Quad Hopper Showdown: Menards 2021 vs. Lionel 1974

Episode 97: Compare and contrast the new Menards Skittles hopper car and the 1974 Lionel Domino Sugar car.
Lionel first made a quad hopper, the #6446 N&W Cement Hopper in 1954. Since then, Lionel and other manufacturers have made versions in many road names and styles. The latest on the market is this colorful car by home improvement chain Menards. Let's inspect a brand new model and take it for a spin on the layout.
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[@rangerstl07]

I like this topic. We all know that Lionel cars are toys. However, they tried to KINDA make them look like a real train. It would be neat to hear more about the prototype that Lionel based their cars on. Keep up the good work!

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Yes, particularly in the Postwar era, Lionel often based their designs on real prototypes. Unfortunately, they often often chose to model locomotives and cars that turned out to be duds for the real railroads. For every home run they hit with an F3 or GP7 there was an S2 turbine, 520 electric, Vulcan switcher, quad hopper, etc.

[@rangerstl07]

@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks Boy, they sure sold a ton of those turbine locomotives, though!

[@richardnelson-ux1zz]

Thank you for all the information and interesting video please keep up the great videos I enjoy you channel very much

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thank you very much!

[@richardnelson-ux1zz]

I just bought two of the skittles hopper cars I am enjoying them very much I would like to see you do a review of menards canyon theme boxcars

[@mattkramer4132]

Good comparison! I have about 100 pieces of Menard's rolling stock and am very satisfied with them. Sometimes little bit of tinkering is needed, but they are well worth the price. They compliment colorful Lionel MPC era rolling stock well. Have you done a comparison between Williams and Menards boxcars? The bodies look nearly identical.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

While I don't own any of the Williams top-line boxcars, they are indeed based on the same 1950s AMT/Kusan molds as the Menards cars. [Williams also made some of the Kusan K-Series type cars in the early 1980s and I have a few of them. They are smaller and less detailed than the Menards cars].

[@ronalddevine9587]

Seems to me that every person that talks about Menard's products has a lot to complain about. If not track gauge, couplers, wheels, etc. Are their products really worth it? For me, I'll take either vintage Lionel, mpc, K-Line, or MTH.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

My experience has been that all of the manufacturers have occasional production issues. I am less frustrated by a faulty coupler on a $25 car than on a $75 car. That said, I have heard many more complaints about Menards cars since the Great COVID shutdown than before. I suspect that their supplier has been cutting corners to get items out the door of late (Editorial Comment).

[@jamesf791]

I have to say I actually enjoy Menards train products. They are not to scale but they are not going to break the bank account. I just wish they came out with more engines.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Well, actually - the quad hoppers are close to scale for a N&W HC-3 class car, the boxcars ARE scale for 40' boxcars (common 1930s through 1970s), and the modern tank cars are scale for 13,600 gallon cars. They may lack the DETAIL of more expensive scale models, but the proportions are generally correct.

[@markslioneltrains]

Great review.! Always very informative so Thank You.! For the price Menards are great. Trucks seem to be getting better. Tight hopper trucks have some trouble through switching like yours. Have two Gondola cars filled with Menards wheels replaced by Lionel Die Cast Sprung Trucks. BIG 👍Your Channel.! Mark 😀

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thank you very much!!!

[@Engine1988]

I recently purchased a Menards NYC covered hopper and was quite pleased with it. However, it had a factory error--part of the lightning stripe wasn't printed! I suppose that in many years it will be quite valuable...

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Maybe you're right.

[@Engine1988]

@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks Then again, I probably bought a junk car...

[@SilasWasHere]

At 2:07 what is the engine in the top right

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

From the 1978 Lionel catalog, the Milwaukee Limited set featured a Milwaukee Road "SD-18" (really a low nose GP7 with 6 wheel trucks) and a Peabody quad hopper car.

[@SilasWasHere]

Thank you now I need to wait for one to show up on ebay

[@markcopeland4344]

Hi Mike. I got tired of Menards junk my Gargrave electro magnet uncouplers will not open couplers. The plate on the trucks are to tight.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks for the comment. That was an issue with some K-Line cars as well.

[@rennethjarrett4580]

I might have posted this before but I bought a SOO Line Menards hopper at a train show that was out of the package and yes it was a very durable looking and feeling car. But also there are some concerns and problems with it: Yes, the trucks were very tight, had to remove some screws and the whole assembly comes out each end. The coupler is attached to the plate with pressed in metal fitting and I had at first pressed it out a little to have some truck play and it seamed fine, however it was out so far that it eventually just came out of the pressed in fit. Before that happened I noticed another problem, the trucks also will hit the steps on a 0-27 curve. So since it was no longer going to be held in placed with the pressed in fit I bought some hardware ( screws and washers and a matching lock nut ) and put it back together that way raising it up high enough to not hit the step ladder. Other concern is the type of couple mechanism they used. The mount is basically the post-war folded tab over the axle with their unique un-coupler mechanism. The problem I see is the rail car is being pulled by the moving axles and not the truck itself creating a binding wear problem and drag on those axles. The post-war axle was a 3 piece wheel set that the axle was the stationary pivot point, not a pressed on the axle wheel set like these with a spinning axle.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Thanks for the information!

[@robertnielsen2461]

Remember Lionel was making toy trains for kids,when MPC took over they were guilty of some bad decision making,and your criticism is properly deserved.Problems really started when Cowan and son both died,and left the company in the hands of the family,which I won,'t go into.MPC replaced Lionel employees of long standing with their own people and if it hadn't been for a growing following of adults that owned Lionels as kids Josh Cowans company may have disappeared.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

Overall, I agree. I do not subscribe to the "all MPC is junk" philosophy. The cheapening of the product began long before General Mills entered the picture, and in fact, MPC was willing to invest in new dies (U36B, for example) while the Lionel Corp. trotted out the same old diesels from '55 on. My criticism is limited to this particular head-to-head comparison. In this case, the Menards car is superior for the price - all else being equal. Thanks for watching!

[@johnmalmgren4604]

California is a great state to live in even if Menard's does not ship here.

[@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks]

:-)