Anyone repurpose a Menards building for a different type of business?

I think the police station would make an excellent firehouse. JohnA

Menards FEDEX building to Coca-Cola dock

My conversion was a modest cosmetic make-over of a Menards building into a Pipeline Terminal. The de-signed and re-signed building was placed next to oil derricks with figures and vehicles, and I added an oil tanker truck. Photos attached.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

I have the Menards Police Station Building and the Hospital.  Most towns need both of these structures to function.  Both buildings have activated helicopters on top.  But for some reason, the hospital has a police car at the Emergency entrance arresting what appears to be an escaped criminal.  I'm going to eventually add a lit ambulance in place of the police SUV at the hospital and move the police scene to the police station. Make sence?

@Mike H Mottler posted:

My conversion was a modest cosmetic make-over of a Menards building into a Pipeline Terminal. The de-signed and re-signed building was placed next to oil derricks with figures and vehicles, and I added an oil tanker truck. Photos attached.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

Mike,

Your repurposed building looks great!  Which Menards building was the starting point?  I'm thinking it was the school bus depot building, but I might be wrong.

Thank you!

@Stinky posted:

Menards FEDEX building to Coca-Cola dock

Stinky,

Very cool!  It gives me some ideas for other building projects.

@Profuse posted:

I have the Menards Police Station Building and the Hospital.  Most towns need both of these structures to function.  Both buildings have activated helicopters on top.  But for some reason, the hospital has a police car at the Emergency entrance arresting what appears to be an escaped criminal.  I'm going to eventually add a lit ambulance in place of the police SUV at the hospital and move the police scene to the police station. Make sence?

Sylvia bought me the police building a couple of years ago, but we don't have the hospital.  I thought the cop car at the hospital's entrance was odd, too.  You might want to do some hunting on the Internet for a die-cast version of the Squad 51 truck from the Emergency! TV show to replace the cop car.

I bought the Menards building years ago, and I don't recall its original designation. Perhaps an electrical power station because it has a large diesel generator inside.

I removed the original signage and now I can't find its  Menard box.  Sorry for a lame response.

Mike Mottler   LCCA 12394

I rebranded the Menard's Hobby Shop.  Created front sign boxes to replace the Menard's originals.  I illuminated the signs with Evans Design LEDs.  Created new signs with Microsoft Word.

Not a Menard's building.  I converted the Plasticville Police Station into a library.  The police station has a similar style to a small town library.

@cbq9911a posted:

Not a Menard's building.  I converted the Plasticville Police Station into a library.  The police station has a similar style to a small town library.

Your library looks a lot like the original Hawthorne NJ library where I shelved books during my high school years!

Thank you for your reply & photo!

@Mike H Mottler posted:

My conversion was a modest cosmetic make-over of a Menards building into a Pipeline Terminal. The de-signed and re-signed building was placed next to oil derricks with figures and vehicles, and I added an oil tanker truck. Photos attached.

Mike Mottler    LCCA 12394

Mike,

Do you know if that large generator in your Pipeline Terminal building (formerly a Menards Power & Light building) can be removed?  Are there screws on the bottom that would release the generator?  If so, I'm thinking that type of building would work for the type of factory scene I'm trying to create.

Thank you.

I was going to share this on the Halloween thread once I re-labeled the sign, and then I saw this thread. I removed the commode and installed a coffin on the metal rod that rotates; it's a noisy mechanism to begin with, but IMO looks much better then that large commode. I also removed the bathroom equipment on the loading dock and installed coffins. Other than those changes, I draped the building in a india ink dark wash for extra creepy effect.

FWIW: this establishment was one of several purchased by Samuel Boxwell, a.k.a., Count Dracula . The employees are not aware of the change of ownership, though they are scratching their heads on why business has picked recently

@cbq9911a posted:

Not a Menard's building.  I converted the Plasticville Police Station into a library.  The police station has a similar style to a small town library

I have a plan to convert the Plasticville Bank to a trolley system's in-town rotary converter station.

I have a related question...

Some of the Menards factory buildings are almost perfect for what I'm trying to add to my layout, but I don't necessarily want the lighted corporate signs that come with them.   The Menards Tide factory would work nicely for a portion of a chemical plant that I want to add, but I don't want the lighted Tide sign.  I want to customize the plant with the names of the companies that I worked for, (or eliminate the lighted sign altogether).   Same question for the National Power and Light, or Sprecher buildings.  I like the rest of the lighting that comes with these buildings, just not the corporate signs...

Has anyone been able to remove, modify, or maybe kitbash the lighted signs that came with these buildings?  I know that I could probably just paint over them, but I'm looking for some other options.  

Thanks for any suggestions (and photos if you have them).  I apologize if this has been addressed elsewhere. I tried searching "Menards signs", and went down a rabbit hole.  

Miller engineering is an OGR Forum sponsor. They provide the lighted panel material for sign customization. Click on their link in the OGR sponsor section at the top of this page.

Ken

My first mild bashing of a Menard's structure was the conversion, mostly, by changing signs, from vinegar plant to pickle plant, to support assorted wooden pickle tank cars, a couple cars bashed and scratched for a double tank car and a hometown pickle producer.  Several other bashings, such as an extension of the Menards engine house have followed.

Would love to see pictures of any or all off those conversions, CH!

