Are we asking too much of Menards?

I'm more than happy with the products Menards has been offering, and see no reason for them to venture into other areas that would only be a drag on their business model.

Locomotives are an ENTIRELY different product compared to basic rolling stock.  And with that comes an entirely different customer support requirement -- not to mention an overseas manufacturing challenge as well.  Take a look at Atlas-O for example.  They have enough trouble meeting shipping dates for their rolling stock.  Locomotives???  Fuhgettaboudit.  They'd also be at the mercy of Lionel's licensing agreements too in terms of Railsounds, etc...  As great as Lionel's Legacy Railsounds is in the marketplace, the Railsounds that other importers like Atlas-O and 3rd Rail get to use are noticeably inferior.  They're acceptable (usually), but still noticeably inferior.

David

I agree with David it is a different animal than what they do now.

That being said if they decided to do it I am sure they could offer it for less money than the others for the same direct selling, economies of scale reasons they sell rolling stock for so little money.

My guess.............Menards is having fun with their rolling stock and building offerings! Why mess up a good thing!

Offer Locomotives.............................crazy idea! 

Regards, 

Frank

Sorry people, give it up. The closest thing to what you want was RMT and Walter couldn't give it to you either.

You are NOT going to get 21st century tech for Postwar catalog prices.

We went round and round on this subject about a year ago......nothing has changed since then. The obvious has been stated as to why a loco is not a good idea.

K.I.S.S.

Why they are doing a good job.People seemed to be happy with the rolling stock.No need to mess things up.I hope they keep doing what their doing.Leave the locomotives to the other guys.

Swafford posted:

My guess.............Menards is having fun with their rolling stock and building offerings! Why mess up a good thing!

Offer Locomotives.............................crazy idea! 

Regards, 

Frank

I agree with Frank, keep doing what it is good at...  then buy up the competitions molds when they belly up.

I think Menards should leave well enough alone. There are plenty of locomotives out there for everyone's taste and budget.  

Please, keep it simple affordable and reliable.  Williams type products.  

They need to stay away from locomotives, and I believe they are wise enough to do so. They have tapped the non-scale market and are delivering good product at great prices. I hope they don't mess with their plan, for fear they will overreach. We have seen it before in this hobby.

All I know is there's a void since the passing of Kline and Weaver.   Let them take their time, work the bugs out.  I'd bet if they did it right they could sell locomotives if they decide to go that route.

I really like what Menards is doing with their freight cars, buildings and vehicles.  They are putting out a lot of good trains at reasonable prices.   It would be interesting to see if they could put out a basic diesel or steam   locomotive which would be easily upgraded with ERR or MTH electronics.  

Marty

Here is how it would spin out...

Menards offers a Hudson with nice sound for $99. This engine looks good, and can pull stumps out of the ground. Plus when you buy an engine you get a pack of trees and three die cast box trucks for free. 

The next day people are posting how unhappy they are because "The Hudson was never offered with a dewflinger side rod, that was only on the Berkshires! Curse Menards and curse the fact that they didn't have the correct amount of rivets on the boiler! I'll never buy from them again".

I am not even shocked any more at the people that nitpick on Menards rolling stock or buildings. "The gun that is on the flat car is a German gun" blah blah blah.

And you all know it would happen. I like Menards, and I love their products. I love their customer service. I get tired of hearing or seeing the posts complaining about a messed up wheel when EVERYONE knows if you contact mark he will apologize AND send you a new product no questions asked. So before I get off my soapbox, yes. Yes we are asking too much of a hardware & lumber store.

Have a nice day

rogerpete posted:

Here is how it would spin out...

Menards offers a Hudson with nice sound for $99. This engine looks good, and can pull stumps out of the ground. Plus when you buy an engine you get a pack of trees and three die cast box trucks for free. 

The next day people are posting how unhappy they are because "The Hudson was never offered with a dewflinger side rod, that was only on the Berkshires! Curse Menards and curse the fact that they didn't have the correct amount of rivets on the boiler! I'll never buy from them again".

