Menards Rolling Stock-How does it stack up? Just fine. Thx for your thoughts

First off if you're going to try and compare it to a scale car it doesn't now if you compare it to a O27 traditional size In some points I would say it's better ( detail for one) I have gotten a couple cars in damaged and they promptly replaced them. They stand behind there product. I'm more into postwar trains at present and they do an excellent job with them.   

As for box cars.....it you have seen a Williams or WbB 40ft box car....you have seen a Menard's....they are very close clones of each other.  They are a small step up from WbB with many having the  metal door guides painted to match the body. Bodies have ladders and details molded in with a added brake wheel, doors and guides. 

Now ....the Menard's 40ft box cars are almost and exact match for the real PRR X-29 40ft box cars. The Menard's models are slightly bigger than PRR X-29 so I call the models 'scale' models. Details are simplified over MTH Premier or Atlas top end cars......but level of detail does not make the cars 'scale' or O-27....size does. 

The other cars tend to be more traditional size and scale. The 14" flat car is also scale size....the other flats more O-27. Hoppers are close to being clones of Lionel units of the same design. 

I find Menard's cars worth much more than the cost. The die cast trucks are very nice and the car is often cheaper than buying trucks alone from MTH.  Overall I give the line a A- and improving! 

AMCDave/RTrain. Now that's useful info. Thx.  But Help me understand exactly. "Scale" refers to 1:48 only, also considered "O" scale. Whereas O-27 is slightly smaller, maybe 1:53 or something(I understand track difference). I have a 60y/o O-27 scout n cars.  WbB ??  Is that a model car manufacture?  As an aside, do I put a drop of oil on all the axles as a part of routine start-up maintenance?

WbB = Williams by Bachmann current owner of the Williams line of trains.

'Scale' means just that ..1/48 ratio to the real item....in the case of the box cars as compared to PRR X-29 type box car.

O-27 and Traditional are the same thing......smaller than 1/48 but not any one scale ratio.....some are even 1/64!!! 

Use forum search....this topic is cover in great depth. 

I compared the Menards boxcars to the Lionel Vision Line PFE Reefers, which are certainly scale sized cars, the difference in size is minimal.  The Menards boxcars and hoppers look good with other scale-sized rolling stock.  The 10" flatcars are more O27 scale, but the 14" flatcars look scale sized to me, they come with metal sprung trucks, they're a great deal at $25/ea if you buy four.

John, you were slimming down a couple of months ago, are those cars gone?  Email will do. TW

I'm not selling the Menard's stuff yet.  I do have a bunch of older rolling stock that I am going to sell, just haven't figured exactly how to deal with all of it efficiently.

AMCDave. Gotcha on search, I use it a lot.  I do find however unless you use an exact word or phrase, it's not very forgiving, and doesn't provide results that are useful even in advance mode. Thx again.  I really appreciate the lessons.   Just added a couple diesels to the roster and no freight cars.     Stoooopid, as my kid would say.     GRJ, when ya get a handle on it lemme know. Although, I don't consider myself a dumping ground yet. 

  Edit:  Dang, I just looked up those Vision Line box cars. $100+ apiece!   Course those sounds would be kinda neat. I wondered how some of the videos published here generated those sounds. 

TedW,

  I agree with both Dave and John and go one step further, Menard's also has great customer service on their O gauge products, thru Mark right here on the OGR.  I give you this actual example.  One of my pieces of Menard's rolling stock arrived in shipment missing both clips that held the Trucks on the Box car.  I posted what happened here on the OGR for Mark to see.  Mark Menard's OGR Rep made everything more than right.  He advised me to keep the original rolling stock purchase, and he had Menard deliver me free of charge, a new piece of rolling stock.  

This is old time Lionel type service by a new to the market provider.  Menard's is doing our hobby proud!

PCRR/Dave

 Some of Menard's Nose Art WWII Box Cars and additional rolling stock, pulled by a GG-1 Engine.

The Menard's rolling stock is what you see. Low cost, decent quality cars.  I have some high end cars like the K-Line reefers with high detail and even interiors!! But they were not less than $20. I feel the Menard's box cars will look great in a late 1950's era mixed freight train. Good luck!  

Agree with customer service.....one small issue on one order and went beyond great service. 

I agree on the Menards CS. Have two stores here in town and is a definite reason I bought. I have experience with their stores. My heart goes out to the poor guys with no store close. Always wondering how I can help in some way.  I still use there online service shipped to store as I did this time.  And, three cars came from a store a couple hundred miles away shipped direct.  Found them with an item number and all stores search.  Called them up, staff found the items and away they went.  TW

TEDW, you would realy love those lionel vision line reefer box cars with the sound. Check out erics trains on youtube he has a great video review of them. If you want a good deal on a set. I have the sfrd santa fe set with sound new unopened. Accidentaly ordered two from train world this last friday.  Was going to send the other back this week when I get them. If you would like them let me know we can maybe work out a deal. Will sell them for the price I paid for them and ship them to you free. My email is glasgoreg@me.com

I too also like the box cars and hoppers. Have a few and they look ok with my more scale cars. Even pull some menards santa fa box cars behind my lionel pfe vision line reefer set. Although not as detailed as the lionel cars they size up ok and dont look to bad. Makes for a  very long and nice looking train. Plus the cost of the menards cars makes this very  doable. 

