Menards Track

@ursmacher54 posted:

I just purchased a few cases of Menards track to start a new layout and I’m not very excited about it. I’ve read raving reviews about it but maybe I missed something. I put quite a bit of it together just to check fit and it’s a pain. I can’t touch one section without another pulling half way out. They’re all that loose. I do have track pliers but I never imagined I’d have to tighten every single connection. I’m kind of regretting not just doing the entire layout out of Fastrack. I bought a bunch of transition pieces to go from Fastrack switches to Menards but at this point I may just ditch it and go all Fastrack.

Well, your railroad, your rules, but ISTM pinching each rail a bit is hardly the end of the world.

I've not used Menards track before (mostly vintage/refurb'ed Lionel and Marx, and some repro Lionel), but I've never seen a complaint like yours, so it sounds like you may have just gotten a bad batch (Monday production?). Sure, you could switch to FasTrack, but they have their own reported connection, durability and sound problems, at 2-3 times the cost of Menards or other repro 3-rail tinplate. Sure, it's a bit of a PITA to have to tweak new track, but IMHO the flaws seem easily correctable.

I’ll have to see how it goes once I get it all pieced together but I feel as if I’ll literally have to tack down each piece before moving onto the next. I’ve already bought the most expensive part (16 Fastrack switches) of the Fastrack but was trying to save a few hundred dollars on the remaining track.

@ursmacher54 posted:

I’ll have to see how it goes once I get it all pieced together but I feel as if I’ll literally have to tack down each piece before moving onto the next. I’ve already bought the most expensive part (16 Fastrack switches) of the Fastrack but was trying to save a few hundred dollars on the remaining track.

Is the track still loose after crimping with the track pliers? I typically just use regular or needle nose pliers to slightly crimp the offending rail in a bit from the end, and never had a problem with the joint still being loose after crimping.

Yes. None of them ever really get snug. The interesting thing is that I have 5” Lionel transitional pieces and they are really snug once connected to the Menards sections.

Experiment by replacing the Menards pins with Lionel pins ... the latter may be slightly larger in diameter for a snug fit.  I have lots of Menards curves - all fit snugly,  but I can't report on straight sections.  Tinman3rail sells refurbished Lionel pins.

I have purchased many cases (probably 7 or 8) in the last two years and have noticed the same issue, especially with the 30" straight sections.   The straight sections are very loose and require crimping with track pliers.  The curved sections (O-54 & O-72) are a bit more snug and do not require as much crimping.    I typically lay a section, screw it down, crimp and go on to the next section.

On my cut & make-up sections, I use TinMan3Rail SS pins or vintage Lionel pins and they fit much better than the pins that come with the Menard's track.   I've also experimented with moving the end-tie closer to the rail ends and re-crimping the tie to help keep the ends of the rails closed.

Last ditch on problematic joints where I don't trust the connection, I will solder a small piece of 12ga or 14ga copper wire across the bottom of the center rail.

So all in all, yes, a bit of a pain but works great after all the effort.  I would love to have Gargraves or Atlas track but my Scottish (thrifty) heritage just won't allow me to spend that kind of money for the large amount of track on my layout and I would rather spend the money on engines/cars anyway.   I did splurge on switches and went with Ross Custom Switches RossPlate Tubular and glad I did...they match up perfectly with the Menard's track and are top notch, high quality, well built and worth every penny saved (by going with the lower cost Menard's track!).

Use all fast track. The transitions and 2 very different looking track types on the layout will look odd, IMO.

My main layout is Gargraves with a little Ross, but I use Menards for an O42 under the tree loop.  I also use Menards along with some 80-year-old Lionel for an O72 test loop.  Much like Menards rolling stock, you may have to tweak it to make it right.  Not a big deal in my opinion.  After I used track pliers to tighten the joints it works well.

My layout uses Menard's track.  It's worked well for me.  Tubular track has to be tweaked but that's part of living with tubular track.

I know they had a problem when they first came out, but I thought Menards did something and the problem seemed to disappear. Maybe whomever makes their tracks dies aren't checking their tooling and stuff is wearing out and dimensions are changing.

@E-UNIT-79 posted:

I know they had a problem when they first came out, but I thought Menards did something and the problem seemed to disappear. Maybe whomever makes their tracks dies aren't checking their tooling and stuff is wearing out and dimensions are changing.

I think it was a little better (tighter fitting) a few years back.  The last big batch I purchased was late last year and it was loose fitting.  You could put two pieces of 30" straights together on the table and pull on one and they would slide apart.   

I just ordered more 10" and 30" last week and it should arrive in a few days...will see if there is any change and report back.

My new batch of Menards 30" & 10" straight pieces arrived this week and I can report that this batch (compared to the big batch I ordered last year) fits much better, takes a little force to put together and stays together.  It still doesn't fit as well as good old Lionel tubular track but it works just fine for my basic basement railroading train running needs!

I’ve used Menards track some of the early stuff could be a bit loose. No big deal track pliers to rescue. The Menards does have fewer ties than corresponding Lionel track in same radius. Not sure if this matters or not. Menards track does have larger  radius than Lionel tubular, 92 and 120 inch radius if I remember correctly.

I agree with PRRick about 2 types of track looking funny as I am in a similar situation. Tubular to Kline for Lionel switch, don’t ask, to gargraves wye to gargraves crane track. Still working on that. Most match track to the switch or turnouts  to be used.

The other concern on all tubular track is adding roadbed. Fast track has roadbed built in, tubular you will need to configure roadbed yourself and on a bigger layout that could be a lot of extra work.    

A note of caution, on the layout previous to this one,I started with O27 went to Gargraves and then on to tubular O. You want to avoid that, you really do.

Regards

Steven Taylor