I am not even shocked any more at the people that nitpick on Menards rolling stock or buildings. "The gun that is on the flat car is a German gun" blah blah blah.

And you all know it would happen. I like Menards, and I love their products. I love their customer service. I get tired of hearing or seeing the posts complaining about a messed up wheel when EVERYONE knows if you contact mark he will apologize AND send you a new product no questions asked. So before I get off my soapbox, yes. Yes we are asking too much of a hardware & lumber store.

Have a nice day

 

Don't hold back.  How do you really feel?

rogerpete posted:

Here is how it would spin out...

Menards offers a Hudson with nice sound for $99. This engine looks good, and can pull stumps out of the ground. Plus when you buy an engine you get a pack of trees and three die cast box trucks for free. 

The next day people are posting how unhappy they are because "The Hudson was never offered with a dewflinger side rod, that was only on the Berkshires! Curse Menards and curse the fact that they didn't have the correct amount of rivets on the boiler! I'll never buy from them again".

I am not even shocked any more at the people that nitpick on Menards rolling stock or buildings. "The gun that is on the flat car is a German gun" blah blah blah.

And you all know it would happen. I like Menards, and I love their products. I love their customer service. I get tired of hearing or seeing the posts complaining about a messed up wheel when EVERYONE knows if you contact mark he will apologize AND send you a new product no questions asked. So before I get off my soapbox, yes. Yes we are asking too much of a hardware & lumber store.

Have a nice day

 

This is 100% accurate!

I re-read my post. I guess I should stay off the forum until AFTER breakfast...

rogerpete posted:

Here is how it would spin out...

..snip..

100% agreement, can't imagine saying it better.  I think trying to do locomotives would be opening a huge can of support worms.  They're doing great, and reasonably priced rolling stock allows me to have good looking unit trains that survive the rigors of being packed up and dragged around to shows.  To duplicate it with the big name makers would easily triple the price.

david1 posted:

Menards has gave us some incredible freight cars and buildings but yet I see people on other posts asking for locomotives with most of the bells and whistles of the other makers but at a really low price. 

Do you really think that Menards could make a locomotive when the major builders are having troubles keeping the pricing down.

it would be to our advantage if we kept our wish list from Menards in Check. Maybe one day our wishs will come true. 

 I will be keeping buying Menards products that appeal to me and so should everybody else. 

I think they have amazed everyone with their spectrum of products so far with choices for everyone. Clearly the Menard's variety of structures are a huge success and have encouraged them to venture that line into HO plus they have many new and different "O" rolling stock available. Not sure I see any benefit for them to produce locomotives. 

rogerpete posted:

I re-read my post. I guess I should stay off the forum until AFTER breakfast...

No way! That is one of the best posts I have read on here in a while. I appreciate there are many who prefer accurate models. However, I find it funny when the rivet counting happens on items that are not intended to be accurate!

This segment of the hobby is VERY lucky that we have this great outflow of product from Menards.

I want my Bowling Alley from Menard's not a locomotive.

Hi RRADDICT2,  Theoldsourdough here, I'm new in this organization so I'm not quite up to speed and might not know exactly the context of your comment on Menard's.  I discovered their stuff not too long ago and I must say that I'm impressed.  I think it's pretty good quality stuff and very well detailed.

Menards are not idiots.  You can bleat all you like about how they should make what you want but Menards knows their market niche so much better than you.  That's the reason they're successful.  I suggest you let 'em be and enjoy the products.

Pete

Menards management knows their marketing niche, although I have not bought any of their cars, they by offering a varied selection of freight cars reasonably priced is helping the younger adults and the children enter this hobby. I have no statistical data to back up my comments but with consumer prices increasing at a faster rate then wage increases the disposable income in general is contracting for many people. In the past their has been numerous postings on the continued status  of this hobby after the influence of the baby boomer generation fades, Menards pricing and marketing should influence continued interest in the hobby to some degree for the younger generation.   

