MENARDS TRAINS

I love them.....they are more of the semi scale type....meaning they look huge next to 027/scout and Marx/K-line but look great with Standard O

I think they are a great bargain.  I've added way too many to my collection this year.   My favorites are the Virginia & Ohio boxcar and CP Rail, GT, and SP, and.....   ok, there are many favorites!

Kevin Heggi posted:

I love them.....they are more of the semi scale type....meaning they look huge next to 027/scout and Marx/K-line but look great with Standard O

 

Going by what you stated.That would be a nice to have.I do not have that many kline boxcars.Mostly what i have is mth and weaver and lionel.I have a few industial rail boxcars.So they would fit right in.Thanks for the info.

VistaDomeScott posted:

I think they are a great bargain.  I've added way too many to my collection this year.   My favorites are the Virginia & Ohio boxcar and CP Rail, GT, and SP, and.....   ok, there are many favorites!

Your right the last time I have seen 20 bucks for a boxcar.Was industial rail which have a few boxcars.

The best bargain in the O Gauge hobby. A terrific company to deal with either in one of their stores or on-line.

About the size of a Williams boxcar.  I did get the V&O box.  Remember the series of articles about it in the 1970's in RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN.

VistaDomeScott posted:

I think they are a great bargain.  I've added way too many to my collection this year.   My favorites are the Virginia & Ohio boxcar and CP Rail, GT, and SP, and.....   ok, there are many favorites!

Did you get the Brown or Silver Overnite SP boxrs?  Or both.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

About the size of a Williams boxcar.

Identical to a Williams boxcar, except for the trucks. That’s the molds that were either cloned or used for Menards’ boxcars. Menards won’t publicly confirm either way, but most people have guessed production comes directly from the old Williams tooling.

Length-wise, the cars are scale. Width-wise, they are a little narrow. Height-wise, a hair short. Call them traditional-sized models.

For $20, hard to beat if you run traditional trains. 

They are a good deal, but I wish they could make some without roofwalks and high brake wheels. Box cars built after '66 didn't have them. I'm sure the molds won't allow it, but not all of us model the '50s. Cars built earlier than '66 had until '79 or so to remove them. My trusty Dremel and assorted files have removed them from 4 box cars, but paint matching has been a learning experience.

Terry

SEABOARDM2,

I suggest you buy a couple and judge for yourself.  I believe once you purchase them you will want to buy more. You may even end up making suggestions to Menards as to what you would like to see them build.

Is Menards done for the season on releasing anymore new rolling stock ???????

Jim R. posted:

Dominic Mazoch posted:

About the size of a Williams boxcar.

Identical to a Williams boxcar, except for the trucks. That’s the molds that were either cloned or used for Menards’ boxcars. Menards won’t publicly confirm either way, but most people have guessed production comes directly from the old Williams tooling.

Length-wise, the cars are scale. Width-wise, they are a little narrow. Height-wise, a hair short. Call them traditional-sized models.

For $20, hard to beat if you run traditional trains. 

And pay no attention to the dimensional data printed on the sides of the cars.  It's generally not accurate for the actual model car. 

But like Jim R. says, for $20, it's hard beat if you run traditional trains.

Size wise, they are “Between “  027 and O Gauge!  Obviously they have their own Factory!!!!

FREDSTRAINS 

Here's a few pictures of a Williams (WbB?) Rock Island boxcar and a Menards Milwaukee Road boxcar.  As near as I can tell, they're the exact same car.

I've taken a few liberties with each and dressed them up a little bit.  Something fun to do when you've got some time to kill.  Check 'em out....................

Williams on the left, Menard's on the right.

On the Williams car, I swapped out the original trucks for Lionel trucks.  Notice I've added ladder stirrups at each corner of the car.  Made them out of wire staples.  Hey Menard's!  You could do this car too.  Except paint it box car red with white lettering (with black fill in the "Rock Island" shield and a black circle on the "Rocket Freight".  I'd be in for a couple of handfuls (and maybe more) .  Don't muck it up, a quick google search for prototype images should yield some really good pictures.

Here's the Menard's Milwaukee Road boxcar.  Besides the corner stirrups under the ladders and grab rails, another dress-up item starts to show.  See the wood grain side panel inside the car?

And wood grain on the floor?  Super easy dress-up.  Two different wood grain rolls of contact paper I bought at the dollar store.  Just cut pieces to size, then peel & stick 'em on.  Remove the shell from the floor first, of course.  Makes the job a whole lot easier!

Here's a bottom view of the Rock Island car, where you can see the "Williams" sticker.

And here's the bottom of the Menard's car.  Something else funny is going on here underneath both of these cars.  Figured out yet what it is? 