Even a more basic question that I have, is, how to find or print out new labels or decals to cover the names on the buildings? This applies to Lionel and Railking structures as well. I've kitbashed dozens, maybe a hundred or so buildings yet I've never learned an expedient method to change the name.

I thought of cutting out names from magazines and printing from the free domain of the internet, using white glue, etc., but is there a better result-producing method that doesn't involve software applications and spending countless hours behind my laptop? Graphics is an art form IMO, and I suppose like everything else it requires copious attention to detail and research, but I thought I'd ask the question to see if anyone has found a shortcut

Pat Shediack:

As you requested, I looked at the underside of the Menard's building, and there are FOUR screws there that hold the diesel generator in place inside the building.  It appears that those screws could easily be removed and the diesel generator removed from the building.

Carry on ...

Mike Mottler       LCCA 12394

@Paul Kallus posted:

Even a more basic question that I have, is, how to find or print out new labels or decals to cover the names on the buildings? This applies to Lionel and Railking structures as well. I've kitbashed dozens, maybe a hundred or so buildings yet I've never learned an expedient method to change the name.

I thought of cutting out names from magazines and printing from the free domain of the internet, using white glue, etc., but is there a better result-producing method that doesn't involve software applications and spending countless hours behind my laptop? Graphics is an art form IMO, and I suppose like everything else it requires copious attention to detail and research, but I thought I'd ask the question to see if anyone has found a shortcut

Well, in fact, IMHO software and computers *are* the best shortcut by far, and that's without a great investment in either time or money. Once you have or can create a digital image you want to translate to the real world (or back to the real world, if you began with a photograph!), it's a simple matter to rotate, skew and resize it to fit your needs, then print it on a suitable backing, ranging from cardstock (for standalone rigidity), to any of a variety of papers (glossy, photo, matte, self-stick labels, etc.), to a number of transparent film or decal stocks.

Almost any reasonably contemporary computer can suffice, but if you plan on serious graphic manipulation, more serious processing speed and copious memory will make life easier. Similarly, just about any color printer will do (even monochrome in a pinch), but one with better capabilities will make the results more satisfactory.

In my own case, I've had good results printing on self-stick mailing labels, either filling in a blanks space, or covering a sign or logo you're trying to cover over, and on other materials:

Plain white van, with logo added from on-line source, on self-stick label:

Coca-Cola truck, repurposed with two sizes of graphic lifted from photo of building sign (also on label):

Trolleys, rebadged for my layout's local line (also labels):

Signs on 'electrical substation' (created to cover relay), printed on heavy-duty glossy paper:

Copies of magazines and sign board on newsstand, on regular printer paper:

And finally (and incidentally the only Menards item I've included), an illuminated billboard, which I populated with a localized sign, printed on glossy paper stock:

All of the above I produced with a decidedly ordinary computer and laser color printer, and rather pedestrian software. Those with graphic skills can far exceed my efforts, but IMHO even duffers like me shouldn't refrain from envisioning and carrying out a wide range of similar projects, at need.

@Steve Tyler posted:

And finally (and incidentally the only Menards item I've included), an illuminated billboard, which I populated with a localized sign, printed on glossy paper stock:

IMHO even duffers like me shouldn't refrain from envisioning and carrying

Hmmm, I thought that car looked familiar:

@PRRMP54 posted:

Hmmm, I thought that car looked familiar:

Nice! Any connection to the B & A Short Line? Also, what *are* they? I've never seen a trolley as similar to the one in the photo as yours . . .

@Steve Tyler posted:

Nice! Any connection to the B & A Short Line? Also, what *are* they? I've never seen a trolley as similar to the one in the photo as yours . . .

They are O scale models of the one in your bilboard photo. They were built (10 of them, road numbers 200 - 209) for the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis by J. G. Brill as control trailers (painted forest or Pullman green then later motorized and painted tuscan red by the WB&A) for the articulators. When the WB&A folded, the bondholders of the Annapolis Short Line acquired these cars (and a few others) from the WB&A receivers in 1935 and continued to operate them until the B&A abandoned passenger service around 1950. About a year or so later, the freight service was dieselized with a GE 70 tonner.

@PRRMP54 posted:

They are O scale models of the one in your bilboard photo. They were built (10 of them, road numbers 200 - 209) for the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis by J. G. Brill as control trailers (painted forest or Pullman green then later motorized and painted tuscan red by the WB&A) for the articulators. When the WB&A folded, the bondholders of the Annapolis Short Line acquired these cars (and a few others) from the WB&A receivers in 1935 and continued to operate them until the B&A abandoned passenger service around 1950. About a year or so later, the freight service was dieselized with a GE 70 tonner.

By "they" I assume you meant the prototypes (and thanks for the info, which correlates well with what info I had from the Severna Park model train club web site)? However, I was actually wondering who made the O scale trolleys in your photos, which, except for the pilots/bumpers/connectors, seem virtually identical to the prototypes in every detail. Were they a custom build, or was there some actual production run? in your reply, at first I thought you *were* talking about the models, but the "changeover to diesel" comment seems counter to that.

[Apologies to all -- no intent to hijack the thread, just startled curiosity!]

In the 12 inch to the foot world, a lot of big buildings have been converted to self storage places, so plug up all the windows, put a sign on the front for self storage and your done.