Just received a e-mail from Menards announcing their new enclosed auto carrier.
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They look very nice. I will wait and see who picks them apart.😉
They look like a stretched and widened version of the Lionel 027 autoracks. At 17.5" measured over the couplers, according to their site, they're slightly shorter than MTH's Premier-class autoracks.
Just have to make up some railroad logo stickers to place on the blank panels up on the car sides. If Menards treats these the same way as the double-stack cars (only offering the two colors), a sticker pack much like their billboards would be an ideal addition, as there are a number of roadnames that would work with the yellow and brown base color (CSX/UP for the yellow, and NS/Conrail for the brown, for example)
Mark, ya may want to have that line in the website's copy about "metal couplers" edited to "operating couplers", if the provided photos are correct then these have the standard plastic roller-bearing-style trucks. Wouldn't want anyone anyone here fussing over that detail 
(adds to his shopping list despite having 50+ of the MTH 'racks)
---PCJ
When did the autoracks start getting the paneled sides? 80’s?
They're great for $40, I'd like to see them be a few inches longer to be scale...
Did you notice Menards didn't announce them in this forum ?
@cabinet Bob posted:Did you notice Menards didn't announce them in this forum ?
Why do you think that is?
Menards announced their new enclosed auto carrier.
Are the automobiles visible?
Edited as below:
From later posts I see the automobiles are not visible. Wow, one can save a lot of money and not purchase all those O gauge automobiles.
Charlie
From Benton, AR
@cabinet Bob posted:Did you notice Menards didn't announce them in this forum ?
Do you blame them!
@ChiTown Steve posted:When did the autoracks start getting the paneled sides? 80’s?
Between 1970 and 1980 was when various protective panels were introduced.
Andrew
Thanks. I’ve expanded my layout into the 70’s time frame. Mostly so I can add more cool muscle cars. So that puts these in play.
All this babble and no link?
Here you go! Looks great to me!
It looks like a copy of Lionels traditional line of enclosed auto carriers abeit that the menards cars are sealed...no way to add a load. Another thing is all flat cars are labeled dttx which is a doublestack container car marking instead of ettx [tri level rack] or bttx [bi-level rack]. The good thing is the cars are sold individually or in a 4 pack with 4 different numbers.
The only question remains is performance! Will the cars be top heavy or weighted on the underframe of the flat car.
I don't know what the weight has to do with it, I have many Lionel and MTH cars that I had to add weight to. The Price is nice and makes it easier for guys like me to be involved in the Model RR Hobby! Not the Real RR!
@mike g. posted:Here you go! Looks great to me!
Thank you. Not a bad-looking car.
My order for a 4 pack is in!
5" HIGH?
Cars would never fit under my bridges.
I don’t care if they are a tad compressed, but I’m curious how they would look behind a scale sd70. Since the real ones look so huge, especially on a small layout, I’m curious to see them in action.
After browsing this thread, I went down the rabbit hole of reading about the history of auto-carriers and discovered the Vert-a-PAC, specially designed to transport Chevy Vegas -vertically! GM must have had high hopes, to have a specific auto transport designed for one specific car model. I don’t imagine we’ll see a scale model of the Vert-a-Pac anytime soon
@SIRT posted:5" HIGH?
Cars would never fit under my bridges.
They do sit quite a bit high on the trucks. The wheelsets appear to be about 33"/36"; I suspect that the prototypes were a smaller diameter.
@Crazy Train posted:After browsing this thread, I went down the rabbit hole of reading about the history of auto-carriers and discovered the Vert-a-PAC, specially designed to transport Chevy Vegas -vertically! GM must have had high hopes, to have a specific auto transport designed for one specific car model. I don’t imagine we’ll see a scale model of the Vert-a-Pac anytime soon
Probably not but maybe a stac-pack.
@Crazy Train posted:After browsing this thread, I went down the rabbit hole of reading about the history of auto-carriers and discovered the Vert-a-PAC, specially designed to transport Chevy Vegas -vertically! GM must have had high hopes, to have a specific auto transport designed for one specific car model. I don’t imagine we’ll see a scale model of the Vert-a-Pac anytime soon
If someone 3D scans the HO Scale models already produced by EXACT RAIL and uses that data to create a 3D computer file of the Vert-a-Pac in O scale, so they can be 3D printed in O scale, then you can get an O scale model.
