“Modern tank cars” worked for me.
@Menards posted:Hi VistaDome,
I'm not seeing any issues on my end but would you try again this morning and let me know?
Thank you,
Mark the Menards Train Guy
Mark
It is working this morning. Maybe in the wee hours of the night there was some server outage or something. No links worked and going on the Menards app also could not display any of the newest cars, but all of the older stock displayed. All good now though.
Thanks
Scott
Great tankers, Mark! I am awaiting the ones I ordered! Keep up the good work!
That Life Savers tanker is great! Hope you are making a lot of them, I suspect they will sell out quick.
I would love to see some Staley tankers. Would go great with your Pepsi factory.
Staley has had a lot of different tankers over the years. Any of them would be a fine addition to your line up.
So the question is - do they have metal wheels...?
Are all just fantasy schemes... or any almost "prototypical"?
Just asking for a friend... 
I have never seen any Menard's car with plastic wheels, they have metal wheels. The trucks are plastic.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I have never seen any Menard's car with plastic wheels, they have metal wheels. The trucks are plastic.
Thanks - my bad. I got confused between trucks and the wheels.
@Marek posted:
Are all just fantasy schemes... or any almost "prototypical"?
Just asking for a friend...
Fantasy.
Rusty
Received my six pack of Tide tankers and Cobra today. Will split with the club.
Nice looking cars.
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@johnstrains posted:RE: The requests for black tankers. Didn't Menards do a run of "plain" black tankers in their very first set of tank cars? About a year ago? Maybe they're not the exact ones being mentioned above.
Those tankers were steam era.
The BURLINGTON NORTHERN fuel tender scheme is almost prototypical.
They made a few changes on the shorter tank car.
Andrew
@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:OK, with Uncle Sam wanting me for the US Army, I joined up in August in the US Army Transportation Corps as a Movement Control Specialist. Attended the USATC school at Ft. Eustus, VA, then was placed on a MATS flight to Germany, where I served out my three year obligation.
Regrets? None! Witnessed steam-ups at Ft. Eustus during the autumn of '64 and then all the Deutsche Bundesbahn steam a 18 year old kid could enjoy which began in January 1965. Saw my first steam locomotive at Frankurt, then flew down the Rhein River behind a clean E10 Electric to Heidelberg, which can be described in one three letter word: WOW!
Today I'm a armchair model railroader as well as an O Gauge Railroading digital subscriber and retired off of Deutsche Bahn. The short time I've been a member in good standing on the OGR forum I've met some really great guys and gals. Thanks to all of you for putting up with my big Texas mouth from time to time. It still gets me in trouble now and then. Don't believe me? Ask my wife!
Godspeed and Pray for Peace. Without it we'll all loose the joy of getting to play with what has become known as The World's Greatest Hobby!
Retired off of DB? Sounds like you stayed a while. Are you still living in Germany? I was in Germany for 3 years (67-70) - caught the end of steam on the DB. Married to a German, so go back every couple of years for a month at a time.
Just saw this. Ordered the six pack of bn tankers. The sales tax was a little high,but the total price for six tankers could not be beat anywhere. May have to get six more. Thanks mark my bnsf mid west central division railroad thanks menards for the new additions. Finnaly a unit tanker train that will not be over 500 smakers. Wow is all I can say.
@falconservice posted:The BURLINGTON NORTHERN fuel tender scheme is almost prototypical.
They made a few changes on the shorter tank car.
Andrew
Almost. Hand-grenades and horseshoes.
BN fuel tenders had a green body with the top 1/4 painted black. There's plenty of photos on the internet.
And NO railroad puts their heralds on tank car ends, nor any private owner I can think of.
Yeah, yeah... I know... It's a 20 buck tank car so that makes it OK.
Rusty
John23, Yes indeed, I'm still here in Deutschland with my Frau and Kinder!
@Menards posted:Introducing our BRAND NEW modern tank cars, built from ALL NEW tooling!
