Menard's making S Scale?

So far, I believe that Menards is using existing tooling with custom printing for their cars.   Creating new tooling is a more expensive process, that with the smaller market for S, is harder to justify economically.   

Their tooling had to start somewhere. Are they using other people's tooling?

Casey,

A wonderfully witty response. Don't get a dog. You have to walk it. Keep contemplating, though.

Ed Boyle

Casey, maybe Menard's can make a smaller version of Jack the dog suitable for S. That way they can make something S for you and you can get a dog. Besides they already get plenty of my money without selling me anything S gauge train related.

Notice Menard's doesn't make any HO freight cars...  and 98% of the O Gauge cars are virtual clones of Bachmann/Williams/KMT cars with the occasional Lionel car thrown in.  I seriously doubt Menard's builder would generate brand-spanking new original tooling for S and there's really no one to clone, except for maybe the old Marx/K-Line cars.  Lionel would probably take umbrage (today's $5 word) pretty quickly if Flyer clones started showing up in the stores or online.

And Menard's hasn't done a locomotive in O yet, so an S gauge locomotive being made for them doesn't stand a chance of a snowball in a very, very hot place.

That said...

I think there might be a market for Menard's structures, (or the bridges they just announced) which is something else severely lacking in S.  Being laser-cut buildings, it's a matter of scaling the structures and placement for fitting them on the raw stock for the least amount of waste.

Rusty

I'll take Umbrage for $100, Alex.

Brendan

Rusty Traque posted:

I think there might be a market for Menard's structures, (or the bridges they just announced) which is something else severely lacking in S.  Being laser-cut buildings, it's a matter of scaling the structures and placement on fitting them on the raw stock for the least amount of waste.

Rusty

They have programs that can automatically nest the parts so that should be easy for a professional outfit.  I would love to have some of their ready made buildings in S.

Brendan 

banjoflyer posted:

Quick Casey posted:

 

 

If Menard's tooled up for an accurate, modern (pick one) center-beam flat, modern mechanical reefer, tank car, coal hopper, covered hopper, gondola....

Might be worth the tooling costs.

 

Casey

Those costs might be less than other companies incur. Menards is making good use of laser cut wood parts. Their buildings are mostly wood and they have now released a mostly wooden auto carrier and now a trestle bridge.

Would (no pun intended) an S gauge car constructed of wood and metal sell in S-world?

Yes it would if it was $20.00 like the majority of the O gauge line. "Scalers" would run away but "runners" would run to pay!

What about trucks you ask? Well for my money if they could acquire the rights and/or tools to make  the old K-Line S gauge trucks that would be icing on the cake. Those trucks were exceptional:

And what about those S gauge engines purported to have been actually constructed for the K-Line S gauge line:

Maybe they're still sitting on a dock in China since 2005!

Like you say it ain't gonna happen. But stranger things have happened so..."Mark the Menard's guy"! Track down those old K-Line items and expand your model train offerings!

Mark

Modern cars made of wood....Yes, the scalers would run. As would I. We need some semblance of scale fidelity. I was just musing about how Menard's, or anyone else could swoop in and take this nearly vacant market by storm.

I agree, the K-Line truck were nice. But modern cars would need roller bearing trucks.

You admit to squinting at things to validate using them. I prefer to see clearly while I still can.

Not to offend you, but it's bad to let manufacturers think we'll buy things just slapped together with what's at hand, and we'll be happy.

banjoflyer posted:

You gotta start somewhere just like Lionel did. Rehashed boxcars led to SD70ACe engines...who'da thunk it?

Mark

It only took 33 years... 

5 years longer than A.C. Gilbert was making S gauge trains.

Add in the following 5 years to 2017 for 38 years of production and Lionel appears to be backsliding with the Flyer line.

Rusty

"if you make it they will come".  I would  be out a lot of money if they produced some of items mentioned here.  Just produce basic things like wide radius tubular 2 rail track! The demand for that alone is pretty high.

 

What about the K-Line S steamers? Did they ever reach production line? Any pre-production ones around? Or was it all just destroyed?

Does anyone know what happened to the tooling for the Gunderson Husky Stack well cars that S Scale America and then Des Plains offered?

CascadeClub posted:

Does anyone know what happened to the tooling for the Gunderson Husky Stack well cars that S Scale America and then Des Plains offered?

Des Plaines Hobbies still owns them.

Whether Ron chooses to run them again or sell the tooling is totally up to him.

Rusty

Thanks for the quick reply, Rusty. I would think a re-run of these would partially satisfy all the requests for more modern freight cars for both the AF , hi-rail and scale S gaugers. I haven't seen any of these for sale for some time. Any idea on how one might follow up?

CascadeClub posted:

Thanks for the quick reply, Rusty. I would think a re-run of these would partially satisfy all the requests for more modern freight cars for both the AF , hi-rail and scale S gaugers. I haven't seen any of these for sale for some time. Any idea on how one might follow up?

Try contacting Des Plaines Hobby by email sales@desplaineshobbies.com, or visit the store website and use the contact info there. I find their entire S Scale America line very nice, good value especially when they have their sales (like last weekend). I think Menard's would find it challenging to match SSA quality and price in the unlikely event they produced S Scale items.

I would like SSA to rerun the BNSF Coal Porters, which are now sold out.

Mike

Maybe I don't understand exactly which cars you are looking for but Des Plaines still has Husky Stack intermodal cars for sale. 4 different road names, hi-rail and scale versions.

Craig

Thanks. Those are the cars I was mentioning. I had looked for them several times but hadn't seen them.Took another look and yes, they seem to be still available. Now to order a couple more. 

Each number of the S Scale America stack well cars comes in two versions: high-rail with American Flyer style couplers or scale with Kadee couplers. If you are like me, using high-rail wheels with more realistic Kadee couplers, order the scale versions because it's far easier to swap the wheels on the trucks from scale to high-rail than to change couplers from high-rail to scale. The Kadee couplers are encased in a glued on housing that looks great but is hard to remove.

Menards would be the ticket to S gauge revival! Price, and a huge retail network! Even if Menards just did a S gauge Christmas time run it would help the orphan scale immensely.

If they are making Lionel style tubular track how difficult could it be to make wide radius S track.  If the can produce 0-27 cars how hard is it to make S? 

I agree, but what product should it be? A train set would require a lot of new tooling, however a special car would be great--sort of putting a "toe in the water" to see if it's warm enough!