(04/02/24) Something Fun for the O Gauge Hobby from Menards!

Nice!!! I just bought 4 of them.

It is an April Fool's Day joke that is a little late? Otherwise, that looks really cool!

The possibilities are endless when you think about how you could customize this. Neat idea!

Not an April Fools joke.  Video on the website is pretty neat.  A nice addition to the hobby for the toy train folks like myself.

Went to buy the four pack, was interrupted, came back after lunch, four pack sold out, so I bought a single.

@illinoiscentral posted:

Went to buy the four pack, was interrupted, came back after lunch, four pack sold out, so I bought a single.

Oh no!!! That sucks!!! Maybe they will have more next week?

That looks a little difficult to two-rail!

Neat idea, though.

Mark, Will the 4 pack be coming back? UnclePeteRR

Why is the 4 pack only available in store? Some of us live 500 miles away from a Menards?

Just went and ordered one. Thanks! (Different colors for different holidays would be a neat follow-up to this... a car with spooky artwork and orange interior lights, or a Christmas scene with red/green lights inside, etc.)

Great suggestions Ben!

@BenLMaggi posted:

Just went and ordered one. Thanks! (Different colors for different holidays would be a neat follow-up to this... a car with spooky artwork and orange interior lights, or a Christmas scene with red/green lights inside, etc.)

This (or similar) car in Fourth of July (Red White & Blue) or Christmas (Red & green or Red/Green/Gold/Blue) colors would be really really nice @Menards!!!!  Ordered some of these today.  Love the reminder that this is supposed to be fun!

I also love that no one else has done this before!  That is always nice.

@BenLMaggi posted:

Just went and ordered one. Thanks! (Different colors for different holidays would be a neat follow-up to this... a car with spooky artwork and orange interior lights, or a Christmas scene with red/green lights inside, etc.)

Ben....Yes!!! There's a market for reasonably priced and creative Alien and Spooky O gauge products! Staying away from Happy Halloween and using Transylvania Lines/Express or anything along those lines would be good sellers and stretch the use beyond the Halloween season! Especially for this classic monster fan!

Sunrise

Mark, I had bought 4 individual ones. Can order we switch to the 4 pack. I did't know you were going to

reoffer the 4 pack. Is there any thing that can be done? UnclePeteRR

I would never purposely buy a halloween or otherwise spooky traincar, but that's me.

To each his own. The point was that other companies make REALLY NICE Holiday cars with lots of individual lights but they are somewhat fragile. This would allow a lot of options for inexpensive holiday lighting effects without the fear of accidently damaging something. 

Not my cup of tea, BUT, I really appreciate that Menard's keeps coming out with so many fun accessories, and at a very reasonable price point.

There are no dealer packs  available  now. Single cars are still available,  but less than 34 left. These are selling fast and will be sold out soon.

Nice,

Might get some tiny fish for them as well.

John

@cabinet Bob posted:

Just a few dealer packs are available  now. Single cars are still available,  but less than 81 left. These are selling fast and will be sold out soon.

Then make more!

My grand kids would love these, but I'm more worried about getting my new layout planned and built. The planning is kicking my behind

Nice, but where is my Bluebonnet dummy ?

11 left !

SOLD OUT !

I missed these but one would be perfect with the AEC stuff Lionel has put out.  Hauling highly reactive uranium pellets for processing into fuel rods.

@BenLMaggi posted:

To each his own. The point was that other companies make REALLY NICE Holiday cars with lots of individual lights but they are somewhat fragile. This would allow a lot of options for inexpensive holiday lighting effects without the fear of accidently damaging something.

Sure, and I agree wholeheartedly!

Sold out. But I’m sure we’ll see York scalpers with them at 4x the price . Maybe they would prefer to be called entrepreneurs.

Went to pick it up Friday after work and it could not be found. Sold on Menards website.

Menards, should do something like this with their modern tank car.

My car arrived super fast but I am a bit disappointed with it. This was my first Menards purchase and the car is okay but very lightweight.

The trucks are another story. They are all metal but roll extremely poorly. They make a racket as they go along the track, and not all the wheels turn at the same time. I have tried to figure out the problem but can't see what is going on, except that not all the wheels are making contact with the rails. It is as if the suspension is causing one or two of the wheels to lift up off of the rail. One wheel/axle assembly is wobbly so that the wheels don't rotate properly, adn another wheel/axle assembly is really stiff and won't turn at all by itself (I can make is manually rotate when I am holding the car upside down).

Is this is normal for Menards trucks? If so, does anyone have a fix? If not, I will contact customer support. The interior car lights are really nice but I can't run it as is.

@BenLMaggi posted:

My car arrived super fast but I am a bit disappointed with it. This was my first Menards purchase and the car is okay but very lightweight.

The trucks are another story. They are all metal but roll extremely poorly. They make a racket as they go along the track, and not all the wheels turn at the same time. I have tried to figure out the problem but can't see what is going on, except that not all the wheels are making contact with the rails. It is as if the suspension is causing one or two of the wheels to lift up off of the rail. One wheel/axle assembly is wobbly so that the wheels don't rotate properly, adn another wheel/axle assembly is really stiff and won't turn at all by itself (I can make is manually rotate when I am holding the car upside down).

Is this is normal for Menards trucks? If so, does anyone have a fix? If not, I will contact customer support. The interior car lights are really nice but I can't run it as is.

No, that is not normal for Menards trucks, not even their trucks with pickups (eg cabooses).  Usually they roll quite well.  Usually the only issue we ever have is when the gauge is a few hundredths of an inch narrower than Lionel and MTH, causing them to rock as they go down the track.  The pickup-equipped trucks tend to be a wee bit stiffer due to the pickup friction.  I wonder how easy it would be to swap the truck out.

Picked the car up on the way to work (Monday morning). The shipping label was missing the first letter of my last name, probably why they could not find it Friday evening.

I missed out on this car.  I hope Menards will do another run of the auto racks in orange color.

Andrew

I got this car over the weekend.

I agree with BenLMaggi about Silver metal trucks. (Wobbly) They are also too narrow. Does NOT roll smoothly. It is Scale sized car.

Thanks for the confirmation. I just emailed Customer Service at Menards. I hope they have a good solution or replacement trucks.

I got a response from Menards. Since they are sold out, they I can either keep it or they can refund my money. I like the idea of the car so I don't want to send it back, but it won't run as is. The situation is terrible.

@BenLMaggi posted:

I got a response from Menards. Since they are sold out, they I can either keep it or they can refund my money. I like the idea of the car so I don't want to send it back, but it won't run as is. The situation is terrible.

You could probably buy another lighted car from Menards (a caboose etc) and swap the trucks.  You could probably harvest a truck with pickup from Lionel/etc.

This was a great looking car--for about 5 minutes.  Then the car rocked a little too far on the track at 10+VAC and went dark.  There is connectivity from one truck to another, and from one pickup roller to the other, but not from the truck to the pickup roller(s).  We've taken off the trucks off as well as the endcaps with ladders.  We know that the piece which is the roof and sides fits into the piece which is the bottom and ends.
We ran a pry tool all the way around to break the glue we could find.  This car was screwed, glued, and clipped together.

We cannot figure out which way to bend the 6 clips that go from the sides into the bottom.  Do they bend in (towards center) or out?

Help would be greatly appreciated! (especially from @Menards)
The trucks are fancy!

Update: I was wrong, and the endcaps also come off.  The video is what it looked like new, before it failed.