Where else can you pick up feetilizer and add train stuff on the same charge.  It's a win-win!

Perhaps I'll chime in on Monday?  My first Menard's order was supposed to arrive today but I now see that the delivery has been pushed out to end of day on Monday. On order is a flat car with two Jeeps (highlighted in others' posts here on the Forum) and a freebie flatcar with a Kubota tractor.  Even sight unseen, it seems like an incredible bargain to me.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

tomlinson remember they both are on the 10" flat car so there smaller than the normal flatcar by Lionel in the postwar era. There a little bigger than those el cheapo flat cars Lionel put out in the cheap sets of the early 70's. 

Now with that said to me there a couple steps above the post war flatcars and a mile ahead of the 70's el cheapo flat cars ( I believe they came in blue, yellow, and black ).

The loads on those cars from Menards vary in size I have found out buying the military items. ( to me that doesn't matter, nor does that they are not correct to what they are suppose to be. 

I thought that the boxcars were close to the 6464 serries

Don't forget that all Menards rolling stock has it's own unique road number so you can order a complete hopper train of the same road or Box cars etc. and they will all have different road numbers. 

rtraincollector posted:

tomlinson remember they both are on the 10" flat car so there smaller than the normal flatcar by Lionel in the postwar era. There a little bigger than those el cheapo flat cars Lionel put out in the cheap sets of the early 70's. 

... snip ...

Bill,

Thanks for the extra info.  Actually, my purchases are just for "staging" for a Team Track Tuesday vignette that I'm planning for July 4th.  So, I think the length will be fine.  I was interested in the Menard's Norfolk Southern flatcar that had a Trailways bus on it but it wasn't available via internet orders and there's no store near me.  Interesting about the different sizes for the military equipment, too.  I'm modeling a NS yard that used to be part of Fort Devens, hence the decision to go with the Army flatcar and Jeeps.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Tomlinson, if still interested and want to go through a bit of trouble, your Trailways bus on flatcar is at this Springfield IL South Menards. The phone number is 217-698-8815. Ask staff to find item n ship to you. It worked for me.   TW

As a matter of fact, they are like rabbits--all over the place. Call the store with the product sku they should get you some. 

This time of year, it's easier to have them find and ship than find it yourself...they put things in different areas.  Also from Springfield (glenarm)

TedW posted:

Tomlinson, if still interested and want to go through a bit of trouble, your Trailways bus on flatcar is at this Springfield IL South Menards. The phone number is 217-698-8815. Ask staff to find item n ship to you. It worked for me.   TW

As a matter of fact, they are like rabbits--all over the place. Call the store with the product sku they should get you some. 

Ted,

Thanks very much.  What I see when I use the same link is a box on the right side that says it's not available online.  I don't know whether the web site is using my location (which I thought I disabled on my iPad) or what.  If I recall, I even tried to go ahead and order, and was prevented from adding that car.  So, that's interesting that when you called, they were willing to ship it to you. Wish I had thought to try calling and asking them as you did.

At this point, I'll be getting one more car than I have room for, so I think I'd best not investigate further -- tempting as it is!  :-).

Thanks again, 'though.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

I purchased my first Menards rolling stock.  I got the military flat with 1/2 track.  Great car my grandson went ape sh over it.  He ran it with all the other rolling I had out for him maybe 1 1/2 hrs.  This car had chocks and a screw up into the truck.   I also got the military flat (part of a special) with the army van on it. The car was on par with the 1/2 track car and again my grand son was super excited but I pulled it off the layout.   Menards had drilled 4 holes in the flour and run pieces of plastic coated wire up and around the axles to keep it on the flatcar.   Is this what I can expect from Menards on future orders?  I want to order more of the military products but am I going to engineer a way to keep the load on the flat cars?

Orkybrown

Tomlinson, yes you're right, not available online. I called the individual store who had my item in stock according to website directly. They(local store staff) got item and shipped it to me. Paid by cc.  Sorry I couldn't help. Ted

The individual numbering of cars is a long overdue stroke of genius ...

I think the Menards product line gives us a good value return for our bucks. True, the couplers need a little work but nothing is perfect.

As for the graphics, hey when they are rolling by at fifty scale miles per hour I can't see the difference between  one manufacture or the another.

Greetings Everyone,

 Well OK, here's my experience with Menards rolling stock.   I have about a dozen cars total at this point.  However, I'm not sure that I'll be adding to that number anytime in the near future.   First let me say that Menards customer service is some of the best in this hobby.   A few of the problems that I could not resolve at the "Work Bench" were expeditiously corrected by Menards Customer Service without any additional cost to me for shipping.   I think my biggest complaint is that the wheel sets are grossly out of gauge when compared to a NMRA O Scale Standards Gauge.   I believe this is where some of the folks here on the forum have been having problems when negotiating turnouts (switches).  The fix is relatively easy but time consuming with the new "Sprung Trucks".  During one return, the replacement car I received (a Pennsylvania Railroad covered Hopper) was actually worse than the one I originally received.  I really like the Pennsylvania graphics on this car and didn't want to return it again, so I just fixed it myself with a pair of K-Line die cast trucks.  Not Bashing, just my experience.

 Chief Bob (Retired)