Budget Model Railroading: Menards 4-Bay Hopper Detailed Review

Menard's new 4-bay ACF Centerflow Covered Hoppers. Pros and cons on this episode of Toy Train Tips and Tricks. Hello again, this is Mike with another episode of Toy Train Tips and Tricks. And this is, well, it's a cardboard box. But inside the box is a brand new Menard's 4-bay Centerflow Hopper Car. Let's take a look. Covered hoppers are among the most common freight cars on North American railroads today. But for whatever reason, they've been largely ignored by model manufacturers. Sure, there's the Lionel 6436 4-bay hopper from the post-war era, and all of its descendants, as well as copycat models by Williams and Menard's. But that hopper is based on a Norfolk & Western cement hopper, and not many of those were ever made. Plus, they look nothing like most of the covered hoppers on today's railroads. Lionel did make a 2-bay hopper starting in the late 1980s, but with the exception of full-scale models, these large covered hoppers have been a rarity for budget model railroaders. One exception was the line of covered hoppers made by Weaver Quality Craft Models, but they've been out of business for a decade now. Although they can still be found on the secondary market, as I outlined in a previous video. When Menard's released their new 2-bay covered hoppers last year, I was hopeful that 4-bay hoppers would soon follow. And here they are. Opening the cardboard box, we find the standard Menard's clamshell packaging that's used when the models are on the shelf. I ordered this one online for store delivery because none of my local Menard stores had this SooLine version in stock. Opening the clamshell, we see that the car is decorated nicely in the SooLine colors, with printed data and made by Menard's 2024. It also includes the shiny sticker with a unique car number. This is one of the few Menard's cars of any type that I've seen without crooked numbers on at least one side. The trucks are plastic, but they include the new Menard's articulated coupler mechanism that allows the car to navigate 027 curves. Pretty cool. Although the car looks rather silly on curves of this degree, I recommend 042 curves or larger if you can manage them on your layout. And by the way, 027 curves are okay, but most 027 turnouts are not, as you can see. So keep that in mind before you purchase. The couplers are also plastic thumbtack types, but they seem to be snug and firm with no accidental uncoupling issues that Menard's cars have been notorious for in the past. One disappointment is this missing detail piece. I considered returning the car completely, but that would mean waiting for yet another car to arrive from Wisconsin. Instead, I'm pretty certain that I can 3D print a close enough copy of the part to not be noticeable. I am disappointed with this failure in quality control, though. I was hoping that the Menard's cars would be fully scale proportioned so that they would match my Weaver-covered hoppers. But as you can see, the Menard's cars are shorter in both length and height, so they come in about 95% or so of true O scale. This was probably an accommodation for the 027 curves. On the other hand, these cars will look right at home with traditional size three-rail cars. Like my Weaver cars, these Menard's hoppers feature plastic construction throughout, so they're very, very light for their size. Weaver cars were designed to come apart easily so the user could add weight as they desired. The Menard's cars will come apart, but first six small Phillips screws need to be removed. In a previous episode, I demonstrated how to add weight and how much I recommend for various cars. Curiously, the Menard's two-bay hoppers feature metal sprung trucks, and those cars retail for $10 more than these longer four-bay cars. It seems that the $24.99 price point was more important to Menard's than the improved operation provided by metal trucks. I'd like to pause a moment and ask that if you're enjoying this video as much as I enjoyed making it, please like the video, subscribe to the channel so that YouTube knows that you enjoy this type of content, and leave a comment about your experiences with these and other Menard's train products. Now, back to the video. Though smaller than scale, the Menard's cars are a good representation of American car and foundry model 5250 covered hoppers. ACF made some 18,000 of these cars between 1964 and 1982, and many look-alike cars have been made by ACF and other manufacturers since then. So these models are a good match for any era from the 1960s to today, and for many industries from agriculture to food processing to manufacturing to chemicals. If you desire true scale covered hoppers, Lionel announced the production of cars based on the same prototype in their 2024 Volume 2 catalog. These cars should arrive at Lionel dealers late this spring, and they carry a list price of $99. So you could get four of these Menard's cars for the same price as a Lionel. On the layout, my covered hopper had no problem with my 042 curves in a train of mixed freight cars, although I did put the covered hopper behind the heavier metal trucked cars. After some weight is added, this shouldn't be a problem at all. It should also be fine to run a solid consist of these hoppers even without weight. So the pros include an unbeatable price at $24.99, plus it could be even cheaper when Menard's is running their 11% off or their 15% off bag sale like they are right now, excellent graphics, a good representation of a very common prototype, they can navigate 027 curves, the couplers worked well, and they're available at Menard's stores or they can ship to your home in most U.S. states. And the cons. Quality control, which has been a recurring problem with Menard's products. Their customer service is generally pretty good, I've found, but in my case, I'm not willing to wait and I'll just fix the problem myself. Another con is that the cars are not true 148 scale, which is not a problem for most three rail operators. At roughly 150th scale, these hoppers look good with traditional size Lionel cars and are close enough to scale that even most rivet counters will not notice unless there's a true scale nearby for comparison. Another con is the plastic trucks instead of metal. Even with a higher price point, the metal trucks would have been an improvement. Another con is that the cars are very lightweight, mainly because of the plastic trucks, but this weight issue can be remedied easily. And the other con is that there's limited availability outside the Midwestern U.S., but Menard's is expanding, so maybe soon in your area. Who knows? Overall, if not for the quality control issue of the missing detail piece, I would give these cars a solid B+. If they were available with the sprung metal trucks, like their two bay hoppers, I'd give them A+, even if the price was $10, even $15 higher. In my case, I have to drop my experience down to a B-, because of the missing detail piece. Can I fix it? Sure, but I shouldn't have to. Hopefully, Menard's will make these cars part of their regular lineup, as there are literally hundreds of different road names, real and fantasy, that would look great on these cars. And considering how common cars like these are on the trains of the Midwest, where Menard's calls its home, they will be inspired to make these models just as common. So check out these new Menard's covered hopper cars, keep the trains running, and we'll catch you next time with more toy train tips and tricks.