New enclosed Auto Carrier from Menards

The Railking Modern box cars and Airslide Hoppers would look right with the Menards Auto Carrier.

Andrew

I have a set of these auto wrecks on the way from Menards. They are beauties. Does anyone know if there are peel and stick graffiti decals or imagery that I can add to them? They won't look right if there is not graffiti everywhere.

@WBC posted:

Here are some photos comparing the new Menard's Auto Carrier and the Lionel traditional sized Auto Carrier. The Lionel car is orange Rio Grande and the Menard's car is brown.

Being longer, wider, and greater height, the Menard's car is much larger than the Lionel car.

Lionel also made comparable scale auto racks. But they retailed near 3x the price!

Terry

@tcripe posted:

Lionel also made comparable scale auto racks. But they retailed near 3x the price!

Terry

Lionel's scale auto carriers would also be over 22 inches long and the corrugated metal sides are see through. Menards product sits nicely between the traditional size and full scale size for those who neither have room nor wide curves for for 22 inch cars.

Another item to mention:

The Menards auto carriers roll nicely. I bought the tide tank cars from Menards with what appears to be the same plastic trucks. However, the tide tank cars are terrible rollers so Menards have made some non-visible improvements.

All auto carriers should be operated on O-72 curves or larger since they are so top heavy.

Andrew

@tcripe posted:

Lionel also made comparable scale auto racks. But they retailed near 3x the price!

Terry

Their "traditional" autoracks make a comeback in 2022 with die-cast (bettendorf) trucks...and an MSRP of $100 (2022 V2 page 70)

---PCJ

@RailRide posted:

Their "traditional" autoracks make a comeback in 2022 with die-cast (bettendorf) trucks...and an MSRP of $100 (2022 V2 page 70)

---PCJ

I’m convinced Lionel has lost their collective minds…

@POTRZBE posted:

. Does anyone know if there are peel and stick graffiti decals or imagery that I can add to them? They won't look right if there is not graffiti everywhere.

Lots of O scale graffiti decals available on ebay.   Just search "o scale graffiti"

Here they are running  on my layout. 031 inner loop/042 outer loop - 072 switches make up the crossover. One car did uncouple during testing and they do wobble a bit.

I think Menards did a really nice job with these cars. The size for an O gauge layout feels right and is runnable on wider radius turns.

Just like the real thing, the height and length creates the same running dynamics in the model. I see auto racks every day on the CN tracks by my house.  They aren’t running very fast.

By contrast, I watch Wide World of Trains on YouTube, and can see them roaring past in manifest freights at 60MPH

---PCJ

In the wide open spaces I can see that but not in populated areas. None of our layouts have 100 miles of straight track.

@WBC posted:

Here are photos comparing the new Menards Auto Carrier & Lionel's traditional-sized Auto Carrier.  Lionel's car is orange Rio Grande & Menard's is brown.  Being longer, wider & higher, Menard's car is much larger than  Lionel's.

@WBC, thank you for the comparison photos.  I've always liked the traditional-sized Lionel auto carriers, & due to my operational requirements, still prefer them over these scale-sized (while very nice) Menards units.

@Darrell posted:

Some comparisons since somebody was asking:   With MTH Railking auto rack

031 curves:

042 curves

Compared to most traditional sized cars, theses are huge!

Darrell, thanks for those curve comparison photos.  With O-36 & O-31 curves at my house, it goes to show I could never accommodate them.

@Micro posted:

As a toy-train operator (NOT a "scale modeler") I would appreciate still getting the announcements here, though I know Menards gets a lot of grief from certain members over some stuff not being scale etc.  Thank you!

Sign up on the Menards website & you will get direct e-mail notifications of all new product announcements.   

@RailRide posted:

Surprised Menards didn't include sticker sheets like on their open bilevel.  I could see someone coming up with decals to "correct" the DTTX reporting mark to something actual autoracks wore (DTTX is for spine cars), as well as road names to fit the blank panels.   adhesive paper.  ---PCJ

Perhaps it a copyright/licensing issue for Menards to continue offering stickers with various railroad names/logos.  I guess we can find such decals to apply ourselves.

Which railroads would have a copyright issue?

Andrew

@falconservice posted:

Which railroads would have a copyright issue?

Andrew

Probably not so much as a copyright issue as it is licensing a copyrighted logo.

Lionel and the other model train manufacturers have to go through a long process if they want to produce models of real railroads. Once a manufacturer gets permission, then I'm sure there's some back-and-forth to ensure the items are true - as best as possible - to the real thing. I think I read somewhere that this process can take up to 2 years.

I'll probably place an order for one of each of these cars within the next couple of weeks and examine the size of the blank panel. If I can print suitable logos on adhesive paper, I may buy as many additional cars as roadnames that look right with the yellow and brown carbodies. I say "may" because these would be run with the MTH premier cars, and I already have 50+ of them, so storage space becomes a thing.

---PCJ

@RailRide posted:

I'll probably place an order for one of each of these cars within the next couple of weeks and examine the size of the blank panel. If I can print suitable logos on adhesive paper, I may buy as many additional cars as roadnames that look right with the yellow and brown carbodies. I say "may" because these would be run with the MTH premier cars, and I already have 50+ of them, so storage space becomes a thing.

---PCJ

I wouldn't wait. Sometimes items sell out rather quickly.

@paulp575 posted:

I wouldn't wait. Sometimes items sell out rather quickly.

Definitely in the case of the doublestack cars and frameless UTLX tankers (I missed both).

