Menards Saturn Rocket

Very neat! This is the first Menards email flyer that I didn’t receive. Thanks for sharing Mike!

I did not receive a flyer about this either. I guess they don't like some of us.

For some reason mine went into junk mail.

Those would be some reeeeally tiny astronauts in the Command Module....

@Professor Chaos posted:

Those would be some reeeeally tiny astronauts in the Command Module....

Indeed. The Saturn V, in all its glory, was 365 feet tall. Don't think it would fit on a single flat car... 😐

Mark in Oregon

@Professor Chaos posted:

Those would be some reeeeally tiny astronauts in the Command Module....

Hmmm.... I guess it's the replica version my railroad is shipping to commemorate the real thing. 

Valid point.  Now that you mention it, I guess that's why Lionel or MTH has/had a whole fleet of cars carrying the various stages of rockets.

IMHO, the best "NASA Rocket Sections on a Flat Car" product was the K-Line 2-car set.  One rocket was marked UNITED and the other rocket was marked STATES. Impressive!

Mike Mottler   LCCA 12394

@Mike H Mottler posted:

IMHO, the best "NASA Rocket Sections on a Flat Car" product was the K-Line 2-car set.  One rocket was marked UNITED and the other rocket was marked STATES. Impressive!

Mike Mottler   LCCA 12394

That K-Line is a really cool one. They pop up at auction and sell quickly and for a solid price.

If you look at the "Buy Anything Cool Lately" topic, a forum member posted the new Lionel rocket set.  Wow!  That's pretty spectacular, too.  At $1700, it seems to be the crown jewel.  I liked it in Lionel's catalog but was a little too rich for my casual rocket budget.  Now they may be hard to find even if you can afford it.

If my memory serves me correctly, Menards has offered this car with the rocket in the past. It certainly was several years ago, but it looks familiar. Not sure what road name flat car they had under it at the time, but I'm quite sure this is a re-release of a past offering. Perhaps someone else can attest to that who may have purchased this car the 1st time around.

@mustang posted:

If my memory serves me correctly, Menards has offered this car with the rocket in the past. It certainly was several years ago, but it looks familiar. Not sure what road name flat car they had under it at the time, but I'm quite sure this is a re-release of a past offering. Perhaps someone else can attest to that who may have purchased this car the 1st time around.

You are 100% correct!  I bought mine many, many years ago and was surprised by Menards saying it is "new". It isn't. Here is mine.

This is very cool, although underscale. In 1/4 inch scale, the model should be 90.75 inches long, i.e. 7.56 feet, so you'd need track radius somewhat larger than most layouts can accommodate, and a heck of a long flatcar.

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/...the-saturn-v-58.html

I have the K-Line version.  Its a three car set, each car carries a portion of the rocket.

Looks like a different roadname compared to the earlier offering.

@jay jay posted:

This is very cool, although underscale. In 1/4 inch scale, the model should be 90.75 inches long, i.e. 7.56 feet, so you'd need track radius somewhat larger than most layouts can accommodate, and a heck of a long flatcar.

https://www.nasa.gov/audience/...the-saturn-v-58.html

Yeah, I previously posted this picture, which features my 1:48 scale model of the command/service modules on a flatcar.

So while not a Saturn rocket, this is a 1/48 scale model of the Jupiter C rocket (Redstone family) that successfully launched the US's first satellite, Explorer I, in January 1958.

The Jupiter/Redstone family of rockets was about 70' tall and about 6' in diameter, making them semi-practical rocket models for O scale.

Price

@jay jay posted:

This is very cool, although underscale. In 1/4 inch scale, the model should be 90.75 inches long, i.e. 7.56 feet, so you'd need track radius somewhat larger than most layouts can accommodate, and a heck of a long flatcar.

Only $8,995 (plus $700 shipping) here!