Review: Menards Reading Boxcars

John,

Thank you for the review.  I have 5 Menards boxcars now, all different road names.  So far, so good on my couplers, but they haven't received as much running time as the Reading cars did on Saturday.  I agree, I miss those little tabs on the coupler when they are not present.  The long train of all Reading cars did look impressive on the North Penn O Gauger's layout Saturday.  

John,

Nice review. Thanks for posting. I have heard about issues with the couplers before. Maybe you could file a little material off the coupler? Anxious to hear what you find with your coupler examination.

Guns,

    I really like the colors and the look of the new Menard's Reading Box Cars, seriously great looking stuff, are these Box Cars rated for 036 track?  If I do get them I would upgrade the trucks, reworking each coupler and constantly lubing the trucks is not the way I want to go.  My newest Menards Military rolling stock works fine right out of the box however, on the older 1st Tank Flat Car I needed to upgrade the trucks, for constant running.  I upgraded the Tank Flat Car with MTH premium trucks, it also runs smooth as glass now for constant longevity running.  For the price you an hardly beat the new Menard's stuff, and I like to tinker a little any way.

PCRR/Dave

Thanks for the review John. I haven't been able to run my recent purchases because of the tear down but haven't had any problems what so ever with the previous ones that I was able to run. You can't beat the cars especially for the price.,

Dave, 

Is the lower cost savings of these Menards cars negated by the added cost of switching to those MTH trucks and couplers when compared to other manufacturers' similar boxcars whose trucks don't need switching? Do you actually save that much money, (or even any), after adding the cost of those truck/coupler improvements to the Menard price?

Well just bought some of the flats with the tanks.

What pieces of junk. All but one came with broken pieces and the wheels came off of 3 of them.

Made in CHINA  BAH. VERY POOR QUALITY. NO QUALITY CONTROL?????

I'll try to return them get my money back.

Very disappointing experience with MENARDs. 

Will not purchase from them again.

 

GG1GUYY

My plan is to take a closer look at the couplers and see if there's a simple fix.  I expect some Dremel work will be involved.

 

 

They do look nice in a long string.  I ordered four on Saturday night along with a tank flat car.

 

 

I have a few RMT hoppers with couplers that kept opening.  I used a low cost; low tech fix…I crazy glued them closed.

That's certainly an option, but with my terminal OCD, I want them to be right.

 

I ordered some Santa Fe box cars from Menards a while back. Overall, they are really nice cars for the money. One minor issue I have with them is the boxes themselves wobble back and forth when you run them. Another more major issue is when you have a weird switch configuration, they will derail and cut the power to my layout.

These cars went over a host of Atlas switches in pretty much most configurations imaginable, we never had a derailment due to the cars.  Backing up through a switch once we picked the points, but that's problem with the specific switch, not the cars.

John,

 

They sure looked good!

 

-Bill

Ogaugeguy,

    I have to admit when I had to replace the trucks on the Tank Flat car there was very little saving compared to buying a different Tank car, however as I noted the newer Tank Flat Car and the newer Military Box Cars all arrived with completely different trucks, and couplers and are working perfectly.  These newer Military Box cars and Flat Cars with the Deuce and a half and Tank are definitely a good deal, now that Menard's has upgraded the trucks.

PCRR/Dave

 

Terrific review John! These are the things I love about the forum! A positive review that discusses the positives,constructively deals with any negatives and offers suggestions on how to fix them! Very informative and fair and could very well lead to better couplers down the road because we know from experience I think ,that Menard's cares what we think about the products! Well done !

Some of the early flats with tank cars had problems with the wheel sets and couplers. It was my understanding that the trucks had been upgraded since then and they are now using a better one? I think my flat & tank car was from the original batch and there may be some of those yet unsold? I also had to add weight to the car, that helped it stay on the track a lot better.

 

I would say that some of the savings on the flat & tank car would be lost with the purchase of new MTH trucks, but there may still be some savings here compared to other manufacturer's comparable products? Savings or not, my grandson really likes the tank.

 

If the couplers on the box cars can be fixed, I am sure GRJ will be up to the task. The couplers on my flat & tank car don't work well at all. I am going to try GRJ's fix when he comes up with one and gets it posted here.

A very interesting read, don't have any of the cars but should they come out with L&N well a different story.

 

Brent

I couldn't resist, I took the first coupler issue, and I see what's happening.  The knuckle is too wide at the rivet attachment, and it crushed the spring when it was installed.  Of course, that made the coupler stick, and it was prone to release.  The couplers being too tight is the thick black paint on them, it would be better if they used the knuckles with the anodized black finish on them, they would be thinner and probably allow sufficient clearance.

 

I removed the knuckle, filed down the hub width, put a new spring and rivet in it, and it's running around behind me on an O36 figure 8 torture test loop to see if the car will decouple.  So far, so good...

 

 

GRJ, do you think you could be bothered to post a couple of close-up pictures of the top of the simulated walkway ends?  I'm curious to compare them to the Williams boxcar models which the Mernards boxcars seem to be "copies" of.

Thanks for the in depth review John, and thanks for volunteering your cars for Sunday's Fun Run. My grandson has requested we add Reading equipment to our roster as a result. 