Most likely pulling the trigger tomorrow morning for those and a few other cars in my wishlist

---PCJ

As of tonite there are 615 yellow and 745 burgundy  cars left

The yellow auto carriers could have the graphics and logos for BNSF Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway painted or applied as decals.

BNSF four-bay hoppers have just been released in the past weeks.

There should not be a rights problem with BNSF. Look at how subtle the current BNSF management was with the 25th Anniversary of BNSF.

Andrew

@RadioRon posted:

Darrell, thanks for those curve comparison photos.  With O-36 & O-31 curves at my house, it goes to show I could never accommodate them.

No problem! They are currently running on my 031 loop as I'm using the 042 loop to test some Williams Aluminum streamliners that are getting a led upgrade. The streamliners will not run on the 031, 042 minimum for those. The Menard's Autoracks are quite happy on the 031 loop, but then I don't yet have a bunch of scenery to worry about!

Darrell, can you attribute the wobble to wheel/truck issues or is it because they are so top heavy?  Maybe weighting the underside to NMRA standard will help the wobble.

@paulp575 posted:

Probably not so much as a copyright issue as it is licensing a copyrighted logo.

Lionel and the other model train manufacturers have to go through a long process if they want to produce models of real railroads. Once a manufacturer gets permission, then I'm sure there's some back-and-forth to ensure the items are true - as best as possible - to the real thing. I think I read somewhere that this process can take up to 2 years.

Sorry for this rant but this is a pure example of what is wrong in this country.  Once permission is given, how is it possible to take so long to finalize a design?  Shouldn't there be one person on the company side who has the final authority to say yes/no?  And shouldn't they be provided with a portfolio of say 10 possible designs to choose from?  Or do the manufacturers submit one design at a time to some low level person who cannot authorize the final design by themselves  and who in turn has to kick it upstairs.  Nothing like over complicating things in the US business world.

@BwanaBob posted:

Sorry for this rant but this is a pure example of what is wrong in this country.  Once permission is given, how is it possible to take so long to finalize a design?  Shouldn't there be one person on the company side who has the final authority to say yes/no?  And shouldn't they be provided with a portfolio of say 10 possible designs to choose from?  Or do the manufacturers submit one design at a time to some low level person who cannot authorize the final design by themselves  and who in turn has to kick it upstairs.  Nothing like over complicating things in the US business world.

Your rant is interesting, but the major problem I see is that the holder of the copyright wants to ensure what the train manufacturer designs is accurate. How many times have you seen errors on things? I see enough to know it's a problem. Today mediocracy is the acceptable norm - which needs to change!

Welp, placed my order for these two as well as seven other cars I had on my wishlist.

Now what to do, what to dooooo....with that rebate thingy since I'm way outside of Menards' corporate footprint

---PCJ

@RailRide posted:

Welp, placed my order for these two as well as seven other cars I had on my wishlist.

Now what to do, what to dooooo....with that rebate thingy since I'm way outside of Menards' corporate footprint

---PCJ

Probably the same thing I do with my rebates: Ignore them.

My nearest Menards is at least 600 miles!

@coach joe posted:

Darrell, can you attribute the wobble to wheel/truck issues or is it because they are so top heavy?  Maybe weighting the underside to NMRA standard will help the wobble.

There is a lot of wiggle room between the trucks and the frame of the car, even a flat car would wobble! They wobble on my layout 1) imperfections in the track, 2) the A/C is blowing on them, LOL! I put 3 diecast cars inside one to see if weight would help, still wobbled.

Here is my string of 20, with 2 Railking ES44s

Darrell, how about a "shim" of some sort to take up some of that space?

@SDIV Tim posted:

Here is my string of 20, with 2 Railking ES44s

<video>

I like!

They even have prototypical 'flat wheel' effects

---PCJ

@RadioRon posted:

@WBC, thank you for the comparison photos.  I've always liked the traditional-sized Lionel auto carriers, & due to my operational requirements, still prefer them over these scale-sized (while very nice) Menards units.

Here is a scale length one for comparison to the Menards. 

Looks great Tim!

Bob

@terry hudon posted:

i want some in autotrain,,,,lots of them !!!

I too would like Auto Train.  I wonder if you could re-skin the Menards to simulate the Amtrak 9200s (2004 and later)?  A lot of work, probably.

The earlier 9100s are closer in terms of the roof, but the partially perforated side panels would be tough, and the 9100s had trucks that were more like express trucks. 

For AUTO TRAIN auto carriers it would be best to make them out of laser cut and engraved aluminum sheets and stamped aluminum sheets.

Andrew

@tcripe posted:

I imagine nothing less than O-54 would look good. I would think they would have trouble negotiating switch stands on any lower diameter curve, too. I had to modify some Fastrack O36 switch stands for some 15 1/2" well cars I built, but then they sit lower than these auto rack cars.

Terry

Thank you very much for this. 

@Darrell posted:

Some comparisons since somebody was asking:

031 curves:

042 curves

Compared to most traditional sized cars, theses are huge!

Thank you very much, this helps a lot!

@cabinet Bob posted:

As of tonite there are 615 yellow and 745 burgundy  cars left

Out of about how many?

O72 curves:

On my k-line O42 switch, looks like they will clear any low profile switch machine:

Well maybe not an O22 so much.....

Just for fun, O27 Curve:

Marx O27 switch:

K-line 5121 O27 switch:

Think I'm all out of stuff to try them on, LOL!