(07/25/16) O Gauge Hopper Cars from Menards!

If anyone would purchase these cars I would be interested to know if they will travel without issue through Gargraves and Ross switches.  My understanding UNCONFIRMED is that these cars short-out passing through Ross switches.

Never heard that before, what would cause them to short? They have no electrical pick-up.

I read on thread on here NOT long ago about someone making this claim that Menards cars will NOT pass through Ross switches without causing shorts.  I'm just hoping to hear confirmation or no problem.... I'm concerned because I don't want to spend $100 and find out the hard way.

I'll say this if it was true you would be seeing it all over the place in here and they would be addressing it. Like BobbyD what would cause it?

BobbyD posted:

Never heard that before, what would cause them to short? They have no electrical pick-up.

rtraincollector posted:

I'll say this if it was true you would be seeing it all over the place in here and they would be addressing it. Like BobbyD what would cause it?

 

What could cause it is narrow wheel gauge or thick wheel profiles, possibly shorting the third rail to the running rails when wheels go through the curved leg and switch frog. But sometimes the switch design is a contributing factor.

The Menard's cars look like really good value but I would be interested to know the dimensions of the cars, whether they are scale or "traditional" size. The web site doesn't have that info for hoppers?

I believe the hopper cars are reg. "O" Gauge hoppers not "O" Scale. I think they are exactly like Lionel's O Gauge hoppers.

Ace posted:

The Menard's cars look like really good value but I would be interested to know the dimensions of the cars, whether they are scale or "traditional" size. The web site doesn't have that info for hoppers?

Good Morning,

Here are the approximate dimensions of the hopper cars. I hope this helps!

10-3/4"L x 2-1/8"W x 3-1/4"H. In total, the car is 12" long (coupler to coupler).

-Mark the Menards Train Guy

I wish that specific terminology would be used by all manufacturers regarding true scale.  I'm always concerned about what size I'm going to get.  The term "standard" O threw me for a loop be cause to me "standard" means 1/48.  Well to Lionel it doesn't.  "Traditional" and "standard" mean UNDERSIZED for scale.

Worse, I bought some O reproduction cars believing that they would be "Traditional" and "standard".  They are closer to S scale than O scale.

My final complaint (today :-)) is I hate it when someone describes a car's scale in relationship to gauge.  I've heard many say: "Oh that's O27."  No it's not!  The ONLY thing O27 means is a diameter of a O27 diameter curve.  Scale and gauge are NOT NOT NOT the same thing!!!!

OK, I'm over it. 

again...

here is a video showing K-line, lionel & menards hoppers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21rn6FYSfWc

These are nice cars, and its a great deal ( $16+ per car). 

I especially like the C&NW car, even with the typo in the logo.  The GN and ATSF cars are nice, too! Come to think of it, I like them all!

rogerpete posted:

again...

here is a video showing K-line, lionel & menards hoppers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21rn6FYSfWc

Thanks for the video, which clearly shows that the Menards hopper is much larger than "traditional " items. Close to scale in most respects?

If someone sends me a lionel 4 bay...I'll be happy to revise the video 

Ace posted:

rogerpete posted:

again...

here is a video showing K-line, lionel & menards hoppers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21rn6FYSfWc

Thanks for the video, which clearly shows that the Menards hopper is much larger than "traditional " items. Close to scale in most respects?

The Menards/Williams/Lionel hopper is based off of an N&W covered hopper prototype and is fairly close to scale dimensions:

While there may be some examples of the car out there with portions of the roof removed for M of W service, the prototype never was a coal hopper. 

Lionel realized long ago that by leaving the roof off, they could offer "another type" of car with no new expense involved.  Other companies have simply followed what Lionel did.

Rusty

The video in question is misleading in demonstrating size differences between Menards/K-Line/Lionel hoppers, since  you can perform this comparison with the same hoppers entirely within Lionel's or WBB's product line.

The new Menards' hopper is a clone of the Lionel postwar "quad" hopper, just like the WBB version.

While it is based on a PRR prototype and is the largest of the traditional-size hoppers (you can get it to scrape the signal housing on an MPC 027 manual switch), it is by no means "scale" proportioned or detailed.

---PCJ

RailRide posted:

The video in question is misleading in demonstrating size differences between Menards/K-Line/Lionel hoppers, since  you can perform this comparison with the same hoppers entirely within Lionel's or WBB's product line.

The new Menards' hopper is a clone of the Lionel postwar "quad" hopper, just like the WBB version.

While it is based on a PRR prototype and is the largest of the traditional-size hoppers (you can get it to scrape the signal housing on an MPC 027 manual switch), it is by no means "scale" proportioned or detailed.

---PCJ

Actually, the Pennsy car was a 3-bay covered hopper:

Rusty