Mark the Menards Train Guy, How about offering the new Trinity Hopper?

If it is scale-sized, yes.

Menards is pretty much limited to what their contracted manufacture has in tooling.

Bill T posted:

Menards is pretty much limited to what their contracted manufacture has in tooling.

My thinking...............Menards has no limits if they want to offer new scale sized rolling stock! With annual revenue of over $10B they can find another manufacturing company! 

Regards,

Swafford

Swafford posted:

Bill T posted:

Menards is pretty much limited to what their contracted manufacture has in tooling.

My thinking...............Menards has no limits if they want to offer new scale sized rolling stock! With annual revenue of over $10B they can find another manufacturing company! 

Regards,

Swafford

 

Bill makes a good (and obvious) point Swafford.

Talking to Mark at the show, what he really needs is price points for the projects that are not in the pipeline.

How many units do you think will sell and at what price point per unit?

From there, Mark (or one of his staff) will look into the product. However, as Bill stated, new train tooling is not in the Menards wheels house at this time.

Charlie

Somebody mentions this or that in scale sized every so often but for now it's not going to happen and if they do it won't be $19.00. 

Might be nice but I would not hold out any hope, just be glad they do what they do.

Dave

And Mark has mentioned right here on this forum that the home improvement retailer’s decision to allow a Menards-branded train line, proposed by hobby enthusiasts within  the company, was on the condition that the effort did not get in the way of Menards regular business.

Trains are a sideline for Menards, largely because founder John Menard himself is passionate about the hobby. This $10 billion company didn’t get there by catering to small niche marketplaces such as our hobby.

But Frank, I support your passion, too. Nothing wrong with creating a wishlist because, who knows, maybe the company will allow one special train tooling project at some point, just to see if it can succeed.

Swafford posted:

Bill T posted:

Menards is pretty much limited to what their contracted manufacture has in tooling.

My thinking...............Menards has no limits if they want to offer new scale sized rolling stock! With annual revenue of over $10B they can find another manufacturing company! 

Regards,

Swafford

 

 

 Only 4 that I know of that has O scale rolling stock tooling, Lionel, Atlas, MTH, and Kader Industries and I don't believe any of their tooling is for sale.

Swafford posted:

Bill T posted:

Menards is pretty much limited to what their contracted manufacture has in tooling.

My thinking...............Menards has no limits if they want to offer new scale sized rolling stock! With annual revenue of over $10B they can find another manufacturing company! 

Regards,

Swafford

 

That might be true if there $10B was in the train business.  I would think that toy trains, is a pet project for someone at mernards and they produce what they can from available pre-existing molds.  If they had to develop a model from the ground up, I'm sure the powers that be would not green light the expense, and I can assure you any produced product would no longer be $19.99.  After all they ae in this to make money!

Swafford posted:

Mark the Menards Train Guy, How about offering the new Trinity Hopper? Regards, Swafford

5,211 Cubic Foot TrinFlo™ Covered Hopper

 

 

And what colorful prototypical road names would this new hopper have? Production numbers don't mean sqat in model railroading. Its the road names and colors of the cars that will make it sell!

Good Day Mark,

My thinking in the future, Menards next big step is scale rolling stock without all the details. For example the Trinity 5161 Grain Hopper would sell very well with a price point far lower than the Atlas O Hoppers that near $100 each! Many of the MTH, Lionel and Atlas O scale rolling stock are reaching near $100 per car! ........OUCH!  Affordable scale rolling stock is needed!

Best Regards,

Frank Swafford

Frank, we are really trying to help you out here, but some additional information is needed to further the discussion.

If Atlas, Lionel and MTH are too expensive at 100.00 per car, and the current entry level Menards cars are 20.00 a pop, what do you consider "Affordable" scale rolling stock without all details? 80.00, 50.00, 40.00?

Thanks.

Charlie

Charlie posted:

Frank, we are really trying to help you out here, but some additional information is needed to further the discussion.

If Atlas, Lionel and MTH are too expensive at 100.00 per car, and the current entry level Menards cars are 20.00 a pop, what do you consider "Affordable" scale rolling stock without all details? 80.00, 50.00, 40.00?

Thanks.

Charlie

Good Day Charlie,

First, Thank you for asking!

I would consider affordable price points at $35, $40 and $50. I think the hobby is in serious trouble if more affordable rolling stock is not offered. My thinking............ Menards has brought LIFE back into the hobby for many many model railroaders with their affordable products! Scale rolling stock without all the details but with good prototypical paint schemes as well as the fantasy color schemes would be top sellers! Good solid Scale Rolling Stock without all the individual detail pieces would be awesome!

Respectfully,

Frank

Frank,

I Think your onto something, the cost of O scale cars running near and over one hundred dollars are getting way too expensive for allot of modelers in O gauge. Your idea may be a way to reign in that cost. Even if some of the detail could be supplied for the modeler to apply. 

Look at Accurail already painted and lettered in HO, they have been making kits for many years that requires little skill to put them together into a very nice car. Weaver in thier early years made O scale/gauge cars the same way and they were/are very nice cars.

It can be done but are people willing to buy them? I think now is the time to try.

Dave