Andrew
@PRRMP54 posted:They do sit quite a bit high on the trucks. The wheelsets appear to be about 33"/36"; I suspect that the prototypes were a smaller diameter.
The high water look is very noticeable. It looks like they might tip if speeds aren't limited on curves.
I like these offerings! But at 17.5 inches in length, I think they won't go well on O-31 or even possibly O-36 curves. Anyone know how ling the Lionel carriers from the 90's were/are?
@prrhorseshoecurve posted:It looks like a copy of Lionels traditional line of enclosed auto carriers that are sealed...no way to add a load.
Which models were those? All of my Lionel 16xxx and 36xxx screened auto carriers issued in the 1990's have sliding doors at each end.
the Vert-a-PAC could be made using the Menards cars.
Cutting off the sides and 3D printing the verta part with a frame that fits into the cut-out.
@RadioRon posted:I like these offerings! But at 17.5 inches in length, I think they won't go well on O-31 or even possibly O-36 curves. Anyone know how ling the Lionel carriers from the 90's were/are?
Those cars were about 13" (not including couplers), same length as the MPC open-deck carriers.
---PCJ
I view the 17.5 over the couplers compression ratio the same as the 18” of Premier streamlined passenger cars.
The cars look nice and are certainly better priced than either the "scale" MTH or Lionel products. Unlike them, however, the trucks are placed too close to the ends of the car. Most likely because correct placement further back would require longer coupler shanks. If one uses Kadees and new holes for the trucks could be drilled further back, this could be fixed. Those who aren't rivet counters probably wouldn't care.
Terry
A picture might help. The trucks are pretty close to the ends, I suspect that's why they'll do O27 curves
Attachments
@PRRMP54 posted:They do sit quite a bit high on the trucks. The wheelsets appear to be about 33"/36"; I suspect that the prototypes were a smaller diameter.
Bi-level autoracks (which these appear to be) have 33" wheels. Tri-level have 28". The trucks are too close to the car ends on these.
From photos, looking at the website and not having one to measure in front of me, the Lionel 0-27 autorack is 13 1/2 inches in length. I have no diameter or Height of the car. If anyone can provide it, that would be nice. Depending how these look when people start getting them, I may end up buying 20 for a consist. These are perfect for Railking Es44s and and SD70s
Good for Menards. They are toy train cars, want scale? buy scale.
I think it would be helpful at least to me is to see the car in the real world on a layout next to some other rolling stock to get an idea instead of a stand alone picture from the website.
That would be great Chris, but I don't have the car, so I posted the only picture I could get. 
I agree - good for Menards. This product is not for me (not my modelling era), but I think it's great that Menards continues to innovate with new products like this. A win for the hobby. I also think it's unfortunate Menards did not introduce this product with a Forum announcement.
Where is the graffiti?
@hobby-go-lucky posted:Which models were those? All of my Lionel 16xxx and 36xxx screened auto carriers issued in the 1990's have sliding doors at each end.
More like appearance (being shorter than scale) than in function. You might call them a stretched version (length and height) of the Lionel cars, or a compressed version of the MTH Premier cars. Visually, they'd fit better with the latter, being the same height.
@breezinup posted:The high water look is very noticeable. It looks like they might tip if speeds aren't limited on curves.
Funny you mention that, a few minutes ago I pulled out one of my MTH premier autoracks to measure its height (in response to SIRT's comment --they also measure 5" tall ), and noticed the styrofoam carries a sticker warning users of this exact same hazard. During my floor-layout days I never had issues with the MPC trilevels tipping over, but I always ran them empty. Fully loaded, these cars were (1) very heavy, and (2) very prone to tipping over if you didn't hold your speed down on those 027 curves. Probably explains why virtually all of the post-MPC reissues of this car were bilevel.
@PRRMP54 posted:They do sit quite a bit high on the trucks. The wheelsets appear to be about 33"/36"; I suspect that the prototypes were a smaller diameter.
According to a datasheet I found on BNSF's site, the (tri-level) prototype uses 28" wheels.
https://www.bnsf.com/ship-with.../Tri-Level-Specs.pdf
---PCJ
(oh hey, re-discovered how to multi-quote. Doesn't work when you're editing a post tho')