I've removed those gosh-awful brake cylinders from their tabs.  Well, okay, actually they are pretty nice brake cylinders.  It's just that they hang down so blasted low, they look like heck in my opinion.  So I dis-assemble the floors, remove the cylinders, and replace them with a short length of wooden dowel painted flat black.  Just as a place holder for an otherwise empty tab, and save the brake cylinders for other projects.  And instead of letting the dowels hang below the mounting tabs, I mount them on the top side of the tabs, so it tucks them up closer to the floor and a lot less conspicuous.  Looks a lot better, at least in my opinion.

I've probably got a handful of these type of cars done, and another handful left to finish off.  Wire staples?  Contact paper?  Wooden dowels?  Okay, so it's not super-scale.  But hey!  It's 3-rail!  And it does kinda' dress them up a little bit, doesn't it? 

jim sutter posted:

SEABOARDM2,

I suggest you buy a couple and judge for yourself.  I believe once you purchase them you will want to buy more. You may even end up making suggestions to Menards as to what to build.

Some here say they are the  same as williams.I have a few williams boxcars and do not have a problem.Seeing the price makes me want to get a few.

Mixed Freight posted:

Here's a few pictures of a Williams (WbB?) Rock Island boxcar and a Menards Milwaukee Road boxcar.  As near as I can tell, they're the exact same car.

I've taken a few liberties with each and dressed them up a little bit.  Something fun to do when you've got some time to kill.  Check 'em out....................

Williams on the left, Menard's on the right.

 

On the Williams car, I swapped out the original tucks for Lionel trucks.  Notice I've added ladder stirrups at each corner of the car.  Made them out of wire staples.  Hey Menard's!  You could do this car too.  Except paint it box car red with white lettering (with black fill in the "Rock Island" shield and a black circle on the "Rocket Freight".  I'd be in for a couple of handfuls (and maybe more) .  Don't muck it up, a quick google search for prototype images should yield some really good pictures.

 

Here's the Menard's Milwaukee Road boxcar.  Besides the corner stirrups under the ladders and grab rails, another dress-up item starts to show.  See the wood grain side panel inside the car?

 

And wood grain on the floor?  Super easy dress-up.  Two different wood grain rolls of contact paper I bought at the dollar store.  Just cut pieces to size, then peel & stick 'em on.  Remove the shell from the floor first, of course.  Makes the job a whole lot easier!

 

Here's a bottom view of the Rock Island car, where you can see the a "Williams" sticker.

 

And here's the bottom of the Menard's car.  Something else funny is going on here underneath both of these cars.  Figured out yet what it is? 

I've removed those gosh-awful brake cylinders from their tabs.  Well, okay, actually they are pretty nice brake cylinders.  It's just that they hang down so blasted low, they look like heck in my opinion.  So I dis-assemble the floors, remove the cylinders, and replace them with a short length of wooden dowel painted flat black.  Just as a place holder for an otherwise empty tab, and save the brake cylinders for other projects.  And instead of letting the dowels hang below the mounting tabs, I mount them on the top side of the tabs, so it tucks them up closer to the floor and a lot less conspicious.  Looks a lot better, at least in my opinion.

I've probably got a handful of these type of cars done, and another handful left to finish off.  Wire staples?  Contact paper?  Wooden dowels?  Okay, so it's not super-scale.  But hey!  It's 3-rail!  And it does kinda' dress them up a little bit. 

I have williams boxcars one NH and the other M&STL.I have to agree about the brake cylinders they do hang pretty low.Now I just gotta see if Charlotte N.C. has a menards.

tcripe posted:

They are a good deal, but I wish they could make some without roofwalks and high brake wheels. Box cars built after '66 didn't have them. I'm sure the molds won't allow it, but not all of us model the '50s. Cars built earlier than '66 had until '79 or so to remove them. My trusty Dremel and assorted files have removed them from 4 box cars, but paint matching has been a learning experience.

Terry

As a kid my school by the train tracks.Being born in 1967 I saw boxcars with the billboard type logos.And even wooden gons that had steel braced.I seen a lot of boxcars with roofwalks and some with out.I think the brake men would look on in dread.If he saw a whole line of boxcars with roofwalk and some with out.Which means a lot of up and down.The last boxcar with roof walk was 1984 C&NW.

Since I have Many MTH and Atlas scale cars of the mid century era, I think the Menards cars fit in a train of scale cars as older 40 foot cars as long as I buy older paint schemes.

seaboardm2 posted:

 ...snip... Now I just gotta see if Charlotte N.C. has a menards.

The nearest Menard's is probably the one in Chillicothe, OH.

This year when I visited, there was a lot more on the shelf.