feet, so 10 actual inches = 40 O-scale feet, which is a typical steam/early diesel-era flatcar length, and common into the modern era.

Without measuring the couplers - if this Menards car is 10" long, more or less, it is a 40' scale flat car, more or less.

Learn a bit about the real thing (why wouldn't you want to?), then just put a ruler on these models and find out. It can't be "debated".

D500,

   Your Engineering is absolutely correct, and for the price Menard's offers these Flat Cars with the loads, it really is a fantastic deal.  I just opened my new Menard's US Army Flat Car with retro - wooden deck hauling the Ft Benning, Ga 40/50's era Military Bus, this thing is great.  I road on that exact same kind of  Military Bus into Ft Dix, NJ when I was drafted back in the 60's.   We road the Military Coach Train from the Harrisburg Station, pulled by the big Brunswick Green GG1 to the US Army outing depot, then were put on the old Green US Army busses, worn out seats and all, to enter Ft Dix.   Along with it, I opened the new US Army Green Flat Car, with US Army -  Ft McCoy Training CTR Van on it,  also a nice piece of rolling stock to expand my Military Train.  With it came the Bonus C & NW Flat Car with Orange Kubota front loader.  If anybody wants it, I will trade for a Military Flat Car with some kind of load on her, or if nobody shows interest in her I will use it for the Christmas train, we donate to the Veterans families each year.  Unfortunately I do not have my digital Camera handy to take any pictures, of the just opened new Menard's goodies.   IMO real nice O Gauge stuff however.

PCRR/Dave

Here are a couple of Ideas!

I received my Army flats today. They are very nice. I can overlook a few things such as Built 2016 by Menard's. I can paint over it.

The free trailer truck is 1:64 not 1:48. We have a "S" layout  at the club so they may use one.

Looking forward to other products.

I have the Pepsi flat car. the width is correct and the length also is correct for a car that size. I just ordered the military transport flats. I am confident they will look good, I ordered 8 of them. Mark does listen to us for sure.

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

I bought a boxcar with those couplers.  My coupler design has no manual uncoupling lever.  A coupler on one end of the car will not open the knuckle on my uncoupling tracks no matter what I tried.  The other coupler works fine.  Just my two cents. 

With these flat coupler activation plates, you can typically slip a finger under the truck from one end and pull down on the plate with a fingernail.    I haven't had trouble with their magnetic activation.