as to shed some light on going through your switches. the wheel sets are made poorly and most are always out of gauge. once they are gauged they then work ok. be careful the axle is not a very sturdy material and can bend easily.
Is there a tool that can spread the truck wheels to the right gauge ?
@Menards posted:All train cars and buildings produced after the mandate have been labeled in accordance to Prop 65.
As a rule of thumb, the train cars with dates 2019 and 2020 will ship to California.
I hope this helps!
-Mark the Menards Train Guy
Thanks Mark. Looks like there could be an ore train in my future.
@Bill Grafmiller posted:Is there a tool that can spread the truck wheels to the right gauge ?
Well, to make a short story long.........................................
As far as I know, Menard's uses 3 different styles of trucks on their cars. One style is a plastic truck, and then 2 different styles of metal trucks (Bettendorf and Roller Bearing). Both of these styles are a combination of die-cast and stamped metal parts. The plastic trucks have exposed axles, which make them very easy to work on. Good news for plastic trucks, widening the gauge can usually be done without removing the axle from the truck, or even removing the truck from the car. And the axles are easy to pop out of the truck if so desired or if need be.
The metal trucks however, are a whole different story. The axles are partially or almost fully enclosed by stamped sheet metal parts, and the trucks would need to be disassembled in order to re-gauge the wheel-sets, which generally requires removing the trucks from the car, which can be a real pain in the posterior at the very least, and which in turn may be next to impossible for a lot of folks.
So here's my methods, once again the plastic trucks being E-Z Peasy, or if you can somehow manage to get the axles out of the metal trucks.........................................
Under-Gauged Wheel-sets: Get a good pair of pliers and a tack puller (a little pry bar made for pulling tacks or small nails). Determine which wheel needs to be moved (in most cases, one will have been factory pressed further onto the axle than the other).
Securely grab the axle between the wheels with the pliers. Insert the tack puller claw between the pliers and the wheel and using the pliers to pry against, pry out the wheel. Note: Squeeze the pliers extra hard to prevent axle slippage while prying the wheel outwards. Make sure the end of the claw is in line with the center of the wheel, so as not to bend the axle.
Over-Gauged Wheel-sets: You will need to pop the wheel-set out of the truck. Clamp the axle good and tight in a small vice, and tap the offending wheel down further onto the axle using a small socket (or similar) to fit over the axle, and a small hammer to tap it with. Be careful not to bend the axle. Fortunately, I'm betting that over-gauged wheel sets are pretty rare. I can't remember if I have encountered an over-gauged set yet, but have had to go in and fix at least a few wheels where I accidentally pried them out a little too far. 
That's pretty much it. But believe it or not, I have also had a few wheels actually come LOOSE on their axles while running the cars on my layout, and had to Loc-Tite them in place (super glue would work good, too).
Hope this helps. 
Paul, I have not had to do it, but your descriptions sound very logical. Thank you for the tutorial!!
Hi Everyone,
The new covered hoppers and gondolas are live! Here's a link to my post.
Update on the second container:
This is now on the rail traveling through Canada! We are hoping this will arrive next week.
Thank you,
Mark the Menards Train Guy
@AGHRMatt posted:Their site says that each pair has different road numbers. That's a nice touch. By the way, those look like the old K-Line molds which were pretty close to scale sized. They look like they'd make a neat 3RS/2-rail conversion project. Too bad they don't ship to California.
Unfortunately the numbers of the cars in the two-packs are the same - thus breaking with Menards policy of individual numbering.
@John23 posted:Unfortunately the numbers of the cars in the two-packs are the same - thus breaking with Menards policy of individual numbering.
This was addressed a short time ago. I can't find the post but I believe it was something to do with the paired cars numbered as one, like drawbar connected hoppers.
@Bill S. posted:This was addressed a short time ago. I can't find the post but I believe it was something to do with the paired cars numbered as one, like drawbar connected hoppers.
The only railroad that I know of that had drawbar connected ore cars was the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range....and they had groups of 4. I'm planning on acquiring 30 - 40 of the C&NW cars - so half of them will need renumbering,
I second the motion on unlettered cars, but l have rattle cans of flat black and rusty red, as well as a cup of water, a tweezers, and custom decals, so l will gladly baptize them. What would go nicely with them are shorty logging cars, on archbars, as l'd like these, but that can be shopped here, too.