A great way to move liquids: The all-new tank car from Menards
Dimensions: 10-1/2"L x 2-3/8"W x 3-3/4"H (tank itself is 8-3/8" long)
The basics: The latest addition to the Menards freight car fleet is a modern unibody tank car. Tank cars have a storied history in railroading carrying basic liquids for industry. Today’s cars carry everything from pressurized gases, molten sulfur, molasses, corn syrup, clay slurry, and petroleum products. The cars may be insulated, carry glass linings, or have pressurized systems depending on the cargo. Prototype railroad cars range in size 13,000-gallon or larger capacity. The cars in this series measure 10-1/2" inches long (tank measures 8-3/8" long) and have die-cast metal wheels and operating couplers.
Why you need this: This design is brand new tooling, of one of the most modern designs to ride the rails. The car is designed to have a self-supporting tank, where older cars needed long steel supports or an under tank cradle. The car has truck-mounted body bolsters on both ends. The end platforms have cast-in crab irons and add-on metal handrails for crew safety. Each platform has two red and white Department of Transportation safety placards.
There are metal rods with stanchions supporting the tank. These run between the trucks and connect with the tank. The car has access ladders curving up on both sides to the dome platforms. The dome has a man way hatch and tank nozzle between the twin platforms. Each platform has add-on metal safety rails.
Sure, these cars look and run well, but biggest reason to add these O gauge cars to your fleet might be that they will be offered in a unique and colorful series. These cars will spotlight specific products, contemporary railroads, and even government service. Don’t forget that each car will have unique number, so you can build a complete tank train!
Received my 3 Tide tank cars the other day. Quite disappointed!
The couplers are weak. Sometimes they barely open; at other times they don't open at all.
And the wheels on some of the cars do not "free wheel". When I spin them some will spin for 10 or more seconds. Others stop within a second or 2. Others don't spin at all.
I have several of your cars and never had this problem before.
The week coupler opening is caused by the plastic piece on the nuckle that is used as a spring to open it. This is a very old design just like cheaper lionel starter set cars. This can be fixed with a new metal spring. You will need a new rivet and spring. Just remove the old plastic part from the nuckle and install the new spring. Installing the springs are tricky, but can be done fairly simply once you know how to do it. These two parts are avilable on ebay just search for them.
These are the weakest part of the menards truck design. I figured that issue woud be a problem. I am hoping these tankers with the plastic trucks are going to be light enough that when a long string of them 20 or 30 cars are put together the couplers do not start popping open.
If so maybe I can zip tie the coupler arm so they are harder to open or do not open at all and put a similar lionel or mth car at either end to couple up to them reliably. Not sure about the wheels not rolling though never seen that. I have a menards cheap flat car same truck design and its wheels roll fine.
For 20 dollars a car a nice long unit tanker train can be made at a reasonable cost vrs. Other brands. They look close to my mth railking tanker thats made like this. It also has unpainted metal grab wires. So as soon as I test the ones I bought when they arrive to see how they look and if thier is any assembly issues. I may order more especially if they make all black versions in roadnames that are prototypical looking.
I like and run thier box cars some. I do not like the metal trucks on them at all. No way to manually open them. So I repace the truck with ones I have that come off of older cars I dont use or like anymore. Mostly my older semiscale cars. This makes the car more expensive though and kinda a hassle wich is why I have not gotten anymore lately.
These tank cars though look good and maybe the best menards cars yet. We will see.
The Tide tank cars were delivered by FedEx today. Here are some comparison pictures between a K-Line aluminum tank car, Lionel Shell unibody tank car and the Menards tank car.
Here is a close up of the coupler of the Menards product
The coupler and knuckle are very similar to Lionel production during MPC and early LTI (~1970 - 1990). When the "thumb tack" armature is pulled down the plastic spring flips the knuckle open. Beware of pulling too much weight on the knuckle as the plastic can easily break. Also beware of slamming cars to couple together. The knuckle is not a solid piece.
