New Scale Flatcar with a Wooden deck from Menard's.

Says they are longer too!

Like the BNSF version, I can see a 4 pack order being placed.

 

    Bill T.

Looking at the link Tim provided, it appears that they're 2.625" wide.  

Looks like they are a dark hunter green, supposively the Couplers are going to be similar to the Couplers on Lionel train cars. And the trucks are die cast.

Those look a lot like some Lionel PS-4 flats I own

I think that is where the tooling came from

I am not so sure. Those cars bring up visions of the k-line flat car. The drop center sill appears to be the giveaway.

At first I thought they had the die-cast friction-bearing trucks of the boxcars.

 

Then I re-read the description on Menards' site and it says sprung die-cast trucks.

 

And looking closer at the picture, the trucks appear to be roller-bearing style.

 

Verry interesting. I think I'll have to get one of each

I looked at one of my K-Line flats, they don't have the open stirrup steps on the corners and sit substantially higher than these.

 

The latter may be just due to the truck mounting, but spending money to add stirrups to a K-Line flatcar sounds like a fair amount of money for little gain. It could still be a newly tooled clone of an existing model--Menards' overseas builder is still not known to have ties to any of the other O-Gauge manufacturers. 

 

Edit: looking at this high-res pic of a Lionel PS-4 flat I see the resemblance, but the Lionel car has separate stirrups vs the Menards' being molded (with braces behind them on the ends). Also, the stake pockets on the Menards' flatcar don't extend beyond the sides of the car whereas the Lionel ones do. Looks like a different prototype or a freelance/generic/"inspired-by" design, rather than using someone else's existing tooling.

 

 

---PCJ

I don't own any Menards items but this Pennsylvania wood flatcar caught my eye.  I can imagine Menards isnt as good a quality as Lionel and MTH, how do they rate as far as quality?

Now who has a creative idea for a load?

I ordered a 4-pak, if I like the looks, I'll get a couple more 4-paks.  The pictures look good.

 

Those look good!   I may get some - waiting to see real pics

I like them but I sure wish they would announce undecorated versions of their stuff.

Paint them.

 

One major difference is that the Menard's cars have the prominent open holes in the deck for the truck screws. Lionel cars, of course, do not. The Lionel cars also have brakewheels, missing from the Menard's flats. The Menard's cars also have six metal tabs, or something, exposed on the deck. Not sure if those are fasteners or what.