There is a big gap in locomotives Menard's could fill IF it looked profitable...conventional.... Everybody else wants you to amortize their electronic development costs.  Wms. mostly redid the 1940's stuff. Different, generic (USRA?) steamer(s), and the buyer can stuff them with all electronics HE wants. Somebody would tool up kits for that. (I will not need their address) Is any current mfr. making anything conventional?

colorado hirailer posted:

There is a big gap in locomotives Menard's could fill IF it looked profitable...conventional.... Everybody else wants you to amortize their electronic development costs.  Wms. mostly redid the 1940's stuff. Different, generic (USRA?) steamer(s), and the buyer can stuff them with all electronics HE wants. Somebody would tool up kits for that. (I will not need their address) Is any current mfr. making anything conventional?

Williams by Bachmann is still all conventional.

i'm on their website looking at prices now and i saw a case of 24 flatcars for 170 bucks 

i see alot of menards in my future just sayin'

If Menards made engines, the price of their rolling stock would probably double or triple to subsidize the cost of designing and engineering those engines.  I'd rather shop around for a Williams or postwar engine to pull my Menards rolling stock... there's plenty of them already floating around in the market anyway.  

Why couldn't they make "dummy" engines? 

I'm not rich, I get what I can, when I can. Menards has been my savior for adding to my collection. 

I can't wait for Menards to get into ACF 3 Bay Hoppers and Ps2 Grain Hoppers. These are what goes through my town. Atlas O has them, but 100 for a box car is not affordable. 

Thank you Menards for doing what you are doing. 

I Like what Menards is doing right now. In my opinion it's better to have a reasonably priced source of rolling stock and buildings then a bad source of engines.

But that said, if they do decide to jump into the prime mover market I would expect their products to be decent runners and lookers.

As stated above Menards needs to keep following the KISS principal. So if they do build engines they should only do one model a year.

Matt Kramer posted:

If Menards made engines, the price of their rolling stock would probably double or triple to subsidize the cost of designing and engineering those engines.  I'd rather shop around for a Williams or postwar engine to pull my Menards rolling stock... there's plenty of them already floating around in the market anyway.  

I agree. There are plenty of reliable reasonably priced engines out there to be had. Williams,K-Line,RMT to name a few.   I personally don't see any reason for Menards to get into the locomotive end of the hobby. 

With the success Menard's has enjoyed importing rolling stock and buildings, I decided to look into my crystal ball and see the future................

:::::::Crystal Ball vision comes into focus::::::::::

::::::::Menard's quickly phases out all home improvement departments and becomes the world's largest hobby shop.  MENARD'S MODEL TRAIN WHAREHOUSE  is born!:::::::::

::::::: The only home improvement departments they keep are the paint and lumber department and related hardware and tools for layout building:::::::

::::::: The former houseware department is now the track department....... appliance area is now the model buildings department....... Other departments are replaced with the various rolling stock types....... An under construction area is designated for future passenger cars.......  In the back corner is the new locomotive department, you have to wander through all the other departments first before you get to the locomotives so you can fill your carts with all the other goodies::::::::

:::::::Menard's will have a Layaway department so you can keep purchases at the store and then you can choose your time to sneak them into your house without the significant other knowing about it::::::

:::::::: MENARD'S MODEL TRAIN WHAREHOUSE  will expand to several locations in all 50 states::::::::::

:::::::Crystal Ball vision fades away::::::::::

WOW!!!  That's going to be something to see!!

My only complaint about Menards, No Stores East of Ohio.....NSEO.

gg1man posted:

I Like what Menards is doing right now. In my opinion it's better to have a reasonably priced source of rolling stock and buildings then a bad source of engines.

But that said, if they do decide to jump into the prime mover market I would expect their products to be decent runners and lookers.

As stated above Menards needs to keep following the KISS principal. So if they do build engines they should only do one model a year.

I think they could start with some simple motorized stuff - and not get into too much trouble. We've got a Menard's Fire Station - how about a motorized Menards Fire Car? Or a bump and go Menardville Trolley?