Model Train Journal

Menard's Milwaukee Road SEL Boxcar gets bad-ordered.

This is a used purchase from eBay, costing $12.25.
Out of the box... one truck fell off. (Seller did not mention the wheels falling off.)
Something inside the boxcar rattled.

An E-clip and a washer. I put them back on, reassembled the car and moved it to the track.
The wheels fell off.
E-clips are available in different materials, including carbon spring steel, hardened and tempered carbon spring steel, stainless steel, beryllium copper, and alloy steel. The material used depends on the application and conditions of the project. Apparently, this project called for soft steel.
Soft steel makes an E-clip easy to put on but the clip spreads out during application and has to be squeezed back tight in the groove it is applied to.

Back on the track for a roll test... oh no! It won't roll. It seems that the brakes are locked up.
Stay tuned for bad-order #2 on this car.

Menard's Milwaukee Road SEL Boxcar gets bad-ordered number 2.
After fixing The Wheels Fall Off problem, it was discovered the car would not roll down the track. It felt like the brakes were on (of course, Menards toy trains do not have brakes.)

Do you see anything peculiar about the trucks?


One journal box sits lower than the other on both of the trucks.


Whoever assembled the trucks did not get the axels into the journal boxes (both trucks.)


Like the loose E-clip, this was an easy fix. I squeezed the other end of the truck to widen the end needing the axle inserted into the journal box, and pressed on the wheel to complete the insert. Bad Order cleared.

Was this boxed when you got it Wayne? Maybe their box "innards" are inadequate to keep the car from get beaten up in-transit. Easy fixes, none-the-less.

healey36 wrote:Was this boxed when you got it Wayne? Maybe their box "innards" are inadequate to keep the car from get beaten up in-transit. Easy fixes, none-the-less.

It came with three Lionel boxcars in one box. None had original boxes. All cars were wrapped in one layer of corrugated cardboard rolled around them. the cardboard tubes had bubble wrap around them and all four were wrapped together in more bubble wrap and placed in a cardboard box. The cardboard box arrived with no dents, or tears. All cars appeared unused. The seller sold them as used but stated that they had been on display and were "UN-RUN".

I ordered from Menards two Military Flatcars with Military Truck.


One got bad ordered because one of the railroad trucks fell off.


This pin was not centered when it was rammed into the flatcar truck location.

Is that truck diecast? It looks pretty sharp.

This is the kinda thing that kills the business model for the RTR customer base, regardless of price-point. How many would have the chops to even make a simple repair (not that you should have to OOB).

The trucks are plastic and very free-rolling. How free? It is much freer than oiled Lionel staple-end trucks. Not as free as recent Lionel trucks.

You got me thinking of measuring my railroad car rolling friction using an adjustable grade (angle) track.

I was actually asking about the deuce-and-a-half, lol. I figured no way you're getting diecast trucks on the car at their price-point.

Deuce-and-a-half is plastic.

Next Menards example. Twelve coal cars from Menards (ordered by Ed), six were not completely assembled. Ed had to push the parts the truck attaches to into the body.


Photo credit: TheCreativeMind

There is more from Ed but my wife wants to go to the lake. I'll be back soon.

The Menard's trucks are junk We have some cars that are assigned to static siding occupants The cars wobble down the track and derail alot The gauge of the wheels is also too tight That causes derailments when it hits the guard rail on our elevated sections They were supposedly supposed to update them but I havent added any since the original tries

One of Ed's coal cars had a missing wheelset in one truck.

Then... the sparking wheels when going through O-27 switches.
Here is the URL for Ed's video: https://youtu.be/wKGSV0rMFww?si=UVQog6xGdUoaoehj

Twelve minutes into the test of his repaired coal train Ed announces, "Something isn't right!"

12:47
uh apparently when all these hoppers
12:49
were going over this switch i saw sparks
12:51
flying i first heard it and then i
12:53
looked over at the train
12:54
and then i saw sparks flying by

Ed thought the sparking problem was caused by a too narrow wheel gauge.

I measured wheel gauges of some trucks I own.


Result:


You should ask, "How do you know your Digital Caliper is accurate?"

I found the digital caliper at Harbor Freight many years ago. It cost $9.99. (You can still a digital caliper at Harbor Freight for $9.99 today.)
Being the suspicious type, I took it to work and measured a few gauge blocks whose accuracy was tracible to the Nationial Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST:> https://www.nist.gov/ ). I could detect no error in the caliper.

I also own a set of gauge blocks that were checked with a traceable supermike. The gauge blocks allow checking the calipers for jaw wear or other things that can affect accuracy as the years go by.
Source for gauge blocks:> https://www.aliexpress.us/w/wholesale-g ... e.search.0

When I purchased a second digital caliper, I was able to verify its accuracy myself.

[quote="Ed"]...uh apparently when all these hoppers were going over this switch i saw sparks...[quote]

I ran my Menards cars through an O-27 turnout and neither heard nor saw sparks. Neither did the ammeter jump to higher amps while the cars were moving through the turnout.

Examining Menards and Lionel wheels in the turnout frog.
Lionel:

Both Lionel trucks stay well centered in the turnout, far away from the frog metal center rail part.

Menards:

As the Menards wheel gets to the metal center rail part it suddenly slip-slides toward the metal center rail part.
As the wheel drops down the ramp from a metal raceway the flange rides on, a plastic guard prevents it from touching the metal center rail part. My switch does not have a problem with Menards trucks.

Ed solved his problem with Menards wheels by painting plastic on the back sides of the wheels.