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Menard's Reading Hoppers, First Impressions

2K views 21 replies 10 participants last post by  Fabforrest 
#1 ·
I just received my order of Menard's Reading hoppers, eighteen of them. Initial impression when unpacking them is very good. The graphics are very sharp and colorful, good looking car. They added some graphics to the ends, a nice touch. They are a bit lighter than the boxcars, coming in at 11 oz each, I'd like to see them a few ounces heavier. Unfortunately, they seem to have secured the fake coal load in from below, it's going to take some work to figure out how to get it out of there to add weight. The couplers for the most part, worked better than my initial samples of the boxcars, only one problem coupler so far.

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All good things must come to an end, and after an initial track test, the not so good things started to show up.

First off, the trucks are riveted to the truck support plate. Worse, the truck support plate is plastic, and several of them are warped in my cars, so the trucks are actually sitting cocked to one side. A number of them exhibit this issue to some degree, but I have a couple cars that are totally unusable because of this issue.

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This flaw causes the cars to derail on switches and worse caused a short without a derailment that baffled me for a bit. It was on the switches 15 feet away from the lead car. The engine and lead car were right on a double switch configuration, so I wasted quite a bit of time trying to figure out why that was shorting, and couldn't see a thing wrong. It was only when I started disconnecting cars and moving parts of them that I noticed the issue was actually around the corner on another switch, that's where the problem car was parked!

Finally, there is a couple of flaws that affect some or all the cars. The step that is molded onto the truck support plate hits the truck when the trucks swivel. I managed to run them on O72 curves, but they had real problems on O36 curves as the trucks couldn't swivel freely, and the car would derail.

The second issue is the riveting of the truck to the support plate is inconsistent, and some of them are too tight and will also cause an occasional derailment on tight curves. Again, this wasn't too much of a problem on O72 curves, but showed up on a handful of the cars on the O36 tests. I was able to loosen a couple up by working them and a drop of oil, but there are still several that are very tight and don't like tight curves.

Here's the interference with the step and the truck illustrated.

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#2 ·
As I mentioned in previous threads about these cars, they are almost clones of the Williams Reproductions, which are copies of the Lionel Quad hoppers. It's too bad that the trucks are riveted. I guess it would be a lot of work to drill them all out and replace with screws. If so, would shims solve the truck hitting the ladder and the other spot where the top of the arch bar hits? As for the coal load, I think that it is just such a tight fit that it needs some prying. Some other manufacturers' loads are a bugger to get out.
Don
 
#3 ·
I think the fix would be getting rid of the easily warped plastic truck mounting plate, and then maybe adding shims. However, drilling them out is a lot of work on a new item. I'm disappointed they didn't use the posts and E-clips like the boxcars, that would have made the job a lot easier.

From my "prying" the coal load out, it appears it's actually secured somehow inside near the ends.
 
#4 ·
The truck mount looks similar to Lionel's post war hoppers. I wonder if those mounts would fit? If so maybe the repro parts guys might have the plates. Lionel also fitted steps to theses plates which could be bent out to clear the trucks.

Just checked and Jeff Kane has used 2456-8 truck brackets for 2 bucks a piece.

Pete
 
#6 ·
The truck mount looks similar to Lionel's post war hoppers. I wonder if those mounts would fit?
Doesn't look like it, screws in different places, and the hook on one side isn't there on the Lionel ones. I don't have a hopper to see if the size is different as well.

 
#7 ·
I've got 10 of the Milwaukee hoppers and a few had similar issues to what you are having. I have 031 and 036 track and first noticed the derailing on 031. I contacted Menards and they shipped new ones to me and those were good. It would be nice if they change that base part to metal and switch to the clip. You'd think that would save money as they could use the same trucks as the boxcars. It would solve a lot of issues. The boxcars have a lot of metal and are the same price so hopefully they can make that change. It would be a big improvement.

On my cars the coal load pops right out. There are no fasteners. Bopping one end on my hand had it lift right out.

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I got in 6 of the new boxcars a few weeks back and I counted 3 different thickness washers being used on them. One was so tight that it would derail, one was so loose that the car bobbled like a bobble head down the track, and the middle size washer ones were perfect. I'm going to take one of those to the hardware store and see if I can't replace the ones that are off.
 
#9 ·
I got a Reading hopper a few weeks ago. The tab at the end of one truck was installed under the frame of the hopper…easily fixed. I also had a problem with shorting on a switch. Oh well, it looks nice so I guess this one will spend most of its time on a siding. My Menard’s Reading boxcars also seem prone to shorts when taking the diverging branch of some switches so I just run them on the straight branch. I’m not too keen on Menard’s cars lately due to problems like this.
 
#11 ·
I picked up six penn hoppers along with six of the freebie Kubota load flats. My Christmas layout is pretty simple but I have noticed the same issues on the hoppers. No derailments yet though. On the plus side the color matches very well to my mth PRR alco and es44ac.

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#13 ·
To be fair these are very cost effective rolling stock and Menards has been first rate about fixing anything that has an issue. Sure if you buy 8 you may get one or two with issues but they will take care of it. At this price it's the customer service that will make or break the deal for me. Since I know I'll be taken care of I don't hesitate to order. I just inspect all of the cars while I'm oiling them up.
 
#14 ·
My plan is to get replacements for the ones that have other issues than the step interference. Then I'll perform surgery on the steps to solve the step issue. I may just lop them off, it really wouldn't detract from the car much, I suspect most people would never notice.

Yes Todd, I'll still buy Menard's stuff, they are an unbeatable value. There are a few warts at times, but then there are warts with the $60-70 cars from other manufacturers as well.
 
#18 ·
Give them a good going over Spence. I just got a dozen. Seven of the 24 trucks have problems with loose sides/missing screws/bad threads. I asked for seven replacement trucks, but Menards opted to send me four replacement hoppers.

Bill – From what I am seeing, the truck will hit the step unless the rivet is too loose. I didn’t think to try bending them. I figured the plastic had a memory and would just move back. Thanks. That’s a better fix than step removal.
 
#21 ·
I had bent the steps out on a couple, but I'm still on the fence as to what I'll do for the lot. I got them all running down the rails, I had them running around the loop for over an hour and no issues or uncoupling, etc. That was the object of the exercise, they look good and have n operational issues. They don't have any issues with O72 curves, tighter curves and the steps would come back into play.
 
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