 

These cars sure are great quality for the price. Yours were the first we saw in person. I imagine I'll be ordering a couple Reading and a couple New York Centrals shortly.

 

Greg

 

 

Glad you enjoyed them Greg, and you also helped me "run them in" and see how they'd stand up.  They're well worth the $20, even though I'm fixing a few couplers.

 

John, the boxcars are copies of another brand, Harry Henning III dug one out from the 70's and showed me, it's an exact match, the name escapes me now.. 

 

Here's a couple of shots of the one end.

 

 

Thanks GRJ, do you have shots of the other end as well?

 

I suspect that the brand Harry is referring to is either AMT/Kusan, or KMT.  Reason I say that is because those cars were made from the same molds that Williams now owns and uses for their boxcars.  See if Harry has any Williams/WBB boxcars in his store and compare them to the one that he showed you and the Mernards boxcars, and apart from the graphics & trucks, I'll bet you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. 

 

Reason I asked for pictures of both ends of the catwalks is that at least on the Williams boxcar, there is a slight imperfection in the mold on one of the catwalk ends (can't remember which end it was and don't know if the imperfection pre-dates Williams or not) and wanted to compare it with one that I have on hand that I'll have to dig out.

Very nice John. There was a prior post where someone ground down certain points within the knuckle area. Also axles came bent on one of mine. Menards will correct any issues. Don't count them out. 

They were KMT cars John, these are a dead ringer for the bodies of them.  I don't see any imperfections in the other end, here those shots are.

 

Don, I'm not counting them out, if I get one or two I can't quickly resolve, I'll see if I can get a couple extra trucks from them.  Also, some of the comments about couplers were for the earlier plastic ones, these are all diecast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not you John. I was referring to a prior poster.

Don, he's just leaving more product for us to buy.

 

The "final" fixes. The first two were solved by replacing the already mal-formed springs and filing the sides of the knuckle so they had room to freely pivot.  A new rivet and all is well.

 

The next three were all with the same problem.  All would uncouple with my "torture test". All of these had good springs, and the couplers popped open properly when activated.

 

The "torture test" consists of putting a string of cars together and then grabbing one on the end and shaking them back and forth on the track.  If they stay coupled for that test, they usually work well for normal running.

 

First, take the four screws out and remove the shell, then slip the E-Clip off and remove the truck.  On top of the trucks, you'll see two screws on each side, take one pair of them out and the trucks will separate.  On the bottom of the coupler is a small metal tab that actually actuates the coupler. The metal uncoupler lever on the bottom of the truck slides in front of these tabs and when it rotates down, it pulls that tab back to uncouple the car.

 

On these problem cars, it's bent forward toward the coupler.  This puts it too close to the uncoupler lever that actuates the coupler by pivoting back.  When the cars are rolling down the track the base moves around just a bit, only being secured by the axles.  When it does so, if the tab is too close, it uncouples the car.

 

The fix is surprisingly easy.  Just bend that little tab straight up instead of canted forward, then put the truck back together.  When reassembling, make sure the uncoupling lever on the base is in front of the tab, or you'll be taking the truck back apart.  You can guess how I figured this out.

 

I believe all of my cars are ready for service.  I suspect I may have to do this adjustment on a couple more in the coming days, but now I know exactly what it takes.

 

Here's the fix in pictures. 

 

 

 

Even I could follow these instruction. very well done.

 

Brent

Now you just have to buy a few cases of the cars!

 

Very nice tutorial, John!

Thank you!

john did you see this thread?

 

tuning menards  24 case flat cars

 

now menards is doing the grinding on the flats, hopefully the will do the other cars as well.

 

 

Nice review John.  Nice cars for the price!

John it was KTM Kris model trains.

 That's the molds that menards is using for there box cars.

 Here were some of the old cars from the late 60s early 70s

 

Since Williams (now WBB) ended up owning the original tooling after KMT and that forum member Jack Lynch who works for Bachmann claimed they have no role in the production of these Mernard's boxcars, I would say that's unlikely.

 

In that context, I would find it curious if Bachmann wasn't looking into the legality of Mernards copying the boxcar design.

That would be a stretch since Menards does not manufacture the boxcar. Golden Wheel Die Casting is the manufacture which is in the same Hong Kong commercial zone as Kader Industries.

 

    Bill T.

 

  

I saw that post, as I said, those were the plastic trucks, these have all metal trucks.  I figure that since the ones that I didn't have to fix ran for hours without decoupling, I'm not going to fix stuff that ain't broken.

Good Day,

 

Just wondering, will Lionel or MTH trucks fit on these box cars?

 

Regards,

Swafford

GREAT REVIEW.  Thanks for point out problems and fixes.   Dollar for dollar you can't go wrong.   As for the walkway on top of the cars, a little bit of weathering will add depth and improve the looks.

I believe older PW trucks with the post will fit, that's the mounting that the style mounting post they have.  I didn't try it, but it appears they would fit.  They're the same height, same post size, and the couplers are almost the same extension, maybe 1/8" shorter on the PW truck.

 

I may be trying that as I'd like to equip several of these with pickups for my sound board installation.

 

GRJ,

 

Thanks for the post! The information is great. While I haven't purchased any of the cars from Menards yet, I will probably be looking into them.