Menards Steam Locomotive ever??

Mechanically Menard's diesels are not bad.

I think the decoration is gaudy.  The heralds on the Chicago & North Western and Milwaukee Road F units are 5 times the size the heralds the railroads used and are in the wrong place.

If Menard's can get access to steam locomotive tooling at the right price, I think you'll see a Menard's steam locomotive.

I think people are forgetting the cost factor.  If everything was to scale or prototypical the cost factor would go up.  I think the idea here is to give people nice equipment at an affordable price.

Anything steam would be much more expensive and may be out of the target group cost threshold.

Some are already complaining about the price of the diesels and diesel sets.  The sets are close in price to Lionel starter sets.

So I imagine steam would be up there, case and point the Atlas steam sets.

@cbq9911a posted:

If Menard's can get access to steam locomotive tooling at the right price, I think you'll see a Menard's steam locomotive.

Right, the key is tooling.  The O-gauge crowd probably wouldn't embrace a plastic-bodied loco, and new tooling for a die-cast metal one is cost-prohibitive.  Somehow Menards would have to negotiate use of tooling that already exists.

A while ago, I read speculation that RMT was going to bring back the Marx / K-Line "333" Pacific; so far they haven't.  This is a smallish, but handsome loco last issued by Lionel circa 2009.  Another "O27" choice might be the Lionel modified "Prairie" 2-6-4 which last appeared as part of the Conventional Classics series circa 2010.

It would be fun and nostalgic to see one of these return to production, as long as the quality and operation aren't undermined by severe cost-cutting.  My $.02.

I don't think the Lionel starter sets come with dual motors. The Menards can pull 15 cars and you can feel the quality whne you hold one in each hand. I don't see why Menards couldn't have made

a remote to work on all their engines.