Here are some size comparison pictures.
Between the Lionel and Menards products.
Between the K-Line and Mendards products
Here is a comparison of all three from the top.
The Lionel tank car is quite a bit larger. The Lionel is marketed as a "scale-sized" product (I am not sure if the Lionel is a representation any particular prototype). However, the K-Line and Menards products are quite similar is size with the tank of the Menards slightly larger in diameter while the K-Line product is a tad longer. Keep in mind that the K-Line tank car is also "scale", at least it says so on its box. This discrepancy is probably due to the K-Line being for an earlier time period while the Lionel is more modern. The Lionel tank car is nearly a full inch longer and the tank about 1/2 inch wider. However, overall height is similar between the three products. Keep in mind that the Lionel product MSRP is around $80 while $20 for the Menards product.
Here is the weight of the Menards tank car.
The weight is 8 ounces.
Here is the weight of the Lionel tank car
which is one pound zero ounces.
The K-Line tank car is aluminum so it is a lot heavier than either the Lionel or Menards products.
The only real disturbing design of the Menards product is that there is a screw that holds the platform assembly to the tank. That screw is protrudes out and can interfere with the pivoting of the truck and prevent the wheels being equalized on the track.
Overall, a nice product from Menards. However, due to the light weight and plastic MPC-type knuckles on the couplers, these probably should appear towards the end of trains if being operated with heavier cars.
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Great review and comparison. as stated and shown above in the last post for 20 a car these minor discrepancies can be dealt with and are a real bargin. if these discrepancies were on an 80 dollar lionel car then we got issues.
maybe menards can take notes here and remedy the two short falls as it seems. the screw underneath and the truck design. the screw is an obvious easy fix. the coupler design just needs a real metal spring in the coupler armature instead of the plastic part on the nuckle. I am sure the cost of adding the springs would not raise the price that much and would make this plastic style truck work 100% better.
Considering this style plastic truck is utilized on other menards cars it makes logical sence and would sell more cars with this type of truck to boot.
My tankers arrived yesterday. They are very nice. The Life Savers car actually has die-cast trucks painted silver, just as seen in the photo (trucks on others are, in fact, plastic). I don't think anyone else has noted that yet.
I'd propose that you buy one of the new cars, find the color of paint to your liking, and, find or make the correct decals, and have fun.
Rusty
It appears that Menard's is on a preChristmas roll.. They are giving us a constant supply of new, reasonably priced products.
finally was able to put my 3 Menards Tide Tank cars on my temporary layout and they work find. When I placed the first one and gave it a push, it rolled really well in spite of the wheels not rolling very well when I turned the car upside down and gave the wheels a spin. Still the couplers are very weak, but they did not unexpectedly open while testing. Unfortunately I didn't have my uncoupling track on my temporary layout so not sure about how well they work. Did give them a try on my other temporary short straight pieces with an uncoupling track. They worked, but not as good as I've seen in the past. Oh well, for the price, I guess they'll do. They will make a nice addition to my already purchased Tide factory.
just got my tankers today. I ordered the bn 6 pack. after examination of the cars I got to work on improving the performance and the looks of each car. I will get around to showing what steps were taken to get the car looking like pic number two. but here is a before and after shot of the transformation.
I should also note besides the paint job I added weights to either end of the cars to help with tracking. now they have some heft to them and stay on the track better.
did not modify the trucks at all. they were ok as they were. at least for me.
ok so here is the before and after shots. each car takes about 15 mins to look like pick two once you get the rutine down on disassembly and reassembly.
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one more shot ot my car after the blacking of the metal handrails. hope this is a better shot. my lighting is not to good in my trainroom.
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@John23 posted:
I would like to see this made. Photo is of a S gauge model.
Would love to see Menards do at least one S gauge building, just to test the waters. I’d like to see the engine shed, with doors on each end, built.
Steve
