Menards Modern Tank Car Review - "B-" - "Not Their Best Effort"

Hello again, this is Mike with Toy Train Tips and Tricks, and today we are going to unbox a brand new Menards tank car and compare it to some other tank car models by Lionel and others and see what we have. So this is the newer tank car model that has been offered by Menards starting in 2021. They had a somewhat different tank car model prior to this, and I don't know for sure, but just looking at the model and comparing it to pictures, it looks a lot like the old MTH Rail King modern hopper. I don't have one of the MTH cars, but just looking at the photos, it appears to be the same molds. And so that wouldn't be surprising with MTH partially shutting down and dispersing many of their molds elsewhere. It wouldn't surprise me if that is the source of these. So let's take this out of the clamshell and take a closer look. All right, so many of these newer cars are in fantasy paint schemes like Pepsi and Tide and things like that, and some are for real railroads but are in colorful schemes that aren't really prototypical. However, this particular paint scheme, UTLX, that would be Union Tank Car. If you've been trackside anywhere in North America, you've probably seen long strings of black tank cars that look just like this. Many of them lettered UTLX, some of them with other designations, but Union Tank Car is the largest manufacturer and lease fleet of various tank cars in North America. So this is a relatively prototypical scheme for Union Tank Car. This one is lettered such as you see here as a 29,200 gallon tank car. That is not what this model is. A 29,200 tank would probably be 60 plus feet, which would make the O scale model 0,42 or bigger curves. So this one is shrunk down. This is closer to one of the 13,600 gallon cars. I think the reason that they chose the 29,200 is that that is a common size for modern petroleum oil and ethanol cars, which you see a lot of in contemporary railroading. So what they are representing here is what would be called a DOT Class 111 tank car. This would be a non-pressurized tank car for gas or ethanol or other flammable liquids. And you see included here in the graphics, we have our flammable placard there and there. Oops, get it out of the camera there informing the crews and anyone who would come by in case of an accident that yes, there is flammable stuff inside the car. Also, we have the vertical reflector stripes, which are contemporary. Those are an FRA requirement. I think it started in 2010, if I'm not mistaken. So certainly that would identify it as a more modern car. This particular type of car, probably the original prototypes would have been made in the early to mid-1960s in this particular size. But again, the general shape of the car and with selective compression, it can kind of represent what we see in modern era. So if you are modeling, you know, the 60s or 70s, it'd be very easy just to paint over these yellow stripes and make it look like a car of that era. So checking out some details here, we have plastic framed trucks this time, representing roller bearing trucks. So plastic side frames, plastic couplers, metal wheels. And I have read a lot lately on the internet, particularly about the tank cars having coupler problems. And let's take a look-see here. If I pull the thumbtack, yeah, this one does not want to open. Yeah, that seems to be... let's check the other one. And yeah, neither one really wants to open there. Now they close okay. They're good and solid on the closing, but releasing the thumbtack there, I can do it by hand. So if I think, because yeah, I think if we do this on a magnetic uncoupling track, let's put it here, and this released it and pulled, I guess it would uncouple. It just doesn't spring outward like you would expect it to. So yeah, a little bit of confirmation there. So this particular batch of cars, I can confirm, has had some coupler issues. For me, this is not a deal breaker because the coupler does still function with a magnetic uncoupler. And then pull, there it's trying to go. And it does seem to stay shut. So it's not a deal breaker for me. And especially with the price of the car, that's something I can live with. I have a lot of post-war cars that the springs have kind of died and the couplers work the same way. So I'm not upset with that. Okay, so size-wise, let's compare it to the traditional post-war and MPC Lionel single-dome tank car. So you see, not only is it a different design, the Lionel represents a much older prototype. This would be in the 1960s, this is 1940s-ish in this particular style. The Menards car is a little taller. The tank itself, bigger in diameter. Length-wise, I think they're about the same. Yeah. Menards car is slightly longer, maybe a quarter inch longer on the frame. But so you see some of the differences there between the typical Lionel and the Menards car. And then also out there, if you can find one, this is an industrial rail tank car. This is from the late 1990s. And this represents an older prototype too. You see the rivets in the tank. So this would have been 1940s or before as well on the tank with maybe a little bit more modern platforming. But this one also is a little smaller than the Menards car, a little about a quarter inch shorter length-wise on the frame and significantly shorter height-wise. So even though this one has more of the cylindrical shape than the Lionel car, you know, you can definitely tell the difference here. So this is a nice looking car. And of course your Lionel Scout car is ridiculously small in comparison, both in length and in height. So those are some different single dome tank cars that are available for comparison. What little frame there is on this, much like a modern tank car, there is not much frame. Basically you've got two ends and the cylinder itself, the tank cylinder, is part of the structure of the car. This is all plastic, so weight-wise it's about the same weight as your traditional Lionel car. The industrial rail car is heavier because it featured die-cast trucks and a die-cast frame with the plastic on top. So this car is heavier, but you know, so weight-wise anywhere that you would put one of these Lionel cars in a train, you can get away with putting one of these. So let's put the train together and see what we've got. All right, so we have a string of tank cars here. Let's see how it tracks. We've got the industrial rail, the Nards, three MBC Lionels, a post-war Lionel double dome, and a couple of K-line triple domes tacked onto the rear. And let's see how they run together and look together. Okay, so my overall thoughts on this car. I do appreciate it. It's a sharp looking car. It's well detailed for the price. It is a more modern prototype than either the previous incarnation of the Menards tank car or any offerings, you know, by Lionel in their traditional lines. But some disappointment with these plastic trucks and the couplers. The coupler is not working very well and the plastic trucks on this overall plastic car, there's just no weight here. And I think both the weight issue, which would make them track better, and the coupler issue would have been solved if Menards had used the metal trucks that they use, for example, on their box cars. That these cars are lightweight in the center of gravity because of the tank being so high and all the space under here. Although it ran well on my layout, I could see having a long string of these, you know, having some tracking issues that again would be solved by having the metal trucks with the better operating couplers. So the problems with the couplers and the trucks, I'm just going to knock it down. Let's call it a B-. Nice job, but not overall their best effort. So again, I hope you enjoyed the video and if so, please like it, please share it, subscribe, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and until our next meeting.