A history about me. I have been collecting and operating 3 rail Lionel type trains since 1975. I had a small collection of Post-War Lionel Trains and sold mostly all of them and went for the Modern Trains. I concentrated on buying Lionel, MTH, K-Line, Weaver, and Williams by Bachmann trains. I love Williams by Bachmann NW-2 Diesel Switcher Locos and have 22 of them. I also like Williams by Bachmann trains because I favor the L&N Railroad and Williams has brought out (at decent prices) some very nice L&N Diesel Locomotives. I have several sets of Williams by Bachmann L&N Alco PA and FA Diesels. I have two prize L&N NW-2 Diesel Locos also. Sad, Williams by Bachmann does not make too many NW-2 Switchers anymore. I have several sets of Passenger cars with L&N, N&W and B&O. I have sold 80% of my Modern Trains and kept mostly the railroad stuff that I like as mentioned above. AND then Menards came onto the Scene. There are approximately 4 Menards Colossal Stores in my area of Northern, Kentucky and Ohio. About 2 years ago, I was curious about Menards and walked into the Store in Evendale, Ohio to check out the train department in November. I could not believe my eyes. Menards sells a heck of amount of trains cars at $19.99 plus tax. Then I got the rebate "bug" and I get 11% off on everything (including trains). The cashier told me to apply for a Big Red Menards Charge Card and I now get an additional 2% off of everything I buy at the cash register. So, every time I walk into Menards, I save 13% on my purchases. Menards has been running the 11% rebate for the past 6 months. So, a $19.99 Train car cost me $17.34 with the 2 rebates. Right now, I have an 11% rebate of $112,43 which I will use at Christmas time. That 11% rebate that I just mentioned does not include the 2% Rebate from my Menards Big Red Credit Card. The Credit Card Company sends me a rebate voucher to be used at Menards every 3 months. BTW, other large Big Box Stores are now offering discounts with there coupons but Menards is number ONE when it comes to savings.
What is good about Menards......the rebates, the prices and the clerks are very helpful. The trains are very nifty except for a few problems I had with the trains cars. Menards, when they started out selling train cars, they used Metal Die-Cast Trucks, Die-Cast Couplers, and sometimes Sprung Trucks with Real Springs and Roller Bearing Caps on the end of axles like Lionel does.
What is not so good about the Menards Plastic Trucks? The latest 20,000 gallon "O" Scale Tank Car, known as the Lifesaver Car was deluxe in every way. It has metal die-cast trucks, metal couplers including the wheels, and coupler armatures. This metal adds weight to the car and it tracks very well. The next 6 "O" Scale Tank Cars --- U S Army, NS, CSX, Tide Soap, BN and Conrail are beautiful but come with Plastic Trucks. Hence these trucks do not add any weight to the cars and they will possibly derail when in a train. I found a fix to the weight problem in these Tank Cars by removing one end cap on the tank and adding the weight. To get to the end cap of the tank, gently remove the railing that is on the end cap. Pull it gently up. Most end caps just snap in place. So, gently add pressure to the end cap and most of them pop off. Add your weight and reassemble. I was able to do all 6 tank cars in 30 minutes.
Please note: I have added something to the not so good list. I recently found another Tide Tank Car, (a sister to the above Tide Car in my collection) and tried to Pop Off the end cap of the tank so I could add extra weight to this very light car. Well, I got to the point where I was ready to Pop Off the end cap and it would not budge. It must of been sealed with Super Glue. So, how am I going to add weight to the car? I could drill a small hole in the bottom of the tank, and add pieces of nails with the heads cut off through the hole for additional weight. But, I did not want to mar the tank with an unsightly hole. So, I put on my thinking cap and decided to take my roll of soldier and make an oblong round bundle of soldier and super glue it between the wheels of each truck. This added the necessary weight to help keep the car on track when operating in a train of cars. If you do not mind drilling a hole in the bottom of the tank of the car, you can shove in enough nails to add weight to the car. None of this extra work would of been necessary had these cars come with Metal Trucks. I guess the plastic trucks on these cars is an austerity move on Menards part. I am sure many of the people reading this blog might be able to come up with some idea to add weight to this car in an inconspicuous way. Sad, the use of plastic trucks on these cars will cause a tracking problem because the car is too light Also, Menards might NOT want to glue the end caps of the tank cars so we can get inside and add our own weight. This is an unnecessary inconvenience caused by the fact that these cars are Too Light.
Other small things have occurred with Menards Cars such as batteries that run sound and lights in both the excavator cars were leaking. That was easy to fix. It might be even easier if Menards put the instructions in the car on how to replace those small round batteries. I bought 2 of these cars, both of them had faulty batteries. I returned one of the cars to Menards and I fixed the other leaking batteries by myself in the second car.
There are other light weight freight cars in Menards fleet such as Ore, Gondolas, Hoppers, etc. You can add weight to these cars by loads, etc. and make them much track better. It is the new 20,000 gallon "O" Scale Tank Car that has a problem because it comes with plastic trucks. Had Menards Not sealed the end caps shut, we could get into the tank and add our own weight.
The amount of problems is quite small with Menards "Stuff" except written instructions would be most helpful.
Sincerely yours, railbear601
