(07/02/15) O Gauge Release from Menards!

Boxcar.

Oh no, it must be a Susquehanna boxcar. If it is and you guys have another special about 8 cars for!!! I'm going to have to go for it. My domestic partner of 14 years is named Sue & guess what I call her? "Susie Q"

Mark; your killing me. Visa is ending me thank you notes each month.

Haven't really looked at the menards rolling stock...but this might interest me.  Am I correct in believing that the menards cars on not scale?

 

Bill

This one?

 

 

OK visa..get set to go again...why do ALL my Visa statements  say.. Menards..Menards..Menards..Menards

Come on Mark, NYSW Boxcar, I hope it is scale! I will buy it!

John,

Here photo of the Menards Maine Central boxcar compared to a Lionel NH 6464. Not sure where it scales.

franktrain

Isn't it known by now that these Menard's box cars are not scale. They're close to it, being clones of the Williams style box car.

 

Menard's actually has made a good move (albeit, maybe because this was the tooling/dies that were available for production) by producing a car that is close enough to scale size to please that audience, while not being so detailed or precise scale size that they look out of place with traditionally sized cars.

 

I'm not affiliated with Menard's - but I'd take an educated guess - that at the price point of the Menard's cars, they're not building up the profit point allowing them to actually do some new tooling exclusively for Menard's. I'm guessing their plan is to make products at such an affordable price point (in comparison to other brand new product), that consumer's would have a hard time passing the products by.

 

The buildings offered by Menard's are another story, since there is no expensive tooling and dies involved in their production.

 

Since the "scale" thing is a recent trend in 3-rail 0 gauge, I suspect there is not a plethora of duplicate scale dies and tooling floating around that Menard's could gain access to.

 

Given the apparent success of the Menard's train offerings, they're on to a good plan: To offer products in the "middle of the road" of this fragmented 0 gauge market, to appeal to the greatest number of buyers - and at a price point that is very attractive indeed.

Amazing. Any thoughts of a "frequent buyers" club? I am one already.

She's cute....now we just need Menard's to:

A) Build some stores in SE PA

2. Make some more PA Road Name rolling stock!

 

My first Menard's rolling stock order is on the way...eta tomorrow.  Will NOT be the last.

Ditto on John's comments!  Make that stores in West Penn as well!

 

That said, this teaser looks like a winner as well.  I held out on the NYC car, may not on this one!

My dad always called our little sister Suzy Q.  Wait a minute baby sister is 53!  That makes me...Ouch!

 

Spence, fortunately I will never have room to run long consists of 8 of the same car.  One of each will do.  I have passed on the flats and some boxcars, but it looks like I'm going to be pulling out the card for this one!

Groan......another Menards order. But I have no choice as my Suzie loves it. What would it take to get a Menards in Cali?

I would guess that the Menards boxcars are in between scale and traditional. Another thread a few months ago someone stated that the Menards boxcars are very close to scale of a 40 footer. 

 

   Bill T.

Non scale is fine and Menards sells them for a great price. just not for me. Love their buildings I have most of them( and a polo shirt!) The flat with the fuel truck and tanks is great, I got 2.  I like to see more of those scale flats with scale Army/military loads. A 155 mm cannon would be SWEET as a load. Just a suggestion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S1_cEuImL0

I love it!!  Never thought of it prrhorseshoecurve!

I compared the 40 foot Menards boxcar to my new Lionel Vision Line 40 foot reefers.  The cars are so close to scale that only someone with a tape measure and a good eye is going to tell the difference.  The principal dimension difference is slightly less than 1/8" in width.  The height and length are virtually identical.  Of course, next someone is going to tell me the Vision Line reefers aren't really scale...

 

 

As they say a picture is worth a million words...thanks for the pictures.  Close enough for me.

 

Bill

I love what Menards is doing.  My only possible criticism is that it looks like from the pictures that there is no data on the ends?  I was wondering if they were printing the same random number on the ends of the cars and it looks like they have left them totally blank?  Can anyone confirm?

 

Art

Art,

 

You are correct. Currently, there are no graphics on the ends of our boxcars (aside from the military boxcar). This is something we will seriously consider for the future. Thank you!

 

-Mark the Menards Train Guy

While graphics on the end would be nice, it's not nearly as important as good looking graphics on the side, that's what you see.  Remember, these are not $60 cars.

 

And here I was willing to bet money that the Red White and Blue State

of Maine boxcars were going to be featured this week.....

 

SWING and a miss.....

 

 

 

Thanks for posting pics. I was considering doing same, Agree, running around the layout, they all look good, and enjoy have long hauls without the price. 110% satisfied, Though I'm now were I'm buying and displaying these cars. A great buy, a great product, and allow me to accumulate road names I may not have gotten, but the quality and price allows me to do that. Thanks Menard's.

Once I saw these were really scale sized, I ordered an additional ten cars, so I'll have a nice Reading consist with my other Reading cars.  I picked up a new Legacy Reading Trainmaster to pull them, of course I can also pull them with my Reading T1 4-8-4.

I still think the fireworks factory complex was a great idea! Although this new boxcar is tempting,I 'm still looking forward to a new building or maybe 8 car deal of something from CNW.

There are no better forum spokespeople for forum sponsors than Mark, the train guy at Menards; and, Scott Mann.  Period!!!

Everything I have heard about Scott has been great but I have to say Mark is my favorite forum elf only because he's helped me out a couple of times!

Plus I haven't been teased this much since I was dating in college!!

Menard's has posted the Susquehanna box car on their website. Also, they have a special on the New York Central box cars (8) for $129.92.

Come on guys, the devil is in the details! Apples and Oranges, As I said before and others have said, if you like them buy them up, enjoy, burn that credit card up, make yourself a nice long unit train. be happy. They are great for the price you can not beat them.

I like to see an steam era 8000 gal black union/american car tank car then I buy a few dozen. 

I see I am three for three, Susie-q boxcar. I am going to quit while I am ahead.

A picture of my $20 NYC Menards boxcar which arrived yesterday, I feel like I got the deal of a century!  I think the final tally was $27 which included fees and shipping.

 

Two small surprises, not good, not bad, just "huh" moments:

1) the "shipper" box is the box, no big deal, just surprised

2) the color surprised me a little bit, it's very very green, where most of my other green stuff is more pale green, if that makes any sense.  Again, not a problem, just a little surprised.

 

Overall I'm super satisfied, wish they'd open some of these places in Maryland.

 

Best...Rich

 

 

No incremental numbering on this one?

I saw Johns at the club and you can see the pics above.

 

In my lexicon these are scale.

 

Compare them to an industrial rail or O27 box car which you can quickly see is not the same.

 

These cars are well within reasonable tolerances and from 3 feet back you cannot see any distinction.

 

To my thinking they are the best kind of scale cars.  Low priced and molded in detail that I am not going to break while playing with them. Yes I admin that I prefer playing with my trains over picking up broken tiny handrails on the layout.  I would have no trouble throwing a bunch of them in a plastic tub with cardboard dividers and taking them to a show.  Extra bonus: individual road numbers!

 

The downside, I really can't justify another plastic tub of cars.  So I would really need to clear out some old ones first...

 

 

If you are fortunate enough to live close to a Menards ( we have 2 in our city ) you can have the train stuff shipped to the store for customer pick-up eliminating the shipping charges.

 

   Bill T.

Those would be awesome!  I've been looking for affordable versions of those

Actually like that shade of green.

I would snap up a set or two of the State of Maine cars and as long as we are wishing, how about a set of ACL boxcars?

Just to be clear, I also like the color, I was just surprised by it a little bit, it was sufficiently different that I thought I would note it here, thanks...Rich